In Chinese mythology, one of the great legends is the long lost Peaches of Immortality.
These fruits are believed to grow in the orchard of Xiwangmu, a god who resides in a mythological Jade Pool in the Kunlun mountains. They ripen only once every 3000 years, and supposedly, only two mortal beings have ever tasted them.
One was King Mu of Zhou, who journeyed to the Jade Pool and was offered the peaches by Xiwangmu along with wine. On a second expedition to rediscover the Jade Pool, it was nowhere to be found. Emperor Wu of Han (born 156BC) was supposedly handed 10 peaches by Xiwangmu, whose stones he cherished and later handed to the first king of the Ming Dynasty. Engraved with 10 runes, these peach stones became a legendary artefact.
Symbols of the Peaches of Immortality are all over China. There’s a Chinese god of longevity called Sau, whose chuckling figure is normally depicted holding a wooden staff with a peach on top of it. A revered 16th century book called Journey To The West is about a Monkey King who Xiwangmu appoints as the administrator of her peach orchard, only for him to steal the Peaches Of Immortality and be punished by the gods.
If peaches can add years to your life, then could they add clearness to your skin?
As part of our mission to establish the acne rankings of every common fruit, that’s what we’ll discuss today.
The basic acne nutrients
First things first – if you’re looking for skin-friendly vitamins and minerals, then peaches cannot help you.
Peaches have strong levels of not a single nutrient – in fact, peaches have good levels of not a single nutrient. The vitamin C scrapes to decent status, at 11% of the RDI, but fails next to strawberries (97%), oranges (88%) and papaya (103%).
The vitamin A of 6% is better than many fruits, but not papaya (22%) or apricots (38%), and falls flat on its face compared to spinach (187%) or sweet potatoes (283%). Its magnesium (2%), vitamin E (4%), and zinc (1%) will bounce off your pimples, to the sound of hundreds of p.acnes cells sniggering.
Per 100 grams, the peach’s remaining nutrients are…
- Vitamin B6 – 2%.
- Niacin (B3) – 4%.
- Potassium – 5%.
- Manganese – 3%.
- Vitamin B5 – 1%.
- Selenium – 0%.
The peach’s day brightens instantly in the antioxidant arena, however. When you think of antioxidants, it’s normally berries and coffee that burst into your brain, but raw peaches have a decent ORAC score of 1814, compared to 4669 for blueberries.
Peaches condensed into puree as a baby food, which will always be denser, score 6257. Apples (3898), pomegranates (10500) and strawberries (4302) are all officially more antioxidant dense, but peaches are leagues ahead of cantaloupe melons (319) and pineapple (456). Papaya is a great comparison; it steamrollered peaches for vitamin A and C (see above), but the situation is reversed with its ORAC score of just 300.
There’s over 2000 varieties of peaches in the world. The only true wild peach grows in China, but it’s a small, bitter fruit which your taste buds wouldn’t recognise – it’ll probably turn into a dieting fad soon. The most amazingly delicious type is supposedly the peaches de Vigne – this reputation could actually be advertising craftiness from French farmers, but it’s undeniably true that the outer skin is a dull grey while the inner flesh looks as mesmerisingly rich and deep as a pool of lava (check it out).
However, the two main ones on Western shelves are the yellow and white peach, and their antioxidant levels are nearly identical.
What about in studies?
There are some fruits, particularly green grapes, where the actual human studies outperform their official antioxidant figures massively. However, your soft and velvety peach is middling in both, whether from Bargains R Us or a rustic farmers market:
ONE: after 10 humans drank 9 different juices each, peach juice significantly increased their bloodstream antioxidants within 30 minutes (study). Its antioxidant subtypes were evidently well absorbed, unlike for example, the curcumin in turmeric (2% absorption). Kiwi, orange, melon, grape, plum, apple caused similarly rapid rises, so which two didn’t? The answer was plum and pear juice.
TWO: when smoking mice were injected with white-fleshed peach extract, the oxidative damage caused by nicotine fell significantly (study). In fact, this is a fantastic gimmick itself – peaches might be the ultimate acne fruit if you can’t escape tobacco’s iron grip. The removal of 1-hydroxypyrene in urine, a toxic metabolite of cigarette smoke, rose by 83.33%; the removal of overall tobacco metabolites rose by 91.67%. In the peach mice, glutathione levels recovered far faster, the master antioxidant. There’s only one question remaining: how did they teach the mice to smoke?
THREE: this study shows the strange contrast. When popular UK fruits and vegetables were analysed for their antioxidants in isolation, rather than fed to humans like earlier, peaches joined tomatoes, cauliflower and leeks at the bottom of the barrel. Strawberries ranked in first, followed by raspberries, red plums, and red cabbage.
FOUR: continuing the confusion, a normal rat diet supplemented with apples boosted TRAP scores, or total radical-trapping antioxidant potential. Yet pears and peaches only caused slight improvements (study).
There’s little doubt: peaches will neutralise some of the free radicals behind acne, but they won’t match strawberries, or even apples.
That said, if you get home from work and there’s one plate with a donut sitting on the kitchen table, and one plate with a peach, sitting evenly next to each other, the malevolent forces of temptation conspiring against you, choosing the peach will undoubtedly be smarter for acne. It’s easily superior to eating no fruit.
Remember that fresh peaches have a much higher antioxidant count than canned ones (see this study), despite being similar for vitamins and minerals.
Peaches have a unique skincare power
The strange workings of the universe have determined that most fruits in a supermarket have at least one special acne gimmick. For example…
Pineapple – its bromelain enzyme increases acne nutrient absorption.
Cherries – multiple studies on boosting sleep quality.
Watermelon – boosting blood flow via nitric oxide.
Melon – it doesn’t have a power.
Blueberries also lack a unique power, but they’re so exceptional for antioxidants and lowering inflammation that they secure their place in the acne hierarchy through pure hard work. Their unique pterostilbene antioxidant (related to resveratrol) also has huge potential.
As for peaches? Their gimmick was only illustrated by a single 2017 study, but if real, it’s among the very best. Peaches contain a natural ceramide called glucosylceramide, which might boost your skin’s moisture levels, when applied and when eaten.
In a 3 part extravaganza, scientists first tested glucosylceramide on the ceramide levels of cultured human skin cells. They rose. Ceramide-2, -3, -5, and -6 all increased.
In part two, they fed humans oral glucosylceramide to determine whether it was safe. It was: no negative alterations in cholesterol or white/red blood cells were detected, and nobody withdrew. It was still safe at 4.5-9 times the recommended daily intake. There were 14 males, 11 females, and the mean age was 46.
Finally, 26 adults (13 men, 13 women) ingested either 0.6 or 1.2mg of peach glucosylceramide daily. Their mean age was 47.9, perfect for anti-ageing experiments.
After 4 weeks, not only did moisture retention in the stratum corneum improve, but so did the quality of the skin to touch. People with dry and rough skin were particularly revitalised.
They also had a theory: that your skin recycles its own glucosylceramides using enzymes called glucosylceramidase, creating fresh ceramide, and that the exact same happened when peach was applied. This already happened in a study on rice glucosylceramide, so the plot has officially thickened.
Likewise, corn glucosylceramides were observed to be recycled into fresh ceramide in the digestive system. I don’t recommend corn and its glyphospate pesticide coating, but peaches should work identically.
Ceramides stand alongside hyaluronic acid as a vital natural moisturiser, comprising 50% of the fats in your skin’s outer layer, the epidermis. Ceramides are vital for your skin barrier, for holding in moisture and locking out toxins. Less ceramides equals more TEWL, or trans-epidermal water loss.
There’s also a clear skin connection, as in this 2018 study, “Acne-affected skin demonstrated overall lower levels of ceramides”.
Could the Romans have known about this power? It’s possible – an aristocratic woman could have taken a fancy to peaches, and watched as her skin moistened over 5 weeks. It’s easier to detect than bromelain digesting nutrients, that’s for certain. The Romans ate peaches as early as 300BC, carried by merchants from the Chinese empire. They were common in Western Europe by 100AD, and they gained their name prunus persica because they travelled through the deserts of the Persian empire first. Their nickname was Persian apples, and the earliest Chinese textbook reference dates back to 1100BC.
Their vitamin C might be feeble, but no other fruit can beat the humble peach for ceramides.
Many special powers only have a single topical study, leaving us speculating, but to have it proven as a food sets the acne-clearing train in motion.
Peaches are loaded with chlorogenic acid
Similarly, many fruits have one acne compound which they’re truly exceptional for. Raspberries have rutin. Onions have quercetin. The main antioxidant of peaches is chlorogenic acid, the same antioxidant behind coffee’s heart-protecting properties. They also contain a rare relative called neochlorogenic acid, which was first discovered in peach, back in 1952.
Chlorogenic acid extinguishes every inflammatory chemical imaginable, including IL-6, COX-2, and IL-1beta (study). However, that power is ten a penny – is there anything unique? Yes, for chlorogenic acid seems to specialise lowering bloodstream insulin and glucose, and quite possibly the oily skin they cause.
For example, this 2008 study found that chlorogenic acid mellowed the blood sugar spike after oral glucose, with a “significant reduction” after 10 and 15 minutes. Firstly, it seems that chlorogenic acid inhibits glucose-6-phosphate translocase 1, one of the main enzymes transporting glucose across the intestinal barrier, falling by 40% in the study above.
Secondly, chlorogenic acid increases the absorption of glucose into energy stores of the skeletal muscles, which should make less insulin necessary. In this study, it matched the diabetes drug rosiglitazone, which makes energy stores more responsive. A slightly different medication is metformin, specialising in decreasing glucose’s absorption from the gut. Good news: chlorogenic acid matched this drug too.
This study on decaf coffee brought everything together into a definitive statement, as in 15 overweight men, taking 1000mg of chlorogenic acid decreased both blood sugar and insulin a mere 15 minutes after swallowing glucose.
Likewise, a patented blend of quercetin, myricetin, and chlorogenic acid called emulin was given to 40 humans with diabetes, alongside glucose. Over the next two hours, glucose fell by 5%, whereas with a placebo, it rose by 11.5%, and with metformin, it dropped by 3%. Obviously, quercetin or myricetin could be responsible, but it’s still a fantastic sign.
In the halls of antioxidants, rutin improves your blood flow, while quercetin protects your gut health. Chlorogenic acid rules for insulin control, and all the clear skin possibilities that entails.
Other fruits with chlorogenic acid include apples, pears and plums, but peaches seem to be exceptional. A daily peach won’t completely cure your oily skin, but it’s another minor strategy, to add up to something fantastic when expertly combined with others.
Peaches are also packed with caffeic acid. Not directly, but because chlorogenic acid converts into caffeic acid inside the body. This antioxidant can decrease the inflammatory chemicals created by UV radiation, including COX-2.
More chlorogenic acid facts
Aside from acne, this antioxidant is something of a brain booster. Chlorogenic acid can preserve the dopamine in your neurons, the motivation neurotransmitter. It can decrease the size of amyloid plaques behind Alzheimer’s disease and in one study on 38 healthy people, drinking a chlorogenic acid-infused beverage improved their cognition, including attention span. It increased apolipoprotein A1; decreases are linked to cognitive decline.
Chlorogenic acid also stimulates the AMPK enzyme, or adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase, which triggers fat burning and slams the breaks on fat storage (I’m confident that AMPK will become a giant money spinner soon).
Of course, like any plant compound, chlorogenic acid has a dark side – and it’s raising homocysteine. This is a natural pro-inflammatory molecule which is linked to heart disease, and increases in small, unhealthy LDL cholesterol. However, peaches are nowhere close to the dangerous range.
Almost all the fantastic results came from coffee studies (scientists are secretly just as obsessed as everyone else), but the chlorogenic acid in peaches works identically.
Peaches are also strong for the rutin we keep mentioning, giving it possible flood flow powers, and also catechin. However, its second standout antioxidant is the mysterious procyanidin B1.
Firstly, procyanidins are not the same as proanthocyanidins, the health giving compounds of cranberry extract. Procyanidins are instead the signature antioxidant family of grapeseed extract, but little is known about the B1 form. In several studies, it blunted the pro-inflammatory chemicals pumped out by white blood cells, but the strength is unknown; it could fizzle out in the grand scheme of things.
Interestingly, procyanidin B1 has two studies against 1) liver cancer, and 2) hepatitis C replication. Perhaps protecting the liver is this peach antioxidant’s special power? The liver has minor roles in acne, but its importance is overstated, particularly with the old pushing toxins out through the skin theory. Not every special compound winds up clearing acne.
And yes – that is cyanide lurking in the name. Peaches contain tiny amounts, but giving one to your overzealous local traffic warden won’t work.
The downside – a high FODMAP fruit
With 8 grams per 100 grams, peaches happily rank around the middle of the fruit sugar rankings.
They’re perfect for a medium sugar fruit slot, with grapes in the high slot and raspberries in the low slot. It would be nearly impossible to overdose, unless you’re being extremely strict for two months following years of a high sugar diet.
Likewise, peaches have no unique dangers, unlike the glycoalkaloids of tomatoes, or the strange outbreaks that have followed citrus fruits for years (which are still acne-friendly overall).
The problem then? Peaches are a high FODMAP food, a massively underrated natural acne villain. FODMAPs are short chain carbohydrates which some people cannot cope with, not without IBS-like bloating, cramps, and nausea. Peaches are commonly listed as “high” on FODMAP avoidance diets, which doctors are prescribing ever more since 2000.
Onions specialise in fructans; apples are notorious for sorbitol. Peaches are also in the sorbitol camp, with an estimated 0.9-1.3mg per 100 grams. Sorbitol is a polyol, a natural sugar alcohol (the “P” portion) which is added to cakes, icing, chewing gum and candy as a natural sweetener. It’s 60% as sweet as sucrose, and perfect for keeping the sugar-free confectionery industry up and running.
The story doesn’t end there: clingstone peaches also contain 0.52 grams of mannitol per 100 grams. Unlike sorbitol, mannitol is more common in wheat and barley than fruits, but peaches contain small amounts, alongside watermelon, sweet potatoes and cauliflower. Mannitol is another alternative sweetener, listed as E421, and it’s another polyol.
Peaches also contain fructans; they’re a rare fruit containing them alongside bananas and melons (which are both low FODMAP overall).
Bacteria spend all night waiting patiently for polyols to arrive, and when they do, in yellow chunks of peach, it’s a vast banquet for them.
Through unwanted fermentation, both mannitol and sorbitol can cause gas, bloating, and acne. Only one third of polyols are absorbed into the body directly. As you may have learnt from experience, acne is intricately connected to your gut health, and FODMAPs are the perfect example. Some can cope with FODMAPs, some cannot. It’s partially genetics, and partially the balance of friendly gut bacteria.
That’s why biting into a peach might kickstart an irreversible chain of events that sees a pimple burst viciously out of your skin. OK, it’s not that dramatic, but FODMAPs could easily explain a peach sensitivity which is puzzling you. If you have a confirmed FODMAP sensitivity, it’s a reason to swipe some raspberries off the shelf instead.
That said, peaches are hardly acne incarnate: 1.3 grams of sorbitol pales in comparison to pears, with 3.8 grams. Cauliflower has 2.96mg of mannitol compared to 0.53mg in peaches.
Conclusion
Where do peaches rank? They’re not the ultimate acne fruit, far from it, but they’re a middling fruit…
…which automatically makes them 50 times better than a chocolate-coated donut, or if we’re talking healthy snacks, even a handful of sunflower seeds, which are halfway proven to cause acne.
Peaches are the opposite of blueberries, which lack any gimmick, but perform exceptionally well for the bread and butter acne powers of inflammation and antioxidants. Peaches are middling for those, but unique for 1) natural ceramides, and 2) chlorogenic acid, which lowers insulin and can therefore join forces with cutting carbs. Chlorogenic acid isn’t strictly unique, but among fruits, the peach’s massive content is.
Thanks for reading!