The Ultimate Anti-Acne Smoothie With Barberries

The ultimate secret ingredient to clean skin smoothies is the tiny barberry. This Anti-Acne Smoothie with Barberries contains the daily dose you need to reduce pimples while still tasting sweet.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE MY: BLACKBERRY BREAKFAST SMOOTHIE FOR CLEAR SKIN

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

• A bullet blender
• Strawberries (frozen)
• Mango (frozen)
• Date paste (or soft dates)
• Ground flaxseeds
• Plant-based mylk
  

HOW MUCH EFFORT IS REQUIRED?

Hardly any effort is required! Finding where to buy barberries will be the most complicated thing.

DRINK THIS WHEN. . . 

• You want to reduce the amount of acne you have.
• You want to prevent future break-outs.
  

WHY THIS ‘CLEAR SKIN SMOOTHIE’ IS BETTER THAN OTHERS

I was very careful in researching and designing it.

Each ‘Clear Skin Smoothie’ recipe at She Eats Lovely! is based on lots of nerdy research into nutritional science, so only the best ingredients for acne, inflammation and healing are included.

I have a long history of adult acne, a Bachelor of Science, and a Masters of Nursing Science so when I said research, I really meant it! 

While knee-deep in nutrition journals I realised that you couldn’t design a single smoothie that does everything you need and still tastes good. So I created a smoothie collection instead to help with different aspects of skincare. 

This Anti-Acne Smoothie with Barberries helps clear your skin due to the secret anti-acne ingredient: barberries.

HOW SMOOTHIES HELP MY SKIN

I drink smoothies every day in addition to eating a whole food plant-based diet. Eating plant-based keeps my skin pimple-free most of the time. Before eating plant-based, I consistently developed pimples during my period, when it was hot, when I was stressed etc.

Every now and then however, usually during my period, I eat lots of chocolate and chips. Then just like clockwork, pimples show up after a day or two. 

Luckily, smoothies changed that. It was an accidental surprise to be honest. A few months ago I started to drink a fruit and vegetable smoothie with breakfast, as I was worried about my leafy green intake. 

Since then, my skin has been consistently clear. Even during my last period when I fully expected to see some pimples. It was a certainty as I had indulged in a large bag of chips as well as a whole batch of these peanut butter and chocolate bites in two days. With all that excess oil and cocoa my skin should have broken out. And yet, they didn’t!

BARBERRIES: THE SECRET ANTI-ACNE INGREDIENT

Barberries are the only food that has been seriously proven to work on acne. 

That doesn’t mean other foods are useless. Just that the research quality supporting barberries for acne is top-notch. To be clear, it really doesn’t get any better than this barberry study in nutritional science.

What did this amazingly high-quality research find? Eating barberries daily for a month reduced pimples by almost half (1).

You can find barberries at Middle Eastern grocers and of course on Amazon. 

Note: If you’re pregnant then don’t eat barberries (2). 

If you want to find out more about these exotic berries, such as how to avoid accidentally buying goji berries instead, or just nerd out on more nutritional information, then head over to:

HOW TO ENJOY BARBERRIES TO REDUCE YOUR ACNE

THE BEAUTY INGREDIENTS EXPLAINED

STRAWBERRIES

Strawberries are great for inflammation. One research study found that when eaten daily, strawberries reduced inflammation by eighteen percent (3). 

However, strawberries work even deeper than that by also reducing the activity of pro-inflammatory genes (4). Amazing!

MANGO

Banana is commonly used in smoothies, however mango is my preferred source of sweetness thanks to its antioxidants. While bananas have an antioxidant score of 27, mango has more than three times the antioxidants as bananas with a score of 108! (5).

BEAUTY BONUS: Eating lots of antioxidants can also help prevent sun spots/age spots (6).

PLANT-BASED MYLK

Dairy has no place in clear skin smoothies, for two reasons:

• First, the more dairy you eat, the more likely you are to have acne (7). Skim milk is especially bad (8). 
• Second, all those lovely antioxidants from the blackberries won’t do a single thing for you if you eat them with dairy milk. The dairy will simply block your ability to absorb them (9). 
  

DATE PASTE

Date paste is made from whole dates, which means that all the fibre and nutrients are retained. This has two benefits: 1) You get a healthier sweetener because of the extra fibre and nutrients!; 2) Your blood sugar level won’t shoot up as quickly thanks to those extra nutrients (10). 

You can find my recipe for DATE PASTE here. It takes about 5 min in total, with overnight soaking in between (my apologies if you wanted to try this recipe right now!).

Are you time-poor or feeling too lazy to make date paste? You can buy date syrup or maple syrup instead, although I don’t think they’ll be as helpful for your skin.

GROUND FLAXSEEDS

While I don’t know if flaxseeds help directly with acne, they do help with the inflammation associated with ageing! (11). 

So think of flaxseeds as an investment.

ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT WEIGHT GAIN?

This smoothie is nothing to worry about as:

• It’s high in fibre compared to processed ice-cream or other treats, which helps with weight loss
• It’s free from refined sugar 
• It has ground flaxseeds in it, which helps with weight-loss (12)
  
  

WHY I DIDN’T INCLUDE CALORIES

I don’t add calories to my recipes because when you eat a wholefood, plant-based diet, calorie counting is a waste of time. You simply don’t need to do it.  I have designed all the recipes at She Eats Lovely! to be weight-loss friendly.

How is it possible to manage weight without counting calories? Find out in my post: 8 UNBELIEVABLE REASONS FOR NOT CALORIE-COUNTING

Would you like to see more smoothies that fight inflammation and clear your skin? Check out my: 

• BERRY-LICIOUS CHOCOLATE SMOOTHIE FOR CLEAR SKIN 
• MISO & DATE ‘SALTED CARAMEL’ SMOOTHIE
• BLACKBERRY DESSERT SMOOTHIE FOR CLEAR SKIN
  
  

References

1. Fouladi RF. Aqueous extract of dried fruit of Berberis vulgaris L. in acne vulgaris, a clinical trial. J Diet Suppl. 2012;9(4):253-261. doi:10.3109/19390211.2012.726702
2. Rad SZK, Rameshrad M, Hosseinzadeh H. Toxicology effects of Berberis vulgaris (barberry) and its active constituent, berberine: a review. Iran J Basic Med Sci. 2017;20(5):516-529. doi:10.22038/IJBMS.2017.8676
3. Moazen S, Amani R, Homayouni Rad A, Shahbazian H, Ahmadi K, Taha Jalali M. Effects of freeze-dried strawberry supplementation on metabolic biomarkers of atherosclerosis in subjects with type 2 diabetes: a randomized double-blind controlled trial. Ann Nutr Metab. 2013;63(3):256-264. doi:10.1159/000356053 
4. Chen T, Yan F, Qian J, et al. Randomized phase II trial of lyophilized strawberries in patients with dysplastic precancerous lesions of the esophagus. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2012;5(1):41-50. doi:10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-11-0469 
5. Carlsen MH, Halvorsen BL, Holte K, Bøhn SK, Dragland S, Sampson L, Willey C, Senoo H, Umezono Y, Sanada C, Barikmo I, Berhe N, Willett WC, Phillips KM, Jacobs DR Jr, Blomhoff R. The total antioxidant content of more than 3100 foods, beverages, spices, herbs and supplements used worldwide. Nutr J. 2010 Jan 22;9:3.
6. Greger, M. How Not to Die. Pan Books.
7. Adebamowo CA, Spiegelman D, Danby FW, Frazier AL, Willett WC, Holmes MD. High school dietary dairy intake and teenage acne. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2005;52(2):207-214. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2004.08.007 
8. Video: Skim Milk and Acne at www.nutritionfacts.org
9. Hassimotto NM, Pinto Mda S, Lajolo FM. Antioxidant status in humans after consumption of blackberry (Rubus fruticosus L.) juices with and without defatted milk. J Agric Food Chem. 2008;56(24):11727-11733. doi:10.1021/jf8026149
10. Video: Are Dates Good For You? at NutritionFacts.org 
11. Caligiuri SP, Aukema HM, Ravandi A, Pierce GN. Elevated levels of pro-inflammatory oxylipins in older subjects are normalized by flaxseed consumption. Exp Gerontol. 2014;59:51-57. doi:10.1016/j.exger.2014.04.005 
12. Video: Benefits of Flaxseeds for Weightloss at www.nutritionfacts.org