To clear acne it takes hitting it at every angle. This means diet changes, lifestyle changes, using herbs and supplements for imbalances in the body, and good products used in the right way. But these are some steps you can start implementing today to get you on the right path.

Reduce your stress and get some sleep. When you are under stress your adrenal glands go into a “fight or flight” response. When this happens they pump up your testosterone. Elevated testosterone triggers acne. When you don’t sleep you stress out easier.

Start limiting iodine and dairy in your diet. Switch iodized table salt to sea salt, limit how much seafood you eat, stay away from supplements containing iodine, and get into the habit of reading labels for iodine. Switch cow milk to almond milk, choose dairy free ice cream, switch to an alternative to cow milk in your coffee.

Stay clear of androgenic foods. Avoid foods like peanuts, peanut oil, peanut butter, corn oil, canola oil, and organ meats.

Don’t pick! If you feel the urge hold a piece of ice on the pimple for 2 minutes. This reduces inflammation relieving pain and discomfort, and also allows better product absorption to the area. Picking can lead to post inflammatory hyperpigmentation (the dark or red marks) and these can take a while to fade.

Wash all your pillow cases, towels, clothes, anything that comes in contact with your skin for pore clogging ingredients. And while you’re at it ditch the fabric softener.

Avoid lo-dose birth control. Refer to my blog post “birth control and acne” for more information.

Do not use ANY makeup or hair products containing pore clogging ingredients. I’m serious ladies! To have clear skin you’re gonna have to breakup with some of your favorite products. Please refer to my blog post about pore clogging ingredients to see exactly what they are.

Use SPF every single day!

There’s a TON of information on the internet when it comes to your diet and acne. Don’t eat sugar, eat lots of fruit, don’t eat fatty foods, drink matcha powder. It can be confusing when there’s so much information. Even more frustrating is when the information you’re following isn’t true and makes your acne worse.

So here it is plain and simple. This is what you should avoid when you have acne.

Iodine (found in salt). This is the number one food you should be avoiding. Things like seafood, iodized salt, taco seasoning with tons of salt, anything with high amounts of iodine will aggravate acne. In fact I have a map of the United States in my office where I pin little flags where all my clients live. Most of these flags are in coastal states where people have diets with more seafood, seafood containing iodine.

We talk about your diet and how to best avoid iodine in your diet when you enroll in one of my acne programs. Removing iodine from your diet is actually really easy, and you won’t be giving up your favorite foods! I’ll teach you all of this and help you along the way.

Dairy, the one you always hear about. This one is true, dairy is a big acne aggravator. Not only does it contain iodine, but also added hormones. Whey protein is also dairy, so make sure to avoid protein drinks and protein bars containing dairy.

Soy is another culprit. Foods like edamame, soy sauce, soy protein are all foods that should be avoided.

BIOTIN also known as B7, this one seems to come up a lot. Commonly in “hair, skin, and nails” vitamins, it can be confusing why this is so bad. Remember from past posts, acne exists because of a predisposition for your skin’s pores to shed too many layers of skin, then accumulating and causing a pimple, pustule, or papule. Biotin speeds up cellular turnover, which is why you might notice your hair growing faster when you take it. Unfortunately when you have acne biotin just adds fuel to the fire. Watch out for biotin in supplements, health drinks, and especially avoid egg yolks which have a high amount. B12 also acts like Biotin, so be careful.

Androgenic foods like peanut butter, peanut oil, canola oil, and vegetable oil should be avoided too.

We go over this extensively in your consultation when you decide to make the choice to clear your acne. I will teach you how to change your diet to help your acne, and teach you how to introduce foods back into your diet when you graduate your acne clearing program.

***Food is not the cause of acne. Diet can have an impact on acne, but it takes hitting acne at every angle to get it clear. Diet combined with, herbs, supplements, and most importantly products used in the right way will clear your skin.***