Does Sugar, Starch and Fried Food Lead to Bad Skin? My Own Experiment

I have always paid close attention to the skin on my face. I don't have an acne problem, but occasionally, I get really bad zits. By really bad, I mean the kind of zits that you can see if you look down at your nose. In other words, they stick out so far, you don't even need a mirror to know they're there. By really bad I also mean the kind of zits that leave scars after they have disappeared. For this reason, I have one acne scar on my nose and another on my face. I have a couple of dark spots here and there that I just know are fading out. I said all that to say, that often I try to figure out what it is that causes me to get bad pimples.

It's like I'll have perfect skin for months. Then, out of the blue, I'll have to call my skin “textured.” I call it textured because it gets a few bumps here and there. Then there's one bump that is just horrific. I wanted the scarring to stop so I had to find out why I got bad zits. Heard of adult onset acne? I was determined that wouldn't be me.

Often, I've read online that acne has nothing do with eating fried foods or sugar. But some people also say the Atkins diet is a good diet. So I did some of my own experimenting.

First I have to say this: I am a full-time professional snacker. What do I love to snack on? You guessed it. Sugar and bread. So for about a month, I only ate three meals per day with no snacks in between meals. I remember eating a lot of salads at first and protein. I couldn't make trips to the vending machine at work.

And I saw results. One of my friends told me my skin looked great, and I thought to myself, she's right. I didn't have any textured skin. My skin looked smooth, bright, and it was completely clear. There were no zits or hints of acne.

But then I wondered if it was really the food that changed things. And one day, my curiosity was satisfied. I started to snack. And my favorite snack: Kellogg's cinnamon and brown sugar pop tarts became a daily indulgence. That's a one two punch of both starch and sugar.