Acne Has Nothing to Do with Diet – Wrong!
Standard dogma from your medical doctor is that your oily skin and acne have nothing to do with the foods you eat. Next time you hear this message, ask for the evidence. You will find this learned professional speechless and almost empty-handed , because this incorrect information dates back to a single article published by Dr. James Fulton in the Journal of the American Medical Association almost 35 years ago (in 1969). Furthermore, the results of this study have been justly criticized and effectively discounted for more than 25 years.2 Still countless millions suffer needlessly.
Dr. Fulton studied 30 adolescents (14 girls and 16 boys) attending an acne clinic and 35 young adult male prisoners with mild to moderate acne. The Chocolate Manufacturers Association of America provided the study with two kinds of candy bars – one with and one without chocolate. Both bars were made mostly of fat and sugar and had similar amounts of calories (557 to 592 calories per bar). The subjects then added one or the other bar to their usual daily food intake for the next 4 weeks. Nothing else was changed in their diet during the experiment, except for the addition of the candy bars. Dr. Fulton and colleagues then counted the pimples on their young faces. Forty-six of the 65 subjects stayed the same, 10 were better and 9 were worse. (Not unexpectedly, the rate of sebum excretion increased by 60% with the addition of either kind of the high-fat, high-sugar candy bar (with or without chocolate) in all subjects.3) (Sebum is a fatty substance secreted by the skin.) Yet the results of this single, seriously flawed, and completely irrelevant (it only tested the effects of chocolate candy bars), experiment are the heart and soul of the claim that “diet has nothing to do with acne.”
The “Acne Plague” is Found Only Where Rich Food is Eaten
Acne develops when the pores in the skin (sebaceous follicles) become blocked with dead skin (hyperkeratinization); then fatty materials (sebum) accumulate within the blocked pore. This overstuffed pore then becomes infected by bacteria, resulting in inflammation – the pimple. The bacteria eat the sebum and thrive. Prevention and treatment are now directed at unblocking the pore, reducing the accumulation of the sebum, lessening inflammation, and killing the bacteria, by various pharmaceuticals sold over-the counter and by prescription. As with all Western diseases, there is a better way – and that is attacking the cause and invoking the cure with a healthy diet.