Suggest to any dermatologists that diet has something to do with acne and he or she gives you that knowing look and explains that diet has nothing to do with acne. Or sometimes they say there is no evidence linking diet to acne.

I have to agree with them that nobody has ever found evidence to suggest the link. Not because it’s not there, but because nobody ever looked.

Since derms defend this belief so strongly you’d think they have solid evidence backing it up. I mean many derms get so worked up on this you’d think you insulted their dead grandmother.

It turns out this is a case of ‘repeat a lie long enough and everybody believes it’.

“SO WHY HAVE DOCTORS been taught for so long that there’s no link? The anti-diet hypothesis that Treloar and Danby struggle against arose solely from two studies from the late 1960s and early 1970s. “I got the papers, and I reviewed them,” says Treloar, “and they wouldn’t be published today. They just don’t meet the standards.”"
A Clear Connection?Most dermatologists tell their patients diet plays no role in acne. New research suggests that’s wrong.

Those studies were so flawed they’d earn a first-year science student an F. The study that ‘proved’ chocolate has nothing to do with acne was sponsored by a chocolate company. In the study they compared two high-fat and sugar candy bars. The other had some chocolate in it while the other didn’t. The study lasted only short-term and didn’t look into other causes such as diet or lifestyle.

Dr. Cordain report the sad state of acne-diet research.

“A MEDLINE search revealed that, since 1971, no single human study has been published examining the role of diet in the etiology of acne. This paucity of recent information along with the inconclusive nature of the historical literature lends little support for the dismissal of the role of diet in the development of acne. Further, careful scrutiny of the 2 most frequently cited studies11,12 used to refute the role of diet in the development of acne reveals serious design flaws similar to most other historical studies.”
Implications for the role of diet in acne
Loren Cordain, PhD

Those two flawed papers have kept effective dietary solutions from the reach millions of acne victims. In our society we hold doctors in high-esteem. We trust them to know. We trust they have scientific evidence backing up their statements. After all Western medicine goes all hoopla about how it’s evidence based and scientific.

Unfortunately the medical community is almost as dogmatic as the Catholic Church was in the middle ages. As this quote points out.

“Dover tells the story of an early 1970s paper stating ultraviolet light doesn’t improve acne, a belief that held for decades. “It turns out that the paper was wrong,” he says. “This is an example of dogma getting in the way of progress in science and medicine. It happens all the time. Someone really important proves something and says this is the way it is, and everybody else stops thinking. It takes about 30 years, usually a generation, until someone says, ‘Wait, this can’t be true.’”"
A Clear Connection?Most dermatologists tell their patients diet plays no role in acne. New research suggests that’s wrong.

It’s easy to fall into the party line. And it’s safe. Nobody is going after your ass if you stick with the commonly accepted wisdom.

“For many dermatologists, swamped with seeing patients and unable to keep up with the latest journals, the debate continues out of hearing range. Of those interviewed who had heard about the milk or insulin studies, most say it’s too early to advise patients to try lifestyle changes and they’ll wait for further research – despite, as Treloar says, the low risk involved in this type of intervention. Dr. Jack Krushell, chief of dermatology at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, says the food hypothesis is intriguing but “I still kind of follow the party line, which is that food doesn’t seem to be a cause of acne.”"
A Clear Connection?Most dermatologists tell their patients diet plays no role in acne. New research suggests that’s wrong.

So the next time a derm tells you diet has nothing to do with acne understand that (s)he’s just repeating the party line. The dogma that everybody accepts. It’s as scientific as the old belief that earth is flat.

I think that belief will change over time, because new research points to a link between diet and acne.

“Following our 2002 publication in The Archives of Dermatology1 demonstrating that acne was not present in two non-westernized populations, there has been renewed interest in the role that diet may play in the pathogenesis of this disease. In the past two years, three studies now support the link between diet and acne.2-5 Although these reports will need to be followed-up by more extensive experiments, they are important for two reasons: they represent the only well controlled, modern studies of diet and acne that have been published in more than 35 years;6 and they are contrary to the longheld belief that acne is not caused by diet.”
Dietary Implications for the Development of Acne: A Shifting Paradigm
Loren Cordain, PhD

So don’t take everything your derm says to the bank. Good intent coupled with bad information is a dangerous combination.

Acne is a complicated condition and you can’t pin it down to a single thing like diet. You have to look at your entire lifestyle.

Ironically a belief that diet can cure acne can be as dangerous as a belief that diet has nothing to do with acne. As this article shows:

http://www.natural-acne-solution.com/dangerous-diet-acne-idea.html