Can You Balance Hormones Through Diet?
For the most part, we all try to eat healthily. But understanding what healthy means when it comes to maintaining hormone balance and reducing hormonal acne can be confusing. The diet choices you make have profound effects on your hormones, so understanding what aggravates and what alleviates hormonal acne is crucial for long-term success.
HOW DIET IMPACTS HORMONE BALANCE AND HORMONAL ACNE
Hormonal acne, which often manifests as pimples around the chin, jawline, and mouth, is deeply influenced by what you put in your body. Certain foods can introduce hormone-disrupting elements—like chemicals or unstable fats—into your body, leading to hormone imbalances that can cause increased oil production and clogged pores. Conversely, incorporating the right nutrients into your diet helps to support hormone production, regulation, and elimination, allowing your body and skin to stay balanced. As you'll learn, the type, quality, and quantity of the food you eat all matter.
The type, quality, and quantity of food all matter when it comes to hormone health. If you're wondering how to put this into practice, check out this guide to building hormone-balancing meals for practical tips on structuring your plate to support clear skin.
Here’s a comprehensive look at how various foods impact hormone balance, and therefore hormonal acne, and what you can focus on consuming and avoiding to maintain a clear complexion.
FOODS TO AVOID FOR CLEARER SKIN
CONVENTIONAL LIVESTOCK & ANIMAL PRODUCTS
Today’s world prioritizes increased food production. Most livestock are injected with additional hormones, such as estrogen, in order to force growth. To maximize space, these animals are typically kept in tight quarters and injected with antibiotics to avoid infection and illness. The problem is that when humans consume the meat or byproducts of these animals, they also consume the synthetic hormones and antibiotics. This throws our hormones, especially estrogen, off balance, leading to estrogen overload and eventually estrogen dominance.
SUGARS & DIETARY FATS
Too much sugar or dietary fat increases blood sugar. High blood sugar levels cause cells to become insensitive to the blood sugar regulating hormone, insulin. The body responds by producing more insulin. These high insulin levels increase androgen activity, boost sebum production, and cause hormonal acne on the surface of the skin. For this reason, dietary fats (like oil) can make otherwise healthy foods (ex. potato) become acne-inducing (ex. french fries). Refined carbs, also known as simple carbs, such as pasta and bread, are equally problematic because they lack the fibre necessary to prevent rapid spikes in blood sugar.
PROCESSED FOODS & COOKING OILS
The more processed (less whole) a food, the less stable it is in the body, leading to issues like cell damage and inflammation. This is why oils, most of which are highly processed (like vegetable oil and canola oil), are a problem. When consumed in large amounts, oil also contributes to the development of fat cells, which store and increase the production of estrogen. Most packaged foods are also a red flag—these foods are typically highly processed. That said, a greater cause for concern with packaged foods is that they usually contain chemical additives that can be classified as hormone-disrupting xenoestrogens.
FOOD SENSITIVITIES
Food sensitivities or intolerances (gluten is a common example) also cause unstable blood sugar levels. In addition, they cause inflammation in the gut, which forces the adrenal glands to prioritize the stress-fighting, anti-inflammatory hormone, cortisol, over the estrogen-balancing hormone, progesterone. Ultimately, any time cortisol is produced at the expense of progesterone, estrogen dominance ensues due to low progesterone levels (progesterone helps to balance the effects of estrogen).
Fortunately, there are tons of nutritious and delicious foods out there that have the opposite effect—they help support hormone balance, reducing hormonal acne. Food is medicine for the body and every meal is an opportunity to balance your hormones, heal your skin, and feel your best. Here's what we recommend.
FOODS TO EAT FOR CLEARER SKIN
ORGANIC FOODS, INCLUDING ANIMAL PRODUCTS
Ensuring the foods you eat are organic will help limit your exposure to pesticides and herbicides, which are known hormone-disrupting xenoestrogens. While animal products can cause hormonal issues, animal protein is crucial for proper liver function. That said, when you do eat meat or dairy products, choose organic as much as possible. This means the products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones.
WHOLE FOODS, INCLUDING LOTS OF FRUITS & VEGGIES (ESPECIALLY RAW)
Eating whole foods will ensure what you're putting in your body remains stable, reducing cell damage and inflammation as much as possible. The less processed, the more stable, so eating your veggies raw will be the most beneficial way to consume them. Cruciferous veggies specifically (like broccoli and kale) are particularly effective in breaking down and eliminating excess estrogens.
COMPLEX CARBS
Potatoes, whole grains, beans, and legumes have shown to be extremely effective at stabilizing blood sugars.
HIGH FIBRE
Fibrous foods (like flax and chia) are critical in eliminating estrogen from your body. Fibre also helps slow the absorption and digestion of fat. Your body needs fat for certain functions, like uterus protection, but too much can cause issues.
LOW SUGAR
Natural sugars in whole foods aren't harmful in the way that large amounts of added sugars are (like those in candy and baked goods). That said, natural sweeteners, like honey and maple syrup, are healthier substitutes. They do raise blood sugar levels, but not as quickly.
Hormonal acne triggers can vary from person to person, so it’s important to individually identify which foods are more likely to cause your skin breakouts. Maintaining a food diary or attempting an elimination diet can help uncover the dietary culprits causing your hormone imbalances and hormonal acne.
WHEN DIET ALONE ISN'T ENOUGH
If you've introduced these eating habits but aren't seeing results, try supplementation. Our hormonal acne supplement, Balance, delivers a potent dose of hormone-balancing compounds that help flush out excess estrogens and toxins, helping kickstart your journey to hormone balance and acne-free skin.
At the end of the day, moderation is key. Stressing too much about your diet can raise cortisol levels and worsen hormonal acne. Just do your best, and remember—an occasional burger and fries or a slice of birthday cake won’t be the cause of persistent breakouts.
