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NEW YORK - Avoiding high glycaemic load foods could help acne sufferers to clear up their skin.
These foods, such as low-fibre carbohydrates, cause a sharp increase in blood glucose, or sugar. Low glycaemic load foods cause a more gradual andsustained increase in glucose,and include high-fibre, complex carbohydrates.
After 12 weeks on a low glycaemic load diet, men with acne had a significant reduction in pimples, whiteheads and other lesions, compared with their peers who stuck to a conventional diet, Dr Robyn N. Smith, of RMIT University in Melbourne, and colleagues found.
"The results of this study open up the prospect that nutrition-related lifestyle factors may affect the [development] of acne," Dr Smith and her team wrote in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, while cautioning that additional research was needed.
Low glycaemic load diets have been promoted for weight loss and diabetes control. Given that high levels of insulin may contribute to acne, Dr Smith and her team said, it was possible that reducing dietary glycaemic load could reduce acne severity.
The researchers assigned 43 men with acne to a low glycaemic load diet or a standard diet. Men in the low glycaemic load group were instructed to replace high glycaemic load foods with more protein and lower glycaemic load choices, while those on the standard diet were simply encouraged to include carbohydrates in their diet.
By 12 weeks, the number of acne lesions had dropped by about 22 in the low glycaemic load group, compared with about 14 in the control group.
The men eating the low glycaemic load diet also lost weight, and showed greater reductions in levels of the male sex hormone androgen and increased insulin sensitivity.
It was not possible to determine if the improvement in acne was due to weight loss or better insulin sensitivity or both, the researchers wrote.
"Therefore, these results should be considered preliminary and larger-scale studies are needed."
- Reuters
