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Do cashews cause acne? It’s unlikely. Instead, cashews are probably good for acne, as they nourish your skin with vitamin E and reduce inflammation instead.
If you are also worried about eating too much, also keep scrolling to find out:
1. How to eat cashews so that they can actually help with your acne
2. How many cashews you can eat before worrying about weight gain
ABOUT ME
Be beauty. Be plant-based!
As a former Registered Nurse and avid plant-muncher, I’m in love with how simple plant-based foods make it so easy to be beautiful.
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Lily, a health-conscious young women, has been making an effort to adopt a healthier lifestyle before summer comes. She pays close attention to her diet, ensuring she includes plenty of nutritious foods. However, there’s one concern lingering in her mind: the potential connection between her beloved cashews and acne breakouts. Do cashews cause acne?
Cashews are Lily’s absolute favourite nuts, as she enjoys their rich, buttery flavor and the satisfying crunch they provide. Lily incorporates them into her meals and snacks, savoring every bite almost every day. However, recently she has started noticing some unwelcome acne breakouts on her skin, leaving her feeling self-conscious and frustrated.
Lily stumbles upon various articles discussing the relationship between diet and acne. Some sources mention that certain foods, including nuts, might trigger acne breakouts, while others claim there is no substantial evidence to support this connection.
Should Lily give up her beloved cashews?
Are cashews causing your acne?
Probably not! Phewh!
Why do I say that? Well people suffering from acne have lower levels of vitamin E in their blood whereas cashews are a source of vitamin E (1,2).
Therefore it’s more likely that cashews are helping you develop clear skin rather than cause acne. The vitamin E in cashews may also be supporting overall skin health.
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But isn’t the Omega 6 in nuts bad for you?
That’s a great question. There is some concern that the omega 6 in nuts causes acne, as diets high in omega 6 are have been linked with breakouts.
What’s important to understand is that there are actually multiple types of omega 6 and one of is bad for acne because its causes inflammation. This type is ‘long chain omega 6’, also known as arachidonic acid (3).
The worst foods for pro-inflammatory omega 6/arachidonic acid are: chicken, eggs, beef, sausage/bacon products and fish (4).
Luckily, cashews aren’t anywhere on this list. Just the opposite actually, they are a great source of healthy fats.
What you need to actually avoid are diets which have a lot of omega 6 and not enough omega 3, which are associated with acne (5). The issue is the imbalance between omega 6 and omega 3, not the omega 6 in general which are bad for skin health.
If you have acne-prone skin then addressing this imbalance by eating a more plant-based diet instead of a typical western diet rich in meat could have a greater impact on your acne than eating cashews.
Bonus: a whole food plant-based diet is also a low-glycemic diet which is great for your blood glucose levels and therefore your skin!
Do cashews cause acne? Maybe…if you’re eating cashew nut butter
If you are noticing acne breakouts and happen to be eating spoonfuls of cashew nut butter everyday, then all this nut butter could be a contributing factor to your acne.
I can’t say for sure – nobody has tested or studied this properly – and I have never eaten spoonfuls of cashew nut butter everyday either. However, I have eaten spoonfuls of peanut butter in a day or over a few days (hello my monthly period!). On these occasions, whether I’m menstruating or not, I notice a rapid increase in pimples across my chin and my forehead.
These breakouts resolve themselves pretty quickly once I quit the peanut butter (and eating plant-based helps a lot too).
How often can I eat cashews?
When it comes to avoiding acne breakouts, we might be able to eat cashews everyday thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties.
As acne is an inflammatory condition, its important that we eat foods which work on reducing inflammation. Research has shown that eating almonds everyday reduces inflammation (6). It’s possible that cashews will have a similar effect as the vitamin E in them combats the free radicals which increase inflammation.
Therefore, cashews may plan an important role in your everyday skincare routine.
Extra bonus: eating nuts also reduces the impact of sugar on your blood sugar levels (which is also good for inflammation!).
It’s also possible that cashews are good for your skin when applied topically.
Researchers once turned cashews into a pulp and tried to use this as a topical application for acne. Unfortunately their paper didn’t actually say if there were any results. It just said that cashews were a good candidate for fighting acne due to the flavonoids in them (compounds found in plants which are good for our health) and that the cashew pulp wasn’t toxic to skin cells.
Personally I like the taste of cashews so I will just keep on eating them.
Do any other nuts cause acne?
So far, I haven’t discovered any nuts which are bad for acne.
Sunflower seeds though are a problem, and cause acne within days of eating them.
What else could be causing my acne?
If you want to clear acne, try reducing your dairy products. Yes, I know this may feel alarming – especially when it comes to giving up cheese!
However, there is very strong evidence that dairy causes acne. This is because dairy milk has hormones which impact us too, leading to hormonal imbalance and more acne.
Skim milk is even worse than full-cream cow’s milk unfortunately. If you are focused on weight loss at the moment, try swapping skim milk for soy milk instead, as soy prevents fat cells from taking up fat.
It’s also good to avoid processed sugar. Yes, I know that this is even worse news than giving up cheese. However, processed sugar leads to inflammation which is a cause of acne.
This includes white bread and fruit juice.
Finally, fast food (which is full of processed carbs, processed sugar and oil) is unfortunately a terrible cause of acne.
Are there negative effects from eating cashews?
Unless you are allergic to cashew nuts, I haven’t found any negative side-effects to eating them.
In fact people who eat nuts everyday are less likely to get cancer, and are more likely to live longer (8). Bonus!
Are you worried about weight gain from eating nuts?
I hear you. Cashew nuts are so yummy and very easy to snack on. Now we know cashews don’t cause acne, they are even harder to resist!
Luckily, eating whole nuts doesn’t lead to weight gain, even with the ‘high fat content’ of nuts. The fibre in unprocessed plant-based foods (such as cashews) appear to prevent us from putting on weight (9).
In fact, eating a large handful of pistachios everyday doesn’t lead to any weight gain, because they are unprocessed (10).
This applies to whole cashews, but not nut oil.
Is it ok to eat cashews everyday?
Yes! You can eat cashews everyday (unless you’re allergic of course).
According to the best nutritional guidelines (Dr Greger’s Daily Dozen) we should eat nuts everyday. The daily recommendation of nuts with a plant-based diet is a 1/4 cup or 30 grams (11).
Hoorah!
Furthermore, cashews contain minerals like zinc and copper, which are essential for collagen production and skin healing. Collagen is a protein that gives structure to the skin and plays a vital role in maintaining its elasticity and firmness. Adequate intake of these minerals is important for the overall health and appearance of the skin.
Other foods to clear acne
There are several other common foods and drinks that can help you reduce acne, such as:
- Almonds
- Green tea
- Matcha
- Spices such as ginger, cinnamon and turmeric (which are extremely high in anti-oxidants)
- Brightly coloured whole foods like sweet potatoes
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In summary, it’s unlikely that cashews cause acne. Rather the opposite, cashews are a source of vitamin E which can combat free radical, reduce inflammation and help prevent acne. They are a great nut to source your healthy fats and despite being rich in fat are unlikely to make you gain weight.
Back to Lily…
Lily breathes a sigh of relief, realising that her favourite nuts can still be part of her healthy eating plan without causing skin issues. She understands that maintaining a balanced diet and overall healthy lifestyle is key to supporting her skin health.
Armed with this newfound knowledge, Lily embraces her love for cashews once again. She continues to enjoy them in moderation, savouring their delicious flavour and appreciating their nutritional value. She feels empowered, knowing that she can make choices that nourish her body while also indulging in the foods she loves.
From that day forward, Lily embarks on her journey with a healthier mindset, understanding that balance is the key. She takes care of her skin through proper skincare routines and makes well-informed choices about her diet. With her worries put to rest, she confidently embraces a lifestyle that supports both her overall well-being and her enjoyment of her favourite nuts—cashews.
References
- Liu X, Yang G, Luo M, et al. Serum vitamin E levels and chronic inflammatory skin diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2021;16(12):e0261259. Published 2021 Dec 14. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0261259
- Wojdyło A, Turkiewicz IP, Tkacz K, Nowicka P, Bobak Ł. Nuts as functional foods: Variation of nutritional and phytochemical profiles and their in vitro bioactive properties. Food Chem X. 2022;15:100418. Published 2022 Aug 8. doi:10.1016/j.fochx.2022.100418
- https://nutritionfacts.org/video/fasting-for-rheumatoid-arthritis/
- National Cancer Institute. Identification of Top Food Sources of Various Dietary Components. Table 12. https://epi.grants.cancer.gov/diet/foodsources/top-food-sources-report-02212020.pdf
- Jung JY, Kwon HH, Hong JS, et al. Effect of dietary supplementation with omega-3 fatty acid and gamma-linolenic acid on acne vulgaris: a randomised, double-blind, controlled trial. Acta Derm Venereol. 2014;94(5):521-525. doi:10.2340/00015555-1802
- Rajaram S, Connell KM, Sabaté J. Effect of almond-enriched high-monounsaturated fat diet on selected markers of inflammation: a randomised, controlled, crossover study. British Journal of Nutrition. 2010;103(6):907-912. doi:10.1017/S0007114509992480
- Cefali LC, Vazquez C, Ataide JA, et al. In vitro activity and formulation of a flavonoid-containing cashew pulp extract for the topical treatment of acne and the protection of skin against premature aging. Nat Prod Res. 2021;35(23):5243-5249. doi:10.1080/14786419.2020.1747454
- Video: Nuts May Help Prevent Death at NutritionFacts.org
- https://nutritionfacts.org/video/nuts-and-obesity-the-weight-of-evidence/
- https://nutritionfacts.org/video/testing-the-pistachio-principle/
- Greger, M. How Not to Die. Pan Books.