Refined foods may cause pimples
Research suggests starches to blame for teen acne

Dec. 4, 2002 — Eating too much refined bread and cereal, rather than chocolate and greasy foods, could be the cause of teenage acne and pimples.

LOREN CORDAIN and scientists at the Colorado State University in Fort Collins have published research showing that refined carbohydrates unleash a series of reactions in the body which increase the production of bacteria that cause acne.

“There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence,” Neil Mann, a nutrition researcher at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, was quoted as saying by New Scientist magazine Wednesday.
Mann and his colleagues are planning to test the theory and will be putting 60 teenage boys on low-carbohydrate diets for three months to see if it has an impact.

“Dermatologists will tell you they have put patients on low-carbohydrate diets and seen improvements. This will be the first controlled study,” he added.

Although acne makes teenagers in developed countries miserable, it is almost unknown in some societies such as the Kitava Islanders in Papua New Guinea where processed foods are at a minimum.

According to Cordain, the Inuit people in Alaska did not suffer from pimples until the arrival of the Western diet.

“Acne may not be the only problem caused by eating large quantities of highly refined starches. Such diets have also been blamed for causing short-sightedness and contributing to adult-onset diabetes,” New Scientist said.