Foods That Fight Breakouts

Beautiful skin doesn't start in a jar or at the dermatologist's office. It starts with what you have for breakfast. It gets better with a smart lunch choice. And a delicious dinner helps keep skin smooth and breakout-free.

We've always said that what's on your plate can influence what pops up on your nose the night before a big presentation. And new preliminary research agrees. It showed that people on a low-glycemic-index (GI) diet -- meaning they ate vegetables, lean poultry and fish, and 100% whole grains rather than refined and sugary foods that spike blood sugar -- saw their acne improve. And more than 90% of people taking acne treatments decreased the dose or the amount of treatments they were using while on this diet.

That's no surprise to us. One culprit in breakout-prone skin is inadequate intake of omega-3 fatty acids. So when you trade sugar (and meat) for avocados, walnuts, and fatty fish, you boost those valuable fats -- and help control acne.

It's unlikely that you have to be perfect about a low-GI diet to see your skin change. Most of the people whose acne dimmed said they only followed that diet's general principles, anyway. The key is following the rules we recommend in our YOU Diet and in this column: Enjoy and celebrate good, healthy whole foods. That means nixing sugars and syrups and increasing produce, 100% whole grains, nuts, and lean protein (especially fish like salmon and trout that are high in omega-3 fats; or take supplements containing DHA).