Are you desperate to reduce your acne but in reality don’t have time to make three different meals everyday? WIth this Acne Free Diet Plan 30 Days Clearer Skin you will find only simple, delicious changes that can reduce acne and enhance your skin’s natural glow.
Hi, I’m Hazel
I gave up on skincare after years of issues with acne and sensitive skin.
But after going plant-based, my skin cleared up and even started to glow. Now I help women reveal their natural beauty with simple, delicious plant-based food.
I also used to be a nurse, and love nerding out on nutritional science (high-quality science, that is).
As usual, this post is based on the strongest nutritional evidence I could find with a focus on the simplest, most delicious foods
…because who has time to waste on actions that don’t work?
The quick version:
This Acne Free Diet Plan 30 Days Clearer Skin focuses on enjoyable, simple swaps and antioxidant-rich foods that work naturally with your lifestyle to fight acne.
By integrating anti-inflammatory and skin-nourishing ingredients each week, you’ll see a transformative difference in your skin’s health and clarity without drastic changes to your daily routine.
Week 1: Make Delicious Swaps for Clearer Skin
Objective: Start your journey to clearer skin one the Acne Free Diet Plan 30 Days Clearer Skin with some of the easiest and most enjoyable dietary swaps. The focus is things that not only taste great but also nurture your skin. These will also help you swap out some of the worst acne-causing culprits of the Western diet.
Recommendations
1. Savour the Switch with Plant-Based Milk and yoghurt
Choose a plant-based milk you love, such as almond, oat, or soy. Enjoy it in your morning coffee, smoothies, or simply by the glass. If you eat yoghurt, start trying some plant-based brands until you find the one you like.
Why? Unlike dairy products, these are free from dairy hormones that can trigger acne(1).
You may also like:
How to Choose Between Coconut Milk vs Soy Milk
2. Indulge in Plant-Based Hot Chocolate
Swap your chocolate for a plant-based hot chocolate instead. Sorry, you will even have to swap dark chocolatetoo. Even though its lower in sugars and richer in antioxidants, it still has too much dairy and processed sugar.
Why? Homemade, plant-based chocolate is better for blood sugar control, avoids diary and has a lower glycemic index helping to manage acne.
3. Treat Yourself with Medjool Dates and Nuts
Replace sugary snacks and sugary drinks with lusciously sweet Medjool dates stuffed with almonds or walnuts for a satisfying crunch.
Why? This snack combo stabilises blood sugar levels with their fibre and antioxidants crucial for reducing acne breakouts (2, 3).
HOMEWORK: Read week 4 now, and decide if you want to try including matcha and dried barberries in your diet. If so, start looking online now for where you can buy them so that you’re ready.
Why Plant-Based Milk is a Smooth Move
Think of plant-based milks like the new cool kids on the block, coming in to shake things up but without the hormonal imbalances that lead to acne. Rather, they’re like your friendly neighbors who don’t stir up acne drama on your skin and even help with weight loss instead.
Opting for these alternatives can help maintain balanced insulin levels and promote healthier skin without excess sebum.
Whether it’s almond, oat, or soy, these milks keep the peace by avoiding those acne-triggering spikes in your body, making your skin’s neighborhood a nicer place to live.
You’ll also like:
Breakout or Breakthrough? Is Almond Milk Good for Acne?
Hot Chocolate with a Twist
Imagine your chocolate is like a sugary rollercoaster—fun for a moment but can leave you with a skin crash.
Switching to plant-based hot chocolate using cocoa or cacao is like choosing a scenic train ride instead. It’s still delightful and indulgent but doesn’t jerk your blood sugar levels around, which means fewer acne breakouts and a smoother ride to clearer skin.
Plus, when you ditch the dairy, you avoid the problem of dairy binding to antioxidants, allowing your body to soak up more of those skin-loving goodies.
For an extra antioxidant boost, make it with cacao instead of cocoa. Cacao is like cocoa’s superhero cousin, packed with even more powerful antioxidants that help keep your skin in hero mode against acne(4).
Regardless of your acne, this drink is a great contribution to a healthy diet.
Dates and Nuts: The Dynamic Duo
Medjool dates paired with nuts are like Oprah and Gayle for your skin—they’re a powerhouse duo that brings both sweetness and strength.
The dates offer natural sugars that don’t mess with your blood sugar levels too fast or too furious, as well as fibre and antioxidants which sugary treats won’t give you.
Nuts add the muscle with their healthy fats and proteins. Together, they fight off acne outbreaks by keeping your internal environment balanced and fortified.
These initial swaps are designed to be delicious and satisfying, making it easy to stick to them while they work to improve your skin health and reduce acne. By understanding the rationale behind each choice, you can feel confident in the benefits these changes bring to your skin and overall well-being.
Week 2: The Easiest Antioxidants for Clearer Skin
Objective: Introduce simple antioxidant-rich foods into your daily routine to fight inflammation and enhance skin health.
Recommendations
1. Green Tea for Glowing Skin
Start your day or accompany your meals with a soothing cup of green tea. It’s loaded with antioxidants that are known for their skin-clearing properties.
Why? Green tea contains catechins, powerful antioxidants that help reduce acne breakouts by lowering inflammation and sebum production (5).
They are also the perfect shortcut for increasing your intake of leafy greens!
2. Spice Your Day with Cinnamon
Add a sprinkle of cinnamon to your plant-based hot chocolate or morning oatmeal. This spice not only adds flavor but is a very simple way to support acne-prone skin.
Why? Cinnamon may help control blood sugar levels and is a powerhouse of antioxidants, containing over 10 times more antioxidants than cocoa, making it effective in managing acne through insulin levels control (2, 4).
3. Berry Delight
Incorporate a variety of berries like strawberries, blackberries, and cherries into your diet. Enjoy them as snacks, in smoothies, or as a fresh topping on your breakfast cereal.
Why? Berries are high in antioxidants and vitamin C, crucial for healthy skin (6). They are the second highest food group in antioxidants, with some varieties containing up to 10 times the antioxidants of other fresh fruits like bananas, which helps significantly reduce skin inflammation (4).
Green Tea for Glowing Skin
Start your day with a cup of green tea and imagine it as a gentle, cleansing rain that washes away the toxins and dust of daily life.
This isn’t just any rain—it’s packed with catechins, powerful antioxidants that help reduce acne breakouts by calming the storms of inflammation and keeping the oil production under control.
Plus, it boosts your immune system, like giving your body’s defence forces an upgrade, enhancing your ability to fight infections and maintain healthy skin.
Spice Your Day with Cinnamon
Sprinkle some cinnamon on your meals as if you’re dusting your day with a little magic.
This spice is a secret powerhouse, containing over 10 times the antioxidants as cocoa, making it one of the champions in the spice world.
Adding cinnamon to your diet helps manage blood sugar levels, which is crucial in controlling insulin levels and preventing those spikes that can lead to acne breakouts. It’s like having a constant guardian that subtly keeps your skin’s enemies at bay.
Berry Delight
Incorporate a mix of berries—strawberries, blackberries, and cherries—into your diet and think of them as your personal skin care squad.
These berries are loaded with antioxidants and vitamin C, ranking just behind spices in their antioxidant power. Eating them is like equipping your skin with bright shields that block out the attacks of inflammation.
Some berries pack up to 10 times the antioxidants of other fruits like bananas, providing a superior defence system that helps promote clearer skin and combat skin inflammation.
By integrating these antioxidant-rich foods and spices into your diet, you’re not only enhancing your meals’ flavor and enjoyment but also significantly contributing to your skin’s health and resilience against acne.
Mid-Post Checkpoint
As you progress through the Acne Free Diet Plan 30 Days Clearer Skin, it’s important to recognise each small victory. By now, you should be feeling more confident in making healthy food choices that show the effect of diet on your skin’s appearance.
Keep this momentum going as each week builds upon the last, bringing you closer to your goal of vibrant, acne-free skin.
Week 3: Simple Anti-inflammatory Foods for Healthier Skin
Objective: Integrate anti-inflammatory foods into your diet to reduce inflammation, a key factor in acne flare-ups, and promote overall skin health.
Recommendations
1. Ground Flax Seeds or Chia Seeds
Sprinkle these seeds over your breakfast cereal, blend into smoothies, or mix into yogurt. Both seeds are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are crucial for reducing inflammation (7, 8, 9).
Why? Flax seeds and chia seeds are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are known to help reduce inflammation, a key factor in reducing your amount of acne.
2. Avocado with Meals
Add slices of avocado to your salads, sandwiches, or as a side to any meat dishes. The healthy fats in avocados help counteract the inflammation often caused by meat (10).
Why? Avocado is rich in vitamin E and healthy fats, which not only help reduce inflammation but also promote healthy skin by managing the effects of dietary changes.
3. Spices in Everything
Incorporate anti-inflammatory spices like turmeric and ginger into your cooking. Whether it’s a stir-fry, soup, or smoothie, these spices can significantly enhance anti-inflammatory benefits.
Why? Spices are the number-one food group for antioxidants, making them excellent for reducing skin inflammation and managing blood sugar levels (4).
For example, adding about one tablespoon of spices to a rice meal can reduce the blood sugar response by 19%, beneficial for controlling acne breakouts (11).
4. Sweet Potato
Opt for sweet potatoes as your carbohydrate choice in meals, especially the purple variety, though orange is also beneficial (12). They can be baked, mashed, or used in fries.
Why? Sweet potatoes are high in antioxidants and complex carbohydrates, which have a lower glycemic impact than simple carbohydrates found in white bread and other high glycemic index foods. This helps maintain steady insulin levels and reduces acne flare-ups.
Why Seeds Are Your Skin’s Best Friends
Imagine your skin as a calm sea, and inflammation as a storm.
Ground flax seeds and chia seeds are like skilled sailors, helping to steady the waters with their omega-3 fatty acids.
Just like sailors use their expertise to calm the storm, these seeds help quiet down the inflammation, preventing your skin (the sea) from getting choppy and irritated, which often results in less acne showing up to the party.
Avocado: The Skin Smoothing Superhero
Think of avocados as the superheroes of your diet, swooping in with their capes made of healthy fats and vitamin E.
These nutrients act like a shield, protecting your skin from enemies like dryness and inflammation. Plus, they work undercover to repair damage and keep your skin feeling soft and looking vibrant, just like a superhero keeps the city safe and running smoothly.
Avocados are not just tasty; they are a powerhouse in fighting against skin inflammation and promoting healthy skin.
Spices: The Secret Agents of Skin Health
Spices like turmeric and ginger are the secret agents in the world of skincare, equipped with gadgets and gizmos (antioxidants) and have over 10 times the power of other agents (like cocoa).
They sneak into your meals and work silently, diffusing inflammatory bombs and keeping your skin clear of acne breakouts.
Adding a sprinkle of these spices is like having an undercover agent who’s always keeping an eye out to protect your skin’s health.
Sweet Potatoes: The Carbs That Care
Imagine sweet potatoes as the caring friends who always bring something nutritious to your table and help create a low-glycemic diet.
Unlike some friends (we’re looking at you, white bread), who can be a bit overwhelming with their high sugar and fast actions, sweet potatoes provide long-lasting energy. They help keep everything calm and steady, ensuring your body doesn’t overreact (with insulin spikes) and start a skin breakout. Sweet potatoes are loaded with beta-carotene, an antioxidant that not only gives them their color but also helps in the fight against skin inflammation and supports healthy skin.
Week 3 focuses on incorporating simple, delicious, and anti-inflammatory foods into your diet, which not only enhance your meal flavors but also provide significant health benefits for reducing acne and promoting clearer skin.
Preparing for Week 4
By now, in your Acne Free Diet Plan 30 Days Clearer Skin, you’ve integrated powerful antioxidants and anti-inflammatory foods that are pivotal in maintaining healthy skin. As we approach the final week, prepare to focus on specific superfoods like matcha and barberries, which are especially effective in combating acne. These aren’t just good for your skin; they’re powerful allies for your overall health.
Week 4: Anti-acne Fighters
Objective: Focus on powerful anti-acne foods and strategies, leveraging their unique properties to combat severe acne effectively.
It’s your last week of the 30 day plan! Keep doing all the tricks show so far and more importantly keep finding ways to enjoy these foods and drinks. That is the key to sustainability.
The focus of this week are matcha and dried barberries, which are fantastic in supporting your skin against acne. Why didn’t I feature these from week 1? Well, these aren’t available to your regular grocery store, so I wanted to design this plan so that you can get started right away.
Recommendations
1. Matcha Magic
Embrace the vibrant green of matcha tea, a superhero among teas, loaded with a unique type of antioxidants known as EGCG. This isn’t just a regular drink; it’s a powerhouse potion for your skin. Think of it as green tea, but on steroids (in a good way).
Why? Matcha helps decrease inflammation and control sebum production, making it a potent ally in fighting acne breakouts.
2. Barberry Boost
Introduce a teaspoon of dried barberries into your diet three times a day. These tiny berries might be small, but they pack a massive punch against acne.
Why? Barberries contain compounds that fight bacteria and reduce skin inflammation, crucial for maintaining clearer skin. They are also the only known food to be properly supported by high-quality science against acne (13)!
3. Colourful Choices When Dining Out
When eating out it can be hard to avoid fast food, but try to opt for the most colorful dishes, like plant-based burgers or sweet potato fries. Choosing vibrant, natural foods often means they’re packed with nutrients and low in acne-triggering ingredients.
Why? Vibrant colors in foods usually indicate a high content of antioxidants and phytonutrients, which are excellent for reducing skin inflammation and promoting healthy skin.
Note: Don’t forget to eat your ground flaxseeds or chia seeds to help reduce you appetite when eating foods that aren’t great for acne, but are great for socialising!
Matcha Magic
Think of matcha as your skin’s personal bodyguard. Just like a bodyguard would keep threats away, matcha’s high levels of EGCG act as a barrier against acne’s worst nightmares—excess oil and harmful bacteria. Drinking matcha is like giving your skin an internal shield, armed and ready to protect it from breakouts.
Barberry Boost
Imagine each tiny barberry as a soldier on the frontline in the battle against acne. Armed with powerful antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, these little warriors work tirelessly to clear out the bad bacteria that can lead to acne. Adding barberries to your diet is like sending reinforcements to help your skin stay clean, clear, and under control.
Colourful Choices When Dining Out
Choosing colorful plant-based dishes when dining out is like picking the best armour for your skin in a battle. These foods are not just pleasing to the eye but packed with the nutrients your skin needs to fight inflammation and stay healthy. It’s like ensuring your skin’s army is well-fed and ready to fight against any invaders, keeping your complexion radiant and robust.
Conclusion
Embark on this Acne Free Diet Plan 30 Days Clearer Skin journey, where simple swaps and powerful antioxidants transform not just your meals but also your skin. This clear skin diet plan is designed for real life, with easy-to-implement steps that deliver noticeable results, helping you to manage acne with everyday foods. Enjoy clearer, healthier skin without the overwhelm of a strict diet.
References
Most references below will link to the original peer-reviewed study itself. However, sometimes I will link to a video over at NutritionFacts.org instead, which is by far the single best resource of brutally transparent nutritional evidence you will ever see. Dr Greger tells a great story about the realities of the science and if I think you will benefit more from one of his videos, the link will take you there instead.
Happy nerding!
- Melnik B. Dietary intervention in acne: Attenuation of increased mTORC1 signaling promoted by Western diet. Dermatoendocrinol. 2012;4(1):20-32. doi:10.4161/derm.19828
- Houstis N, Rosen ED, Lander ES. Reactive oxygen species have a causal role in multiple forms of insulin resistance. Nature. 2006;440(7086):944-948. doi:10.1038/nature04634
- Melnik BC. Diet in acne: further evidence for the role of nutrient signalling in acne pathogenesis. Acta Derm Venereol. 2012;92(3):228-231. doi:10.2340/00015555-1358
- Carlsen MH, Halvorsen BL, Holte K, et al. The total antioxidant content of more than 3100 foods, beverages, spices, herbs and supplements used worldwide. Nutr J. 2010;9:3. Published 2010 Jan 22. doi:10.1186/1475-2891-9-3
- Lu PH, Hsu CH. Does supplementation with green tea extract improve acne in post-adolescent women? A randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled clinical trial. Complement Ther Med. 2016;25:159-163. doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2016.03.004
- Rejman K, Górska-Warsewicz H, Kaczorowska J, Laskowski W. Nutritional Significance of Fruit and Fruit Products in the Average Polish Diet. Nutrients. 2021;13(6):2079. Published 2021 Jun 17. doi:10.3390/nu13062079
- Silva LA, Verneque BJF, Mota APL, Duarte CK. Chia seed (Salvia hispanica L.) consumption and lipid profile: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Food Funct. 2021;12(19):8835-8849. Published 2021 Oct 4. doi:10.1039/d1fo01287h
- Abdelhamid AS, Brown TJ, Brainard JS, et al. Omega-3 fatty acids for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2018;11(11):CD003177. Published 2018 Nov 30. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD003177.pub4
- Rahimlou M, Jahromi NB, Hasanyani N, Ahmadi AR. Effects of Flaxseed Interventions on Circulating Inflammatory Biomarkers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Adv Nutr. 2019;10(6):1108-1119. doi:10.1093/advances/nmz048
- Li Z, Wong A, Henning SM, et al. Hass avocado modulates postprandial vascular reactivity and postprandial inflammatory responses to a hamburger meal in healthy volunteers. Food Funct. 2013;4(3):384-391. doi:10.1039/c2fo30226h
- Haldar S, Chia SC, Lee SH, et al. Polyphenol-rich curry made with mixed spices and vegetables benefits glucose homeostasis in Chinese males (Polyspice Study): a dose-response randomized controlled crossover trial. Eur J Nutr. 2019;58(1):301-313. doi:10.1007/s00394-017-1594-9
- Kaspar KL, Park JS, Brown CR, Mathison BD, Navarre DA, Chew BP. Pigmented potato consumption alters oxidative stress and inflammatory damage in men. J Nutr. 2011;141(1):108-111. doi:10.3945/jn.110.128074
- 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