It’s no secret that good skin starts from within. What you eat has a massive effect on not only your weight, health, and overall mood, but also your skin, hair, and nails. But do greasy foods cause acne?
Not necessarily.
It depends…on the grease.
Consuming foods high in unhealthy fats, such as fried foods, can affect your skin by altering your body’s inflammatory response and hormone levels. These changes then stimulate your sebaceous glands to produce more oil. Increasing the amount of oil your skin creates makes your skin greasy and prone to acne eruptions.
Foods fried in peanut oil, canola oil or soybean oil will absolutely cause inflammation and acne. Think Canes Chicken — they use a combination of soybean oil and canola oil… Both NO bueno for our acne-prone clients.
Chik fil A fries in peanut oil — yikes! pimple city!
Choose Oils Carefully to Avoid Grease Acne!
When it comes to greasy fried foods, there are tons of oil options available to use that won’t cause acne. But here’s where the rubber meets the road for acne sufferers.
Peanut oil, canola oil and soybean oil are huge acne triggers!
For instance, fried chicken lovers beware…
And almost every fried chicken joint we reviewed (from Popeye’s to Chic-fil-e to Raising Kanes) uses one of them in their grease friars.
If you are making homemade fried chicken, choose high smoke point oils like olive or coconut for deep frying and avocado for shallow frying. Oils with high smoke points may be more stable and more healthful to cook with than those with low smoke points.
Now, you don’t have to give up your fries or donuts or chicken popcorn! What you can do is move to a healthier alternative. What do we recommend for oils? Avocado oil, coconut oil and olive oils are safe for acne-prone clients.
Greasy food, dripping in cheese, is an obvious no brainer– no bueno if you have acne. But if you were to substitute goat cheese or sheep milk cheese, you could eat all of it you want.
It really all comes down to the type of oil or cheese that’s being used to produce the detectibly delicious but pore clogging foods.
Greasy Foods and Acne Causing Ingredients
You will want to avoid anything that says refined, hydrogenated, and partially-hydrogenated. I have found plenty of lard on the shelf that contains hydrogenated (industrially processed) fats in it.
It’s not just cooking oils you need to be careful of – you can find these oils in just about every processed food known to man.
Always check the ingredients list.
A decent rule of thumb is that if it’s cheap and comes wrapped in plastic, it probably has vegetable oils in it. For example, jars of olives are often packed in sunflower oil; nuts are often roasted in cottonseed oil; dressings are often made from grapeseed oil.
Most packaged foods, baked goods, and restaurant foods contain vegetable oils. You might even have them in your own kitchen! To clear acne naturally, switch to healthier, unrefined vegetable oils. Always read the ingredient list of packaged foods and choose those that don’t contain vegetable oil.
What Oils Can I Eat With Acne Prone Skin?
Other than pure animal fat, only oils that have been cold-pressed, expeller-pressed unrefined, or churned. Personally, I eat extra-virgin olive oil, expeller-pressed unrefined coconut oil, organic butter or ghee, and bacon fat.
You may use whatever makes sense and is convenient for you as long as you avoid the garbage, modern day, chemically extracted vegetable oils. That will be most of them.
The Bottom Line
Overall, studying the impacts of food and acne is ever evolving. Diet recommendations over the years have fluctuated. The most important takeaway is if you start seeing an increase in acne, it’s best to consult with us.
Schedule your consultation today!
We can help you identify the root cause of your acne breakouts and get you started on your clear skin journey.
Cheers to clear
Rene