Acne and carbohydrates
Separating facts from the fiction

Are you afraid of carbohydrates? Do you think that they cause acne? Is low-carb diet the solution to acne?

If you wrestle with such questions, you've come to the right place. This page gets to the bottom of the issue.

Acne and carbohydrates: The science and non-sense

In the mainstream media and health magazines there's a huge amount of non-sense about acne and carbohydrates.

The whole carbophobia, and why they supposedly cause acne, hinges on the insulin connection.

The story goes like this. You eat carbohydrates, the body converts them to sugar, and this spikes your blood sugar levels. The pancreas responds by releasing insulin that lowers blood sugar levels. Overtime cells get 'tired' of insulin (or so they say; just don't ask me how it happens), and you'll develop insulin resistance. So the pancreas needs to produce more insulin to bring down blood sugar levels.

In low-carb diet books insulin is referred as the monster hormone and with other colorful names.

Too high blood sugar levels coupled with too much insulin leads to all kinds of health problems. Acne is one of them. I explain how this happens in the blood sugar and acne page.

Looking at it like this makes carbohydrates look like the villain. This is also the reasoning behind acne and carbohydrates connection.

So the logic goes that when you avoid carbohydrates and your problems are solved. And so we came up with the idea of low-carb diet.

Unfortunately that's a scientific fairy-tale.

Yes, too high blood sugar levels can lead to acne and other health problems. And too much insulin is bad.

But carbohydrates don't cause insulin resistance or spike up your blood sugar levels.

Here's how the blood sugar thing works.

You eat something --> Food gets digested to glucose (simple sugar) --> insulin escorts glucose from the bloodstream to cells.

Your body has an excellent system for maintaining stable blood sugar levels. It has to because too big variations can lead to serious health problems - even death. As long as this mechanism works as it was meant to (meaning your cells aren't resistant to insulin), your blood sugar levels remain relatively stable no matter what you eat.

For example, a person without insulin resistance can eat 19 bananas a day without big fluctuations in their blood sugar levels (scroll down to blood sugar section).

You start running into problems only when you develop insulin resistance (the blood sugar controls fail). Contrary to common 'wisdom' insulin resistance has nothing to do with carbs (I mean carbohydrates in whole foods and in their natural state, not processed junk).

Insulin resistance is a complicated condition, but some of the biggest causes are:

• Eating too much fat
• Eating too many calories (overeating)
• Chronic inflammation (e.g. from stress or exposure to toxins and chemicals)
• Lack of sleep
• Sedentary lifestyle

Atkinsexposed.com has a good page on scientific fallacies of low-carb diets. It covers the science and non-sense behind blood sugar and insulin reaction in more detail.

Let's take a breath and summarize this.

Swings in blood sugar levels and too high insulin levels leads to acne. So you need to keep your blood sugar levels stable.

Carbohydrates + insulin resistance --> swings in blood sugar levels --> too much insulin --> acne.

Carbohydrates without insulin resistance --> stable blood sugar levels --> no acne.

So insulin resistance is the real evil behind acne, not carbohydrates. Take care of insulin resistance and you can go willy-nilly with carbohydrates. You disable the acne and carbohydrates link.

Low-carb diet and acne

Low-carb diets seem to be the new craze among acne victims. Acne related discussion forums are full of threads about low-carb diets. This has been ever since the acne and carbohydrates link was discovered.

It seems many people have cleared their acne with low-carb diets - at least temporarily.

As I mentioned earlier the 'logic' behind low-carb diets is that they lower blood sugar and insulin levels.

But there's another side to the coin, and it's something the low-carb diet books won't tell you. Atkinsexposed.com page I referred earlier cites studies that show:

• Meat and other protein foods increase insulin levels more than carbohydrates.
• Those who eat the most fat consistently have the highest insulin levels.

Isn't it weird that low-carb authors refer insulin as the monster hormone, yet the diets they recommend expose their followers to higher levels of it than high-carb diets do?

Because of such contradictions the scientific community refers low-carb diets as fallacies.

Low carb advocates like Atkins seem to completely ignore these facts. Recent medical reviews have called Atkins' feel-good theories "factually flawed"[77] and "at best half-truths."[78] "In the scientific world, books like the Zone Diet are generally regarded as fiction," one reviewer wrote in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. "The scientific literature is in opposition..."[79] In a medical journal article entitled "Food Fads and Fallacies," the Atkins Diet is referred to as a "'New wives' tale" with a "sprinkling of fallacies."[80]

http://www.atkinsexposed.org/atkins/13/Phony_Baloney.htm

But what does it matter if they are based on fallacies if they help you to get clear?

Good point, and there's no denying some people succeed clearing acne with low-carb diets. I believe there are many reasons for their success, for example:

• Increased vegetable intake. Healthier versions of low-carbs recommend lots of vegetables.
• Low intake of processed foods. Most processed, junk food is high in carbs. No matter what diet you are on processed foods are bad for your skin. They are nutritionally empty and contain high levels of inflammatory chemicals and toxins. On low-carb diets these acne causing foods are off limits.
• More health conscious lifestyle. Switch to a low-carb diet often happens as a part of a wider lifestyle modification. As people become more health conscious they start to exercise and pay more attention to their health.
• Low-carb diets are often low in calories. Caloric restriction helps with blood sugar levels and insulin resistance a lot. Simply eating less cancels some of the insulin resistance causing effects of a high-fat diet.

All the above can help with acne. I believe that people getting clear with low-carb diets do so despite of their diet - not because of it.

Low-carb diets are linked to serious long-term health problems. Atkinsexposed.com covers the health risks of low-carb diets in detail.

For that reason I would not recommend them to any acne victim.

Especially since it's possible to get clear without destroying your health in the process.

If you are interested of what I believe to be the healthiest and best diet for acne please take a look at Clear for Life. You'll also learn there's more to clear skin than diet, and why you need to pay attention to all the elements of health (and what they are).

My free minicourse Acne 101 helps you to get started on the right track.

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