Another reason to reduce carbs: Breakouts

You start out each day with a plain bagel for breakfast. Lunch means a sandwich of some kind on white bread. And for dinner your meal includes either pasta or white rice.

Notice anything different about your skin? Well, recent research indicates there may be a link between carbs and skin health.

Acne sufferers in the United States number more than 17 million, mostly in adolescence and the young adult years. Research dating as far back as the late 1800s has linked diet to acne. Foods like chocolate, sugar and fat are the culprits.

Then in the 1960s, studies no longer connected diet to acne. But, a recent study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics reports that there is indeed growing evidence to support the connection between diet and acne, especially where high-glycemic diets and dairy products are concerned.

High-glycemic foods include processed foods and simple carbs — foods made largely with white flour, such as crackers, white bread and pasta. These foods increase blood sugar in the body. When blood sugar spikes from eating these foods, hormones increase as well. Hormones cause the skin to produce oil. This triggers acne.

The researchers reviewed 27 other studies on acne and diet and found significant links. In one study, participants who had acne followed a low-glycemic diet and were noted as showing a decrease in acne.

Although a high-glycemic diet may not be fully responsible for skin breakouts, the study concludes that it is a leading factor and may influence or aggravate the condition, and therefore may call for some type of intervention.

“The medical community should not dismiss the possibility of diet therapy as an adjunct treatment for acne,” said Jennifer Burris, a nutrition researcher for New York University, in a statement. “At this time, the best approach is to address each acne patient individually, carefully considering the possibility of dietary counseling.”