Top 3 morning hacks to reduce acne breakouts
Time your coffee WISELY
One of the first pieces of dietary advice I give to clients with acne is to never drink coffee on an empty stomach, particularly in the morning. Always shift it to after eating.
There’s a few reasons why it can contribute to your acne breakouts, the first being its impact on gut health. Coffee is very irritating and inflammatory to the gut and intestinal lining. Acne is an inflammatory skin condition, and inflammation in the gut is often the culprit. Coffee is also a rich source of tannins, a kind of polyphenol which interferes with the absorption of many vitamins and minerals including iron, zinc and vitamin A. These nutrients are essential for reducing breakouts and clearing acne because they play an important role in collagen synthesis, immune function and skin cell turnover. So don’t consume your caffeine too close to meals!
The second reason is cortisol (Yes we are looking at you - the person that is super wired and living off caffeine and wondering why you’re breaking out, you need to read this). When we wake up, our cortisol (our major stress hormone released by the adrenal glands) naturally peaks to get us up and moving in the morning, it then gently dips throughout the course of the day until it gets low enough in the evening (as melatonin rises) to put us back to sleep. Coffee on an empty stomach exaggerates this cortisol spike and amplifies our stress response, which in turn can actually stimulate sebum production within the sebaceous gland, resulting in breakouts.
Reason number three is blood sugar. Blood sugar and insulin resistance (where our blood glucose levels are chronically high) is a MAJOR cause of acne; in particular, PCOS-related acne because elevated blood sugar levels wreak all sorts of havoc on our hormones. Coffee on an empty stomach has been found in research trials to increase a person’s blood sugar response to their breakfast by around 50%.
OUR TIP TO REDUCE CAFFEINE DRIVEN ACNE: Eat breakfast or a small snack before caffeine, aim to consume your caffeine 60-90 minutes after waking (unless you’re exercising sooner) and trial switching to decaf if your acne b reakouts are due to stress.
2. Eat BREAKFAST like a KING
It can be hard to unlearn the practice of eating Vegemite toast or rice bubbles for breakfast every morning, but let me tell you: waking up to a carbohydrate-laden and nutrient void brekky is a recipe for blood sugar dysregulation and breakouts!
Other breakfasts to avoid include a plain bowl of oats or porridge, a fruit smoothie with no protein, a bowl of cereal, or a plain bowl of muesli/granola.
Eating breakie rich in protein, good fats & fibre rich sets your blood sugar up just right, so that your energy levels burn evenly throughout the day with no mid-morning or late afternoon energy crash.
Just as you dress yourself, make sure you put ‘clothes on your carbs’ each morning in the form of protein and/or good fats & fibre. This could look like:
1-2 pieces of wholegrain/gluten-free toast or sourdough (your carbs) with ¼ to ½ of an avocado (your good fats), + 2-3 poached eggs (your protein) & seasoned with chilli flakes, a tablespoon of kimchi etc.
1-2 scoops of protein powder, your carbs/fibre in the form or ½ banana or ½ cup mixed berries or ½ frozen zucchini etc. + 2 tablespoons Greek or coconut yoghurt (your good fats) + almond milk, and enhanced with cinnamon/cacao powder etc if so desired.
A 2-3 whole egg (protein) omelette + 1-2 cups of mixed vegetables like capsicum/tomato/mushroom/spinach (fibre/carbohydrates), with 1 slice GF or sourdough toast (or you can go no carbohydrates and bump up your fats with extra smoked salmon on your plate). Cook your omelette in ghee, butter or olive oil for healthy fats (avoid cooking in inflammatory vegetable oils like sunflower and canola oil as these create inflammation in the skin and produce a thick, cottage-cheese like sebum which clogs the follicles in our skin).
Make a blood-sugar balancing bowl of oats with 1 scoop protein powder, up to ½ cup of oats (carbohydrates), handful mixed berries (fibre) + 2 tablespoons Greek or coconut yoghurt (good fats). Additional sources of hormone loving good fats/protein could come from toppings such as 1-2 tablespoons of walnuts/hemp seeds/chia seeds etc.
150g (roughly) high-protein Greek or YoPro yoghurt (good fats & protein) + sliced kiwi fruit or other fruit, + a handful walnuts.
Tip: cinnamon plays a role in supporting insulin sensitivity and reducing post-prandial glucose spikes so add a teaspoon to your smoothies, or over your oats or yoghurt.
3. Wake up & GET MOVING
We highly recommend our clients become morning exercisers when possible!
Rising with the sun and having morning sunlight exposure on your skin within 30-60 minutes of waking is an enjoyable and effective way to help balance your circadian rhythm. The HPA axis (which refers to the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, our body’s stress response) and circadian rhythm influence each other. Achieving a harmonious circadian pattern will support a balanced stress response, and vice versa. Stress, as aforementioned, can directly stimulate sebum production in the sebaceous gland, so perhaps instead of trawling social media within minutes of waking, head out for a morning walk.
Not only will this support your stress response, but morning exercise could also help to get your bowels into a regular pattern (movement stimulates bowel motions!).
Naturopaths consider you constipated if you are not passing at least 1 complete, easy-to-pass bowel motion each day. Any less than this and there is a chance that a process called ‘autointoxication’ is happening, which could be affecting your skin. If waste products as well as oestrogen that were due for excretion remain in the gut too long, they could re-enter systemic circulation, resulting in overburdened elimination channels and hormonal imbalances. Our skin often picks up the burden when our detoxification organs such as the gut and liver aren’t as efficient as required, resulting in breakouts.
By Phoebe Ackland, (BHSc Naturopath)
Phoebe is a skin and reproductive hormone specialising Naturopath at Orenda Women’s Health, supporting clients struggling with acne, peri-oral dermatitis, PCOS and other cycle-related conditions.