The ONE thing that finally cleared my acne
I spent years trying out the pretty much every single skincare product out there. I just need this “acne prone exfoliator” or maybe this new serum or toner or moisturizer or whatever.
After draining my wallet on all these products and not really getting any results I wen’t on to pharmaceutical products. I went to the doctor and got prescribed multiple creams, pills and eventually even isotretinoin (accutane) after nothing else worked.
Spoiler: isotretinoin didn’t work either.
Well, then it was back to the drawing board again.
I eventually I decided on trying to clean up my diet and cut out unhealthy foods which I had been consuming a lot of because, well, I was a teen and thought I could eat whatever I wanted without it affecting me.
The funny thing is that no doctor ever asked me about my diet before prescribing me all those pills and creams with long lists of side effects.
But after actually fixing my diet, cutting out certain foods and just focusing on eating and living healthier, my acne actually went away.
And that’s the one change that helped me clear my skin: treating my skin as a reflecting of the overall health of my body instead of just looking at it in isolation.
As above, so below.
You can’t expect to have glowing, radiant skin on the outside if your insides are super unhealthy.
Great skin comes from within and once I realized this my acne went away.
Before that I was just treating my skin like this isolated thing on my body that had no connection with the rest of it. Hence why I thought a topical product (skincare) had the power to magically fix it.
By now you should understand that it doesn’t.
And this it not just something I am making up. The gut-skin axis is something that is well established in the scientific literature. It basically explains how your gut health influenced your skin health and vice versa through many different mechanisms in the body.
Okay, so how do you actually fix your diet in order to fix your skin? There’s a lot to it which I go over in my full acne course here, but it’s basically about cutting out gut irritating foods and prioritizing nutrient dense foods.
First up, gut irritating foods. This is many things. Junk food is one of the biggest ones. Filled with artificial sweeteners, colors, preservatives, seed oils and other horrible ingredients that all disrupt your gut microbiome.
Like I said, a poor gut microbiome is connected to acne, and junk food is connected to a poor gut microbiome so I think it’s safe to say that junk food = acne.
It’s a combination of very low nutritional value, low amounts of fiber, low amounts of antioxidants, and artificial ingredients that disrupt the gut.
Basically, cut out junk food if you want to fix your skin.
However, gut irritating foods can also be “healthy” foods or at least foods you think are healthy.
Leafy greens like spinach and kale are super high in anti nutrients like oxalates, which disrupt your normal gut function and prevent proper nutrient absorption.
So yes, I am officially giving you the pass of not needing to eat leafy greens to feel healthy.
The nutrients you find in leafy greens like spinach and kale can be found in higher amounts in other foods anyways. When you look up “spinach nutrients” on google, it says its high in vitamins a, c, k and minerals like iron and calcium.
Let’s quickly break it down:
Vitamin A: there is no vitamin a in plant foods, it’s all pro vitamin a plant compounds that needs to be converted to vitamin a in the body. The problem is that the conversion is REALLY low in about 50% of the population. You can get actual vitamin a in animal foods like milk, butter, liver and eggs.
Vitamin C: just eat an orange, a kiwi or some pineapple. It tastes way better and comes with way less anti nutrients.
Vitamin K: Okay fine here you get some vitamin k1. Vitamin k2 is better tho and you find that in animal foods like butter and cheese.
Iron: The iron found in spinach is non heme iron which has a much lower absorption rate. Pair that with the super high oxalate content in spinach and you really aren’t absorbing any meaningful amount of iron by eating. Literally just eat a steak.
Calcium: Milk and other dairy products are way better sources of calcium along with other nutrients. Not much more to say here.
So in reality, spinach and all these other leafy greens aren’t really that nutrient dense and the anti nutrients can actually contribute to acne.
This also goes for other “healthy” foods like beans, whole wheat bread and cereals, seeds, nuts, etc.
All of these are high in anti nutrients which can contribute to your acne. For example, gluten (not technically a anti nutrient) in grains are known to contribute to leaky gut, a condition where your gut lining isn’t properly sealed which allows food particles, bacteria, viruses and other stuff to escape into your bloodstream.
This causes inflammation and ultimately, these particles have to be detoxed since they aren’t meant to be in your bloodstream. One way this can happen is through the skin in the form of acne.
Because in the end, acne is a way for your body to detox bad stuff.
What i’d recommend to actually fix your acne once and for all, the root cause way, is to go on a elimination diet for 30-90 days (the longer the better) and then slowly add in foods again to see if they trigger your acne.
Everyone is different and some tolerate certain foods better than others.
The staples to start out with are red meat, wild caught, fish, oysters, high quality organs and then some fruits and vegetables. Eat that for 30-90 days and after that add in foods one by one that you miss like eggs, milk, sourdough bread, fruits, vegetables, etc.
This allows you to actually figure out which foods are contributing to your acne, instead of just relying on stupid “top 7 foods that trigger acne” articles on google.
Everyone is different. Some might tolerate certain foods better than others which is why it’s important to actually experiment with it yourself.
I go over the full elimination diet protocol and much more in my acne course if you’re interested (shameless plug lol).
The reason I say to start out with foods like red meat, oysters and fruits is because they are the most nutrient dense with the least amount of anti nutrients and toxins. You need nutrients to heal your skin, particularly things like vitamin a, zinc, copper and more. Those are found in animal foods, especially organs and stuff like that.
The fruit gives you a good amount of nutrients like vitamin c along with antioxidants which are also important for skin health, as they keep oxidative stress low, which is a contributor to acne.
Basically, it’s about providing the building blocks (nutrients) for your body to stay healthy and acne free which you do by eating nutrient dense whole foods and limiting anti nutrients which can mess up your gut health.
This is what took me years to learn and what finally cleared my skin once and for all. And that’s not to say that I have 100% perfect skin now. No, I still get a pimple here and there if I go out and eat a pizza or something but at least I know what’s causing it now.
This is about 80% of the acne equation in my opinion. There are also other steps to becoming healthy and getting better skin like sunlight, exercise and so on.
For the last time, if you’re interested in the full playbook on getting rid of acne, check out my course here.
That’s pretty much it. There you have the dragon scroll of acne. Diet.
Thanks for reading and godspeed.
— Kasper Veritas