More veggies
and fish,
better skin?
It’s true.
Get 62%
Fewer
Pimples
(Just by
Changıng
What
You Eat)
Glamour’s Great
Skin Diet is here—
and it works.
By Melinda
Wenner Moyer
1 g l am o u r .co m n ovem b er 2012
No matter what Terri Russell did, she couldn’t get rid of her acne. The
28-year-old nurse practitioner from South Plainfield, New Jersey, “had
tried everything,” she recalls. “Soaps, creams, blemish-clearing heat devices—
nothing worked. I was so frustrated.” Even the potent trio of medications prescribed by her doctor—antibiotics, a benzoyl-peroxide-clindamycin lotion at
night, and a retinoid cream in the morning—did little but give her headaches and
nausea. The one thing she hadn’t thought of? Changing her diet. Until Glamour
challenged her to do so for this story, and the results, she says, “shocked me.”
“I really didn’t think that the change would do anything,” admits Russell, who for
seven weeks gave up her daily ice cream and favorite junk foods for a dermatologistdesigned menu of vegetables, fish, lean meats, and whole grains. “But after three
weeks, I counted half as many pimples as I had before. A couple weeks after that,
my derm took me off my antibiotics and one of the Continued on next page
Photograph by Jennifer Livingston
fashion editor: maggie mann; prop stylist: noemi bonazzi for brydges mackinney; hair: gavin harwin; makeup: christopher ardoff; manicure: roseann singleton, all for art department. BCBG Max Azria top
beauty/beauty insight
beauty/beauty insight
21 to 30, and 26 percent of women ages
creams, and now my skin is 100 percent
31 to 40, have clinical acne. Could simple
clear—I can even go out in public without
diet changes help them—and you? The
makeup. The diet made me think twice
secret, swears Dr. Bailey, is to “eat the
about what I put into my body. As a nurse
foods that help skin, and avoid the foods
I should have known better, but seeing the
that hurt it.” Here, the list of suggestions
transformation made it really sink in.”
most commonly endorsed by skin pros.
For decades, medical institutions have
denied that the foods you eat affect your
skin; the American Academy of Dermatology still declares on its website
that the link between diet and acne is
“hypothetical.” But research is starting
In the sixties it was common for skin
to suggest that diet can help determine
doctors to tell patients to steer clear of
whether your skin is dry or oily, pimply
chocolate, fats, and sweets. But everyor clear—and Glamour’s experiment,
thing changed when two studies were
while not lab-coat scientific, supports that
published in 1969 and 1971. In the first,
theory. Of the seven women who tried
people ate a chocolate bar every day for
our diet for the full seven weeks (most
one month. Then they switched and ate
—dermatologist Roberta
Sengelmann, M.D.
of whom had severe, persistent acne),
a “fake” chocolate bar with no cocoa but
six saw noticeably better complexions,
just as much sugar and fat for a second
most after just five weeks. And they had 62
month. Their acne didn’t change. In the
percent fewer pimples on average than when they started.
1971 study, students were split into groups and told to gorge
Doctors like Cynthia Bailey, M.D., are seeing similar results
themselves for a week on either chocolate, milk, roasted peain their practices. “Since I started giving patients diet advice,
nuts, or soda. Their acne also didn’t change. The conclusion:
I’m writing fewer prescriptions for isotretinoin [the drug forChocolate doesn’t cause pimples, and neither does junk food.
merly called Accutane] and antibiotics,” says the Sebastopol,
The problem? “There’s little scientific credibility to those
California, dermatologist. It makes sense that food has an
studies,” says Alan Logan, N.D., a leading naturopathic phyeffect: “Your skin has many layers; topical treatments only
sician and coauthor of The Clear Skin Diet. First, researchreach the top 20 percent—the other 80 percent is below the
ers never looked at what else the subjects ate. If anything, he
surface,” says Howard Murad, M.D., a dermatologist and prosays, the first experiment showed that skin can’t distinguish
fessor at UCLA. What you put on your skin can be hugely
between two foods with equal sugar and fat. Nevertheless, he
beneficial, he says, but what you put in your body counts too:
says, “the idea that diet and acne were unrelated took off, and
“Skin is just as affected by what we eat as other organs are.”
suddenly most dermatologists accepted it without question.”
That news could help hundreds of thousands of women.
It’s taken roughly 40 years for researchers to take a hard
Recent research has found that more of us are getting pimsecond look at how processed carbs like white bread and
ples than ever before: A whopping 45 percent of women ages
sweets affect skin. A 2007 study Continued on next page
WOW!
“I see a lot of
skin, and people
who eat a ton
of vegetables look
better than
anyone else.”
First, avoid
processed carbs
This Woman Ate Her Way to Better Skin!
Check out the big results Terri Russell saw with Glamour’s Great Skin Diet:
“I rarely went a day
without painful pimples
on my face, especially
during my period,” says
Russell, 28. “I also had a
lot of redness, my face
was always shiny, and
I had bumps on my
forehead. Frustratingly,
my acne medications
weren’t helping.”
2 g l am o u r .co m n ovem b er 2012
before
after
Problem-free skin
“After the diet, my skin is
clear most days, and if
I get a pimple around my
period, it goes away
quicker than before,” says
Russell, who says her
redness is gone and her
shine is more manageable. “I still have a few
spots of discoloration, but
even those are fading.”
from TOP: roland bello. Courtesy of subject (2)
Problem skin
beauty/beauty insight
diet hasn’t cleared up yet.
After a 10-year struggle
with acne, Cassandra
Bankson, 20, figured out
exactly how to cover even
her worst breakouts—
and then braved going
makeup-free on YouTube
(“nerve-racking!”) to share
her tips with the world.
(Find her at Diamonds
AndHeels14.) Eleven
million views later, her tips
are like beauty gospel:
1. Prep first. Apply antishine gel to your T-zone,
then a primer all over (a
green-tinted one cuts
down redness).
2. Add foundation. Go
for a thick formula but
avoid ones with pore-clogging silicones. Smear it
on with clean fingers and
pat to blend for a supernatural look, she says. Dot
concealer on any spots
that still show through.
3. Then set. Apply powder
and use a setting spray to
keep it all in place for hours
without getting cakey.
4. Complete the look.
Add your favorite eye, lip,
and cheek color. Gorgeous!
1
Then cut down on dairy
When Bill Danby, M.D., was a dermatologist in the seventies,
one of his acne-plagued patients told him that he ate a pint of
ice cream every day. (Turns out his dad was an ice cream salesman.) Dr. Danby couldn’t help but wonder: Could dairy and
pimples be related? To find out, he suggested his patient stop
eating the creamy treat, and “within a year, without any other
therapy, he was 85 percent clear of acne,” Dr. Danby recalls.
Since then, Dr. Danby, now at Dartmouth University’s
Geisel School of Medicine, has published 10 studies on dairy
and acne. In one, of 47,355 women, he found that those who
drank the most milk were 44 percent more likely to have
had severe acne than women who drank no milk. Why?
Many dairy cows in the United States are pregnant. Sounds
random, but stay with us: As a result, their milk is full of
growth hormones, which some experts believe may boost
acne-causing testosterone levels.
2
3
Pass on meats but eat fish
Your skin will also thank you if you replace red and processed meats like hot dogs with oily fish such as salmon and
mackerel, Logan says. The latter contain omega-3 fats, which
help stop inflammation, an acne and redness trigger. Meats,
on the other hand, can be high in omega-6 fats, which trigger
inflammation and oil production. Many conventional farmers also treat their cows with growth hormones, which are
like “kerosene on top of the whole acne fire,” Logan says. If
you need your burger fix, he recommends you choose meat
from grass-fed cows rather than conventionally farmed ones.
Don’t scrimp on the veggies
You’re adding fish—so what else should you eat more of?
Produce, produce, produce, say experts. “I see a lot of skin,
and people who eat a ton of vegetables look better than anyone else,” says Roberta Sengelmann, M.D., a Santa Barbara,
California, dermatologist. One Glamour dieter, 36-year-old
Linda Huang, a banking exec from Continued on next page
3 g l am o u r .co m n ovem b er 2012
4
Her Makeup Staples
Noncakey
Powder
“This is the finest
powder in the
world!” she says.
Make Up For
Ever Super
Matte Loose
Powder ($26,
sephora.com)
Good-for-Skin
Foundation
Look for ingredients like salicylic acid.
Bankson loves
Clinique Acne
Solutions Liquid
Makeup ($27,
clinique.com)
Concealer
“Layer it over
foundation for
max coverage.” MAC
Studio Finish
SPF 35 Concealer ($18,
maccosmetics
.com)
stills: cathy crawford
found that switching from a diet full of junky carbs to one
rich in whole grains led to fewer zits. And another large
study found that 87 percent of people with acne who went
on the South Beach diet—which excludes most processed
stuff—reported fewer pimples.
Why are processed carbs so breakout-inducing? They’re
digested very quickly, which causes spikes in insulin (a
hormone that boosts levels of acne-causing androgens
like testosterone) and a chemical called IGF-1. Both lead
to clogged pores and oil secretion. Plus, people who eat a lot
of these foods typically don’t get many veggies and whole
grains, which boost collagen and keep skin healthy, says Dr.
Murad. In 2012, researchers found that acne sufferers who
eliminated quick-digesting processed carbs had 28 percent
fewer whiteheads and blackheads and 71 percent fewer cystic
pimples after 10 weeks compared to those who ate normally.
How to Fake
Flawless
Skin
This pro helps you hide zits your
beauty/beauty insight
San Francisco, says eating lots of produce made her skin less
dry and blotchy, and gave it “more of a glow.”
Brightly colored fruits and vegetables like carrots and
broccoli are healthiest because they’re full of antioxidants,
which “help your skin and body heal and protect against
future damage from the environment,” says New York City
dermatologist Doris Day, M.D. But any raw fruits or veggies help because they’re made up of as much as 96 percent
water, and staying hydrated is important for maintaining youthful, elastic skin. (Veggies lose water as they’re
cooked.) The water in raw veggies, notes Dr. Murad, “is
gradually released—unlike water you drink, which goes
right through you.”
So you’re now armed with a new weapon for better skin: your
fridge. Take it from tester Deanna Powell, 33, an accountant in
Cincinnati. “After a few weeks on this diet, my mystery redness disappeared, and people asked if I’d had a facial,” she says.
“When I went to get a new driver’s license, the DMV cashier did
a double take and said, ‘Wow. You do not look your age at all!’
I didn’t think a diet had the power to do all this, but it did.” n
Introducing…Glamour’s
Great Skin Diet
We asked seven women
with problem skin to test
our good-diet-great-skin
theory. Massachusetts
derm Valori Treloar, M.D.,
coauthor of The Clear Skin
Diet, created this plan for
them to follow for seven
weeks; testers chose what
they ate each day. The
instructions were simple:
5. Fill your plate with
colorful antioxidantrich vegetables
1. Steer clear
of the white food
family, including
instead of corn or vege
table oil, which typically
has more omega-6 fats.
2. Eat more fiberrich carbs like brown
rice, whole-grain pasta,
sweet potatoes, and lentils.
3. Cut down on dairy.
Our testers fell in love
with almond milk instead.
Like dairy? Eat yogurt.
The fermentation may
reduce some of the
growth hormones that
could trigger acne.
4. Avoid processed
meats like hot dogs,
which contain inflammatory omega-6 fats. When
buying meat, opt for
organic and free-range.
6. Eat wild-caught
oily fish like salmon,
mackerel, and sardines.
7. Cook with olive oil
8. Cut down on
alcohol, proven to
exacerbate adult acne,
eczema, and rosacea.
How strict do you
need to be? Dr. Treloar
recommends eliminating
processed carbs entirely
for a few months. Same
with dairy (take a daily
400 mg calcium supplement with 200 to 400 mg
of magnesium and 1,000 IU
of vitamin D instead). If your
skin clears, start adding
foods back slowly. “Some
people with problem skin
can eat certain kinds
of dairy, like sheep’s milk;
some can eat any kind
once in a while,” she says.
4 g l am o u r .co m n ovem b er 2012
The results: The diet
tweaks were hard for
some women at first. Initially, three more women
had signed on to try the
plan but dropped out—
one because she had a
breakout in her fifth week
and got discouraged,
another after work events
derailed her eating plan
early on, and a third when
she found it difficult to limit
alcohol and eat more veggies. “The first week of no
bread and little cheese
was painful, but it got easier and now I am much
more conscious about
what I choose to eat,” says
Daphne G., 34, who completed all seven weeks.
(She started seeing
results after three weeks
and, like six of her seven
fellow testers, noted big
improvements after five
weeks.) The benefits went
beyond fewer pimples
too. “My redness, dryness, and blotchiness
have all improved or disappeared completely,”
says Linda Huang. Even
better, many women
reported they had more
energy and were sleeping
better—and one even lost
ten pounds.
The bottom line: Our
testers had 62 percent
fewer pimples than before,
and many vowed to stick
with the plan. Says Deanna
Powell: “I saw such a
change that I’ll be eating
this way indefinitely.”
Jonny valiant
white bread, cookies,
cakes, and crackers.
like carrots, spinach, and
broccoli. (And when
possible, eat ’em raw.)