Natalie Portman
Natalie PortmanReuters

Skin problems like adult acne can happen to anyone including your favourite stars who flaunt their flawless skin on-screen. In fact, the face of Dior beauty, actress Natalie Portman recently revealed how she suffered from the same. She has however recovered from it after changing her diet.

Though diet is not the only factor that causes acne, it plays an important role. Dermatologist Dr Nick Lowe explains how some foods can trigger skin breakouts in his book, Perfectly Clear: The Perfect Guide to Clear Skin.

In fact, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology in 2012 showed that people having moderate and severe acne are likely consume plenty of dairy products, sweets and milk chocolate.

The actress revealed in a recent interview with The Cut: "I'm vegan and I found my skin is much, much better than when I was a vegetarian." She eliminated dairy and eggs from her diet which put a stop to her breakouts.

skimmed milk, health, weight loss,
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"I cut out dairy and eggs, and I never had a breakout after. That was definitely a discovery...its personal; everyone has different sensitivity. I also did it when I was 30, so it might have been an age thing," the Black Swan revealed.

According to experts, dairy products contain growth hormones and inflammatory substances that can contribute to acne.

Lowe explains: "If you reduce these to 10 percent of your diet, you will decrease the action of the hormones that make skin oily, and, in turn, reduce acne."

"Processed refined carbohydrates (sugar, chocolate, sweets, white flour and white pasta) are the foods to avoid or at least go easy on," he added.

Dairy products can actually worsen or aggravate acne because cattle are often fed hormones to increase milk production.

Particularly skimmed milk is to be avoided as studies show that the association between milk intake and teenage acne was the greatest with skimmed or non-fat milk.