hey, im 16 years old, male, and i drink beer pretty regularly. by regularly im talking about maybe 2 stubbies (375ml bottles) a night. Its not that much but i love beer and my dad shouts me alot. my question is, i have a tiny bit of acne on my face but i have heaps on my back. I've always had this acne problem so i know the beer is not causing it, but i was wondering if that ammount of beer that im adding to my diet will affect my acne and my weight? I guess that knowing my diet could be pretty helpfull. So ill write down what i usually have during the day.

Breakfast: cereal, healthy stuff usually, sometimes french toast. Full cream milk.

Lunch: usually either, pies, sausage rolls, salad sandwich, and i always have softdrink.

Dinner: usually just your basic meals like steak and potato and vegies. And of course a couple of beers afterwards

I do snack a fair bit as well, usually i just grab ice cream or some high fat cheese (the good stuff, i think its like 25% fat thought http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/frown.gif) or soft drink.

my primary question is, is this diet sufficient enough to keep the acne and the kilos away, and will drinking that much beer at my age affect it much?

You sure are eating alot of carbs (and drinking them as well). No beer isn't good for you, it depletes vitamins from your body.Not to mention what beer does to your liver. It also dehydrates you as your soda probably does.

Your family lets you drink beer? Why do you have 2 beers a nite? If your drinking it to be "cool", your making a big mistake, it can eventually lead to health problems especially if you start drinking more because you aren't feeling enough of a buzz from 2 can a nite.

If you're not going to change anything else in your diet I would stop drinking the beer.

Sounds like you are from GB or somewhere close? If so, I realize that a pint or two is pretty standard with dinner or after work. Unless you are prone to alcoholism, you probably don't need to worry too much about it.

There is no clear-cut link between acne and diet. Stress and changing hormone levels are probably your biggest triggers right now. If you can manage it, you should see a skin specialist and see if there is anything you can do to treat your acne.

Your general diet is not great, but it's not awful either. Try to cut back on the sweets and sodas, squeeze in a serving or two of fruits and veggies, and exercise regularly. Oh, and don't become an alcoholic. http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/wink.gif

A few points:

1) You do not have a healthy diet, from what you're saying here. You are eating too many simple carbs and not nearly enough fruits and veggies. The fat content of your diet is probably also too high. These things are all weight loss killers and the alcohol is even worse.

2) Alcohol contains empty calories - your body cannot use them for anything. This in itself is bad for weight loss but add the that the effects of alcohol on your body and you will probably gin weight with a diet like this. Alcohol itself does not make you fat but your body puts off digesting food to get rid of the alcohol poison) you put in your body. This means that food you r body is supposed to be digesting while you're eating alcohol is being stored for later as fat.

3) That isn't to say that you can't drink alcohol, a few pints every now and then is fine. But 2 beers a night? No! Especially not at 16. It's not healthy. And not being healthy aggravates acne.

My sugesstions:
Increase the amounts of fresh fruits and veg you eat.
Swap from simple carbs to complex carbs (eat brown bread/rice/pasta instead of the white variety, eat muesli instead of cornflakes, drink diet softdrinks instead of regular ones, etc.
Stop drinking so much alcohol. Try to only drink on the weekend.
Do some kind of exercise.

This should improve your overall health and help you lose weight and acne.

thanx for your replies, i guess ill tone the drinkin down.

Your family lets you drink beer? Why do you have 2 beers a nite? If your drinking it to be "cool", your making a big mistake

i dont drink to be cool, i drink it coz i like it. If im just sittin at home having a beer it isnt impressing anyone coz no one is seeing it. I just enjoy beer basically. Dont worry, i wont become an alcaholic, i just enjoy beer thats all.

Im not very up to date with carbs, i have no idea what a simple carb is or what a complex carb is. Im assuming from Rogues reply that complex carbs are good, why is this? Ill try and eat with grain bread and reduce the ammount of white bread ill eat, and ill probably just cut soda completely out of my diet except on occasions. i know my breakfast is healthy, and i drink full cream milk coz it tastes 100 times better. The only thing that worries me is that the only time i consume milk is in my cereal. I never have milk any time other then that. Should i drink more milk? or will this add to my weight and acne?

I also heard of something called a glycemic index, apparantly if you have a good one of these you loose weight?? i dont know much about this stuff but what are some foods with a big glycemic index? Maybe ill start eating these foods instead, and that will solve my snacking problem.... thanx for your replies, they are very helpfull.

musiclover,
Don't make life complicated by worrying over complex vs simple carbs, and glycemic indexes. Just eat your food as close to natural as possible. This means lightly cooked vegetables prepared without too much salt or butter. Whole grains (rice, oats, etc) instead of prepackaged crackers/cereal. Coarse, grainy breads. Whole cuts of meat instead of ground meats/sausages. I think you get the idea.

This doesn't mean you can't ever have meat pies or sausages, just try to limit them to once or twice a week.

While I do think you are drinking a bit more than you should for your age, I don't think it is the evil that some folks make it out to be. Beer does contain carbs and alcohol, but it is also full of B-complex vitamins. Hey, Trappist monks lived off of the stuff... http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

thanx for your helpfull replies, yea i guess ill just watch what i eat and drink, i need to get more exercise so ill start doing that stuff as well haha, thanx again

Hello, Ever hear of the term "beer belly?" Too much beer can cause weight gain. Alcohol does have sugar in it. You would be considered an underaged drinker in the USA. That means that if someone finds out that your dad lets you drink alcohol, he could get fined or go to jail. If you're in a different country, then ok since I don't know what your laws are there.

Enough of the lecture. You might want to cut down on the beers just like you are on the sodas. Maybe just one per night or 2 per week. I don't know if you're looking to loose weight or are happy with your weight, but your diet looks like it's filled up with too much fatty foods and not enough fruit and vegies. The sausage and the heavy cream are actually worse than the cheese.

How about adding a serving of fruit to your breakfast? You mentioned pie for lunch...Is it meat pie or fruit pie? I'd go with the meat pie, since it is a complete meal in itself.

For the acne...This sounds crazy, but wash your face 2 times per day and try using some egg yolks as a night time facial mask. That's how I got rid of one stuborn pimple I had. Over the counter medicines and that stupid prescription for Rentin-A did not work for me. I would wash my face at night, put egg yolk (beat the egg yolk first and no egg white) on my face for 10 min. while I showered, then wash it off. It worked great! Hope this helps.

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Magpie

egg yolk hey, ill give it a go hahaha, i'll feel like a dickhead but hey, what do ya do, thanks for teh advice mate