Veganism certainly has a lot to offer when it comes to improving the health of your skin!

As a Naturopath who sees a lot of women with acne, I am often asked for my opinion on whether a vegan diet is the way to go.

Some clients come to me having already adopted a vegan diet, usually either for ethical reasons or because they want to ‘clean up’ their diet in order to heal their skin.

To both groups, I believe my role is to support the individual - after all, it’s your body and your life.

With that being said, there are things to think about on both sides of the coin. I’ve created a little pro and con list to raise some important points when considering veganism for the sake of your skin.

Veganism for Acne - The Pro’s

• Going vegan naturally excludes certain food groups that have been associated with increased acne breakouts like dairy (cheese, milk, milk solids, ice cream, yoghurt)

• A whole-food vegan diet done well also tends to displace a lot of packaged foods that contain preservatives, chemicals, milk solids, sugar, artificial ingredients etc that promote inflammation.

• You’re likely to eat more fibre - a healthful vegan diet will contain a lot of various plant foods like vegetables, fruits and legumes, meaning your gut is exposed to many different types of fibre. Fibre diversity is crucial for gut health, detoxification, excretion of hormonal metabolites and a healthy bacterial microbiome. These factors contribute to the health and appearance of your skin.

• Going vegan may mean you upgrade the quality of your make-up and skin care products to more natural or organic brands that don’t test on animals. This is a plus for your skin in terms of exposure to chemicals! Extra points if your skin care or make-up has been Naturopathically formulated.

The Con’s

• Going vegan excludes many foods that are rich in essential fatty acids like oily fish, eggs and animal meat. Essential fatty acids from animals and fish are more easily converted within the body than plant-derived fats. You can still get fatty acids from plant foods, you just need to be aware of how to food combine and get the recommended amount. Sometimes the dose to actually get a therapeutic response and improve your skin is higher than you think!

• You may be missing out on essential vitamins and minerals that are less prevalent in the plant kingdom like zinc, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin A, vitamin D. These nutrients are critical (zinc especially!) for skin health and you may be deficient if you are not specifically targeting intake. Supplementation of these nutrients is always an option if needed.

• ‘Junk Food Veganism’ is the colloqial term for those following a vegan diet who simply eat veganised processed food. Think a heavy concentration of fake meat, soy based dairy alternatives, Oreos, pringles and other foods that just happen to be vegan. Many vegan alternatives are heavily processed, offer little in the way of nutritional value and are filled with grains which can exacerbate inflammation and leaky gut issues. Avoid!

• Protein consumption - I deliberated about this one because I know plenty of both vegans and non-vegans who will argue this point for and against until the end of time! Ultimately though, I included it because the majority of my vegan acne clients are not informed about their protein requirements, nor how to combine plant protein sources so that they get the full profile of amino acids. For the record, 1g of protein per kilogram of body weight is recommended for the average adult woman. Protein is essential for the synthesis of new tissue as well as hormone production and wound healing.

These are the main considerations in my mind when thinking about veganism for acne.

The moral of the story is that acne can be improved regardless of whether you follow a vegan diet.

The most important thing is that you are informed about your individual needs when it comes to your skin.

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