If You Still Have Acne After Going Vegan, Read This

I’ve had acne most of my life. I had it as a teenager eating meat and cheese, and then I had it as a vegan adult for over a decade. Only in the past two years have I been able to 95% clear up my acne. It turns out food was a big part of the problem… but I was surprised which foods.

The biggest causes of acne on a vegan diet are sugar (including some fruits), high-glycemic carbohydrates (including some whole grains), and omega-6 rich vegetable oils. In addition to limiting these foods, many vegans with acne also benefit from taking supplemental zinc, probiotics, omega-3, and vitamin D.

In this post, I’ll share with you everything I’ve learned from my years of research and experimentation to clear up my own acne. I truly believe this is the best resource about acne for vegans currently on the Internet. So please, read closely, and apply what you learn!

This post includes affiliate links for resources that have helped me on my acne journey. If you use my links and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Why a Vegan Diet Clears Up Acne for Some People… But Not All.

I have multiple vegan friends who tell me they used to have acne, but it cleared up when they went vegan.

And there are many testimonials about this online, too. But why does a vegan diet often clear up acne?

• Dairy is one of the worst acne foods. Acne researcher William Danby has referred to milk as “‘nature’s perfect food’ for the creation of acne.” So any diet that makes you remove dairy and milk will likely help with acne. For this reason, both vegan and paleo diets often help with acne.

• Vegan diets often include more vegetables and whole foods. Many people go vegan with the goal of improving their health, so they also increase vegetable intake, switch from refined to whole grains, cut sugar intake, or make other healthy swaps.

Those are the reasons a vegan diet often helps clear up acne… But what explains the fact that it doesn’t always? And why did I personally still have acne for 10+ years as a vegan?

• Sugar is the other biggest cause of acne. If dairy is the king of acne foods, then sugar is the queen. And many vegans still eat a lot of sugar. Some people might even eat more sugar when going vegan, especially if they switch to a “high-carb vegan” diet focused on fruit (more on this below).

• Vegetable oils can cause acne, too. Processed food today is all fried in vegetable oils, most of which are high in omega-6 fats and depleted of omega-3. This gives us a huge imbalance of omega fats in our bodies, causing inflammation. And acne is an inflammatory condition.

Considering these points, vegans who go “whole food plant-based” are even more likely to get clear skin. But even if you remove all sugar and all oil, some vegans will still have some acne. What explains that?

Vegan Diet Still Causing Acne?

Here are a few more key factors that a lot of people don’t know about acne and diet:

• It’s not just sugar that matters… but glycemic load. The glycemic index (GI) measures how much a food spikes your blood-sugar. Some carbs rank as high-GI despite not containing any sugar. And these foods can cause acne for the same reasons as sugar. And even some “whole grains” are high-glycemic. I’ll cover which ones below.

• Some fruits can be a problem. If you’re eating a high-carb vegan diet focused on bananas and dates, for example, that may cause acne for some people (like me). More on this below.

• Nuts can apparently be a problem for some people. For the same reason as vegetable oils—omega-6 vs omega-3 balance—some people have problems with peanut butter, nuts, or sunflower seeds. These foods haven’t been a problem for me, but this may be an issue for some vegans.

• Acne is complicated and can have many causes. Acne science has improved in recent years… but there are still many inputs that can affect whether you get acne. It could be the cleanser you’re using, stress, gut health, or even your B12 supplement. (More on these various causes below.)

That’s the bird’s eye view. Now, let’s look at the top acne-causing vegan foods in more detail, so you know exactly what foods you need to avoid to clear up your acne.

Vegan Foods That Cause Acne

It took me a lot of painful experience to learn what I’m about to teach you. It took years of trial and error, and probably hundreds of hours of reading.

So please, read closely and learn from all my mistakes!

1. Sugar (Including Some Fruit)

On a vegan diet, sugar is probably the worst food for acne. I know this from my own experience, and from the research.

Processed sugar especially is up there with dairy products as being widely known to cause acne. (source)

How does sugar cause acne?

Eating sugar spikes your blood-sugar levels… which spikes your insulin levels… which increases sebum production on your skin. Then, excess sebum can clog your pores and lead to a P. acnes bacteria infection… and the inflammatory response to it makes those red spots we all know.

So, it’s this whole chain of cause and effect. But one of the keys of clearing up your acne with diet is blood-sugar control and insulin control.

Which sugary foods should you avoid? Ideally all of them—at least while you’re trying to figure out if this is a very sensitive trigger for you.

Processed sugars are the most obvious, unhealthy foods to remove. But for me, I found that even bananas and dates are two of the worst foods for my acne.

This doesn’t necessarily mean all fruit will cause acne. Some fruits are much lower in sugar and shouldn’t be a problem. I eat about a cup of strawberries most days, and that has not been an issue for me.

Here are some of the potentially worst kinds of fruit for acne:

• Dates, raisins, and other dried fruits.
• Ripe bananas (soft, spotty ones).
• Canned fruits that come with syrup.
• Fruit and nut bars, like Lara Bars (usually made of dates).
• Fruit juice.

Here are some of the safer fruits for acne, at least when eaten in reasonable portion sizes. These are lower in sugar and glycemic load:

• Blackberries
• Strawberries
• Raspberries
• Grapefruit
• Prunes
• Cherries
• Pears
• Apples

This list of “safe” fruits is one of the many things I learned from Cheryl Woodman’s course Acne Warrior. Acne Warrior is honestly the best acne science resource I’ve learned from, and it was a huge part of clearing my acne.

But anyway, let’s get into some more carbs you should be wary of!

2. Other High-Glycemic Carbs

For the same reasons that sugar can cause acne, other high-glycemic carbs can, too. Even some “whole grains” that are generally healthy.

For me, this was the biggest revelation on my acne journey.

We all know processed sugar is unhealthy—but some of the other high-glycemic carbs that can cause acne are more surprising.

It started like this: I noticed I had a huge breakout the day after I ate 2 big bowls of shredded wheat cereal.

Hmmm, shredded wheat is supposed to be healthy. It’s made of “whole grains.” And there’s no added sugar in the kind I was eating.

Then a month later, I noticed I had another big breakout the day after eating “rice puffs”—another bland, whole-grain cereal. I thought I was in the clear with these healthy cereals because they didn’t contain “sugar.” But I was wrong.

The way some grain products are processed, they can spike your blood sugar without any “sugar” added. Shredded, puffed, flaked, and ground (flour) carbohydrates can be trouble.

For me, cereal was the biggest problem. I kept switching to “healthier” whole-grain cereals, but they kept giving me acne. In theory, there are low-glycemic cereals—some versions of muesli or All-Bran, for example—but I found it best just to quit cereal all together.

I also noticed a smaller pimple one day after eating a bowl of pasta the night before. That was another little piece of evidence suggesting processed grains may be a problem for me. (This is why it’s useful to keep a food journal in an app like Cronometer.)

For me, pasta and vegan pizza don’t seem to be quite as bad as cereal. And popcorn seems okay for some reason? But I’m still wary of them (and any processed grains) these days.

I’ve even had a couple smaller breakouts that could only really be explained by the bread, brown rice, or sweet potatoes I ate the previous day.

My most recent breakout came after eating a vegan banana bread muffin. I should’ve known better. I figured just one muffin may be a small enough serving that it wouldn’t cause a breakout… but it definitely did—3 big, inflamed pimples the next day!

I’m not saying your skin is the same as mine. But if you’re feeling lost and confused about what’s causing your acne, I recommend trying a low-glycemic vegan diet for a couple of weeks. See how it impacts your skin.

Basically, for the trial period, limit your carbs to just beans and non-starchy vegetables. And other than that, eat a low-carb vegan diet, like basically “vegan keto.” Lots of nuts, seeds, avocado, and vegan protein.

I’ll share some more details on the specific diet that helped me clear things up below!

3. Omega-6 Rich Vegetable Oils

Now, we get to the most likely reason why some people get breakouts from oil and even from nuts: Omega-6 vs omega-3 balance.

And especially—it’s excess omega-6 fat from certain vegetable oils.

We need omega-3 and omega-6 oils for good health—they’re “essential fatty acids.” But when present in excess, omega-6 is inflammatory, while omega-3 is anti-inflammatory. (And acne is an inflammatory skin condition.)

It’s believed that in ancestral environments, we likely ate close to a 1:1 balance of omega-6 and omega-3 fat. But today’s Western diet has a ratio of 10:1 to 50:1, skewed heavily to omega-6 fats—because everything is fried in vegetable oil! (source)

If you read the book Clear Skin Diet by Nina and Randa Nelson (Amazon link), they basically teach a low-fat vegan diet as their cure to acne. They’re friends with Dr. John McDougall, and they advocate his “starch-based diet” approach. (It’s a form of “HCLF veganism.”) And their regimen dictates: No oil.

I have some criticisms of Nina and Randa’s book—mainly that it doesn’t address the issue of high-glycemic carbs. That said, their program does work for some people. And it may be due to removing those omega-6 rich vegetable oils.

I haven’t witnessed the impact of omega-6 rich oils as definitively in my own food journaling, compared to high-GI carbs. But I still keep an eye on which oils I’m taking in.

These are the highest omega-6 oils, which I try to avoid:

• Corn oil
• Soybean oil (very common in processed and fried food)
• Sunflower oil (very common in chips)
• Safflower oil
• Peanut oil
• Cottonseed Oil
• Sesame Oil

And below are some oils lower in omega-6. These are not necessarily health foods—read my full post on why any kind of oil is not great for you—but the following oils are less likely to cause acne:

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Avocado oil
• Canola oil
• Walnut oil (not for cooking)
• Flax oil (not for cooking)

Side note: Could all oil cause acne? I recently learned that blood lipid profiles may also explain how oil of any kind can lead to acne. This study shows that people with acne had higher blood triglyceride levels and higher LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol than people without acne.

Meanwhile, oil consumption (of any kind) has been shown to spike blood triglyceride levels. And consumption of saturated fats like coconut oil and palm oil also raise LDL cholesterol. (I covered the evidence for these claims in my post all about oil.)

So honestly, if you were trying to put together a very thorough acne elimination diet, I’d be tempted to suggest all oil be removed for the strictest phase. That said, I’ve been doing fine with some olive oil and canola oil personally.

4. Other Vegan Foods That Could Cause Acne

These ones are not as dramatic or universal. For most people, I think the above points about sugar, high-GI carbs, and omega-6 fats are the main probable issues, by far. That said, I figured these could be worth mentioning, too.

• Excess Vitamin B12 or Vitamin B6. You might see some reports that B12 supplements can cause acne for some people. Indeed, there are some reports of this in the scientific literature, especially with B12 injections. This might concern you, as most vegans take a regular B12 supplement.

I recommend Mic the Vegan’s video on this subject (below). His conclusion is that it’s only been shown as an issue for like 10% of people getting B12 injections. We don’t know if high-dose B12 pills could cause the same thing or not. That said, if you want to be cautious, you can switch to a lower B12 dosage (50mcg or a few hundred mcg, rather than 2,000+ mcg per day).

• Chocolate. There’s a lot of controversy over whether chocolate causes acne. I’m not going to summarize all the arguments and counter-arguments here. Instead, I’ll just embed a video below that does a great job explaining it, with a focus on a high-quality, placebo-controlled study that showed cocoa powder did indeed increase acne.

In my personal experience, low-sugar chocolate products do not seem to be a big acne trigger for me. And like I said, it’s controversial whether it causes acne at all. But some evid