Diet and Acne - Why Are Teens More Prone to Acne?

Teens who suffer from severe acne might be wondering why, after how many years of baby smooth skin, they're having acne breakouts, which really do nothing but make them feel miserable.

If you or your teen is having acne, just know that the cause of acne can be summed up in two points:

• Poor nutrition, and
• A diet rich in sugar and flour

Acne is basically "an inflammatory skin disorder", meaning the skin is inflamed or highly irritated. How does this happen? Within every hair follicle is a sebaceous gland, which produces sebum, and its purpose is to supply oil to the hair shaft and to spread out over the top of the skin, sealing in the skin's moisture so that it stays healthy and wrinkle free.

Our bodies do this process quite well as long as the sebaceous glands get enough amounts of all of the nutrients they need to produce a high quality sebum. However, at puberty the process of sexual maturation occurs. The "problem" with puberty is that the sex hormones are made from the same nutrients as sebum. And between healthy smooth skin and the perpetuation of the species, Mother Nature has designed our bodies to choose the latter.

Without adequate nutrition, the skin will produce sticky sebum that traps bacteria instead of protecting the body against them. This, in turn, offsets an internal biological warfare that leads to acne.

Nutrition And Simple Carbohydrates

Now we all know that you need to have proper nutrition in order to have healthy and radiant skin. Just how do you get proper nutrition? By eating three to five servings of fruits and vegetables everyday.

However, in a 2007 report, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated that 39.5% of Americans eat less than the recommended three to five servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

In fact, today the average American eats 622 pounds of "simple" carbohydrate foods (cola, cake, etc.) per year. Unfortunately, the average American has NOT increased his body's ability to handle simple carbohydrate foods by eating more fruits and vegetables, and drinking more water. Our bodies can break down cola and cake can into glucose in just a matter of minutes, but without adequate nutrition, our bodies cannot process them properly and will instead saturate the body's cells (saturated skin cells produce sticky sebum).

So, the first step to curing your own or your teen's acne is to change the diet. Enough of the soda and the doughnuts, no matter how sinfully good they are.

Of course, to speed up the healing of acne breakouts, your teen will need a synergistic supplementation of Vitamin A&B, Vitamin E, Niacinamide (NOT Niacin), Zinc, among others.


Check out http://acne.vitalnutritionals.com to find out which supplements for acne are more easily absorbed by the body (and will not waste your money.)


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lyle_Rutstein 

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