Though your diet is only accountable for about 25% of your acne woes (the rest of your acne troubles you can blame on stress, hormones, genetics, how you sleep, and even where you live), there is a small amount of truth behind the theory that eating junk food will make you break out. It’s not so much the food, it’s the lifestyle when it comes to diet. The more unhealthy your eating habits are, the less nutrients and vitamins you are providing your skin, and therefore you could actually be causing and making worse your acne, yes, by eating chocolate and potato chips.
Just like the rest of your body, your skin needs nutrition to survive. Without a proper diet, your body will begin to feel sluggish, worn down, and you will likely even eventually gain weight. So expecting your skin to not take a toll is asking too much. It’s not that eating junk food is going to make you break out all on its own (there are other factors like stress and hormones to blame) and stopping eating junk food will entirely cure your acne, but eating healthier can improve your acne troubles by giving your skin a better stand against acne-causing bacteria.
A diet rich in sodium and sugar, which unfortunately includes most (if not all) junk foods is what triggers acne the most. These highly salty or sugary treats dry out the skin and leech nutrients from the skin, so the skin responds by emitting more oil (sebum) into the skin. More sebum in the skin equals acne, and the more the skin gets out of control with oil, the more horrible the acne becomes. This explains often why hormones and eating chocolate triggers gross acne breakouts.
Eating a diet that has more Vitamin A (like carrots and spinach), zinc (like turkey and almonds- zinc kills a lot of acne-causing bacteria in the skin), Vitamin E and C (most of your fruits) and getting tons of water is your best defense against acne. Your skin can’t fight acne on its own, and eating chocolate and junk food just stresses your body out, which in turn stresses out your skin. Which causes acne. See the connection? The healthier your diet overall, the better your skin and overall health will be.
So if you’re tired of your serious acne, then perhaps keeping a food journal can tell you which foods seem to trigger your acne breakouts. Cutting down on trigger foods and junk foods may not completely cure your acne, but improving your diet will certainly help. Good news, too- you can apply Vitamin E and C topically to your face and that can help heal up your acne as well if you’re not up to a healthier diet.
As always, what your skin and body wants most is healthy hydration, which means skip the soda and break out the water. Your skin is your largest organ, and keeping your skin hydrated by drinking ample amounts of water a day is perhaps your greatest defense against acne to begin with. Keeping your skin hydrated keeps it fuller, more capable of fighting off the bacteria that causes acne, and helps you stay looking younger and healthier, longer! So drink up, even if you do nothing else for your skin.
Source:
http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/acne/acne-care-11/diet-and-skin?page=1
