Has anyone experienced increased acne when switching to Paleo? I have acne prone skin, but it was looking pretty good before the switch. Two weeks after starting Paleo, it is a disaster! I have not changed anything else (skin care routine, sleep patterns, etc). Is this just my body adjusting? My only other thought is it is the increased fruit consumption, although I was eating some refined sugars before and my skin still looked decent.

Any help would be appreciated... thanks!

Hmmmm... it's hard to imagine why eating healthy food would cause an acne outbreak. I can't tell your gender but perhaps its your hormones are a little stronger and that is causing the breakout.

Are you eating any food that you don't normally eat? With me it was more the case of eliminating foods when I went paleo.

Thanks for the reply, Nancy. I'm female (23 years old). I AM eating more fruits and nuts than usual. After I made this post, I read some information on an acne forum about the high Omega 6 content of nuts and how that may cause acne in some people. I have been eating a lot of nuts (raw), so I am going to cut back on those and see if it makes a difference.

You might also be dealing with a "detox" effect. When I first tried low carb, the only thing I eliminated was refined flour and sugar. My adult acne flared up really badly for about 10 days, then it cleared up completely. After that it has remained clearer then at any time in my life.

I have added nuts, reduced nuts, eliminated dairy, reintroduced dairy, used a little flour, used absolutely no flour, etc., over a period of 2-3 years, always keeping careful track of physical reactions. Nothing has had as dramatic an effect on my skin as that first 10-day "cleansing" period. Now, if I treat myself to something a little sugary I might get a blemish or two, otherwise my skin is perfectly clear.

I know you mentioned your activity hasnt really changed...but if you have increased exercise or physical activities even slightly it can make a big difference. Especially if you are sweating more than normal causing clogging of your pores causing acne flare ups. As time goes on though this eventually should lessen or stop altogether.

I noticed the opposite, when I stopped working out for a week, I broke out depsite no change in diet, when I went back, they cleared up in a week, one even popped by itself when I was straining through a rep ROFL, that was funny

stop eating fruit - seriously this stuff used to make me break out stupidly, ridiculously. Could be the sugar in the fruit, or the pesticides they use on them. I had really bad acne/eczema until I cut out just about all vegetation - but especially fruit - terrible for my acne.

FYI on another thread a lady said using Apple Cider Vinegar as a toner has cleared the worst persistent acne that her cousin had (cleared in 2 days) hope this helps you

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I wanted to report back that my skin is now clear again. I cut back on the amount of nuts I was eating and also the amount of very high sugar fruit (bananas, mangos, etc). That seems to have done the trick!

hi did any of you suffer from acne before you started the paleo diet and has it helped or made it worse?how long til you saw effects?thanks x

Had one or two minor spots once a week or so, got worse on the all meat diet for 2 weeks then my face looked alot better after that.

I merged these two paleo-acne threads.

My acne improved immensely once I went LC, and it stays under control as long as I eat fairly cleanly.

Good food + insulin control + the anti-inflammatory aspect of LC (better fats, more omega-3s, little to no gluten) seems to improve acne.

There's a theory that anyone who's losing weight can be prone to acne, because fat tissue has a lot of stored crap in it. As the fat breaks down, the crap gets released and your face reacts by getting inflamed.