Medically, acne is caused a bacteria P. acnes, and over production of sebum by sebaceous glands. However, there are other factors that do contribute to the development of acne such as poor hygiene. One food factor that will affect acne is the lack of nutrients in the food you eat.

Vitamin E and B complex as well as minerals such as zinc, magnesium, vitamin A, and essential fatty acids are needed for prevention and cure of acne.

Does this mean all foods cannot cause acne? Well, not quite. Recent cases show that acne can also be caused by food allergies.

Eating foods that the body is allergic to leads to a toxic reaction. The immune system fights the food as if it were an invading organism. This can cause inflammation in the skin, and in some cases, acne.

There were cases where a patient has been tested to have high antibody reaction to dairy products. Eliminating this dairy product from the diet solved the acne problem.

How do you know if food is the cause of your acne? The best way is to eliminate a certain food group one at a time. An example is to eliminate dairy foods. Do this for about two months and see if it works. If not, try another food group like high glycemic/refined carbohydrates. After that, try eliminating high fat/fried foods, then copper rich foods, then iodine rich foods.

The reason why it is advisable to start with dairy foods is that it contains many different drugs and hormones that come from the cow's body. As we all know, cows are fed grain with antibiotics added to the grain to prevent the cows from getting diseases. Antibiotics fed to cows pass into the milk it produces, and then to the milk products that we consume. Such added antibiotics through consumption of dairy foods can cause some physical problems as well as aggravate acne.

So there are actually 2 sides of the coin. On one side, people including doctors say that food does not cause acne, while another side says it does. The body is a complex machine and those different foods have different effects on each and every one of us. For some, certain foods won't do any harm, but for others, it might cause certain reactions.

In conclusion, doctors haven't yet found any concrete answer to the question of whether food directly causes acne. More studies and more tests need to be done to finally answer this question.