A proper search in Google should include the correct keywords – you don’t need superflous words like ‘and,’ ‘or,’ ‘with,’ etc. Google should be showing us the most relevant results when it comes to diet and acne when we query ‘acne diet.’ Now let’s dissect the results.

Google # 1 : EveryDiet.com says…

Foods with saturated fats and trans fats can contribute to oily skin. Saturated fats are found in most animal products – such as meats, dairy, and pulty. However the body does still require other essential fatty acids – such as from fish, flaxseed, or hempseed oil.

From the get go, this website is trying to claim that saturated fats from animal products can contribute to oily skin. Wrong. Saturated fats from animals (pork fat, e.g.) contain many necessary nutrients for health – our ancestors have been consuming these fats for thousands of years. In fact, the fat of the animals was considered sacred, and the most healthy part of the animal along with animal organs. The prevailing theme of this website has it completely wrong – lets scrap this one and move on.

Google Result # 2 – FreeAcneBook.com says…

Acne is cause by the combination of a high sebum production and pinched off sebum canals. If the pinching off of sebum canals is eliminated, you will get NO new pimples whatsoever. Most foods contain such substances that make the skin pinch.

The overall theme of this site scares me from the start. The domain name screams ‘i’m selling something!’ despite it claiming to be free. But maybe this free eBook is useful, let’s read their first statement:

Acne is caused by high sebum production. It’s true that acne is caused by superfluous sebum production but this isn’t the main cause. This site is implying that this is the true cause, which is wrong. This cause is only one step on the ladder of causes. They go on to talk about pinched off sebum canals – i’m not sure what they are trying to get at here (Accutane, perhaps?) but it’s obvious they are not getting at any true cause. Pinched off sebum canals are not natural. Our skin plays many natural functions – one of which is to create sebum to promote supple skin. Pinching off these canals is like saying, if your having erectile dysfunction, pinching your pee hole will solve all your problems! It isn’t natural.

Google Result # 3 – About.com says…

So, is diet alone going to clear your acne? Probably not. However, a health diet will certainly improve your overall health.

OK, we finally have a self touted authority in information. They have to know what’s up, right?

They start off by citing some references to studies showing some correlation between diet and acne. Good! But then I see what you see above: ‘is diet alone going to clear your acne? Probably not.’ Probably not? It’s a yes or no question. We aren’t politicians here trying to dance on a fence to make sure we don’t upset anyone. We want hard cold answers – and we want it now. We are suffering everyday! ‘Probably not.’ does not answer our questions. Here is your answer: Yes, your acne has everything to do with your diet, and diet alone will clear and cure your acne.

Google Result # 4 – Care2.com says…

Why is it that teens in New Guinea and Paraguay have no acne? Or in Kenya, rural Japan, or Malaisia, for that matter? The reason goes against the commonly held viewpoint of most dermatologists who think acne isn’t caused by diet.

A seminal study on acne published in the Archives of Dermatologs in 2002, reported that there was no one single case of acne–zero–in two non-Westernized populations studied for a diet-acne connection. One population was in New Guinea and the other Paraguay.

What do these two cultures have in common? They were eating the diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Foods you could hunt, gather, plush or fisk, what Loren Cordain, Ph. D, author of the audy and book by the same name, calls The Paleo Diet.

Hmm, this seems interesting. They start with a question, ‘Why is it that teens in New Guinea and Paraguay have on acne?’ – I used to wonder this myself. Then they state ‘a seminal study…reported that there was not one single case.’ – Can’t argue with hard cold facts, right? Lasty they state ‘What do these two cultures have in common? They were eating the diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.’

Let’s take a moment to step up from our computer chairs and give a round of applause. Bravo care2.com. You have it right! Our ancestors did not have acne because they were not plagued by the ill effects of processed foods. So you have the reasoning right, the only thing left is to figure out exactly what was the diet of our ancestors and what parts of their diet correlate to our skins health. NaturAcne answers that question in extreme detail.

Google Result # 5 – Acne.com says…

Sponsored by ProActiv

Sponsored by ProActiv? I wonder how much they paid to acquire such a straight forward domain name. This just goes to show that acne is a business. It’s not even worth our time to read the propaganda on this website.

All in all, i’m actually quite happy to have found at least one result out of the so called ‘top 5′ that has the true cause of acne correct. Now try to search some common terms such as ‘acne,’ ‘acne treatments,’ ‘acne medications,’ – you’ll be hard pressed to find any in the top 100 which can show anything promising. The fact is, most acne information on the web is useless.

• What Passes for Food In America by Cheeselave talks about how she recently traveled with her family to discover the turmoils of eating healthy while traveling. It’s tough not to be able to cook your own food using the ingredients of your choice. Maybe you’ve noticed your skin get worse even when you eat at someone else’s house – or when traveling to another country. Processed foods are everywhere you go – white flour, high fructose corn syrup, eggs which come from chickens cooped up in factories, etc. The strongest concept of this article which you should grasp is ‘there is no such thing as cheap food.’

• High Soy Diet Shatters Boyhood Dreams of Football Glory by Hartke is Online! talks about how diet effected the authors teen years. Low and behold, he makes a direct link between eating habits and skin problems. I’m glad there are other bloggers out there who share this same sentiment!

• Gluten Free Sourdough and Weston A. Price Principles by The New Homemaker tells about their experiences making healthy bread that does not cause constipation. The bread recipe follows the principles of Weston A. Price. Once you become more familiar with what foods are healing and what foods are damaging to your skin, you’ll want to create your own recipes for healthy eating.

• Healthy and Anti-inflammatory Fats by Nourishing Hope is a short excerpt which holds lots of weight in our hearts. They talk about how certain fats can cause inflammation on the skin.

With a disease as widespread as acne, it is given that there will be lots of misinformation published through all types of mediums including books, television, and the internet. Most of this stems from the greed of man attempting to profit on the suffering of others (see Acne is a Business.) The rest stems from the misinterpretation and misunderstanding of cause and effect. With the rise of the information age, the internet has become the #1 source of spreading knowledge today.

Understanding research fundamentals of acne information

You have acne. You want to know how to get rid of it. There are millions of pieces of information flying your way on what you should do to fix your skin. Only with proper understanding of why this information is available can you effectively sift through the right and the wrong. You must understand the three types of people producing acne information on the web.

Type 1: People who create acne websites to make money

Since the advent of processed food, so many people have acne now a days. Google is getting thousands of search queries for the keyword acne and similar, everyday. Web developers see this as an opportunity to produce eBooks, blogs, etc. dealing with acne to make money. The huge problem here is that most of these guys have never had to deal with persistent acne in their life. Their main intention is not to help people, but to make money. Can you really believe what someone says when they have their hand in your pocket?

Rule # 1: Never trust anyone with information regarding health if the proponent of the ideas did not have a true passion for the topic.

Type 2: People suffering from acne and spreading their experiences

The acne.org forums is the largest acne forum on the web. The forums are filled with acne sufferers, mostly in their teens, who can compare experiences with one another. This is great, in theory, but it isn’t an efficient solution. Stick a bunch of people who suffer from acne in a room(a stadium would be more suitable now a days) and lock the doors. It’ll take years for someone to figure out the cure (it took me years) and then it’ll take twice as many years to get the message across to everybody. While one smart person who has cured themselves is trying to spread the word, there are 100 naysayers who call BS, 100 people who don’t understand, and 100 people who didn’t get the message in the first place. Eventually the cured people will leave and 100 more sufferers will take his or her place.

Rule # 2: Acne can be a cyclic disease. Some may say one thing helped when after a few months it stops working. Take information from sufferers with a grain of salt unless they have permanently cured their acne.

Type 3: People who have cured it and want others to know

This is the golden egg in the basket. The ones who fall into this category inherently follow the two aforementioned rules – they have suffered so will have had a passion to cure themselves, and they have permanently cured it so you know they did it correctly.

The problem with type 3 is there aren’t many. Close to none.  Sure there are many who have cured their acne, but why in hell would they spend more of their time talking about acne when they just spent the last 5 years dwelling on it in the first place? Acne is a depressing subject. All the people who cured themselves are skipping and singing a happy tune. They are no longer reading studies, excerpts, forum posts about pimples, blackheads, pustules, and cysts.

Rule # 3: Be wary of all information regarding acne on the web. Mostly all of it is totally useless.

Beauty of the Internet Medium, Spreading and Gathering Knowledge

One of the beauties of the internet as a medium to express knowledge is that anyone can do it. I could write an e-book about how the sun will collide with the earth in 2012 and distribute this information amongst thousands of people who want to hear about it. This doesn’t mean I would know what I am talking about, because I wouldn’t.

The following video was posted on YouTube by someone who is clearly overweight and unhealthy. This should already be an indicator that this person doesn’t understand fully the concept of the health topic she is discussing. We can make an example of any piece of information on the web like this one regarding acne to further support our theory.

Another intrinsic beauty of the internet is the gathering of knowledge. With so many resources out there, it may be difficult to figure out what is correct and what is incorrect – but the ability to choose is available to everyone who wants to know, and this is what is important. Back in the day before the internet, there was the library – if you wanted to research a topic, you’d have hundreds of  different authors to choose from, and take from them what you need. Now a days, you have access to thousands of different authors with different views which makes it much more effective in figuring out what actually is right and wrong.

Let’s dissect this video:

Acne is caused by dirt getting into the pores of your skin: Wrong. I don’t see little Stevey who plays in the dirt everyday with pimples. What about John who works in the sewers cleaning clogged human feces from pipes? That’s gotta be a worse then dirt, right? I don’t see him with acne, either.

Caused by heredity: No. Genetics do not cause acne. You receive the nutritional health status of your parents upon conception, meaning if you parents are unhealthy with a weak immune system, then you will be too.

Hormones: Hormones do have a role in acne, but to simply say ‘hormones cause acne’ is pretty naive. The true cause of hormone imbalance is lack of proper nutrition and the accumulation of toxins which cause the glands and organs to function improperly.

Not ‘necessarily’ the type of food you eat:  Wrong again.  The fact is, your diet plays every role in acne and every other degenerative disease including obesity. The fact is, toxins from unhealthy foods cause different problems for different people. Some may have hormone problems which cause obesity, and some may have different hormone problems which cause acne. Depending on many different factors, everyone deals with toxins differently.

Avoid unnecessary touching of the face: This doesn’t matter. Acne is created within your body and comes from the inside out. You can aggravate your acne, but if your immune system is strong, touching your skin will in no way cause acne.

This woman clearly falls into Type 2. Although she is wearing makeup, it seems that she does not suffer from anything more then mild acne. It’s also clear that her health isn’t optimal. She is overweight, and is probably on different drugs that suppress one symptom but cause another. In the end, unless she takes her health into control with healthy eating habits, she will never fully cure her acne – it will come back!