Is Mango The World’s Tastiest Acne Cure?

The common mango isn’t the most famous food for acne, nor for healthy skin.

Nowadays, the mango is widely believed to be a potent aphrodisiac for men. It’s all down to the vitamin E, which improves male vitality and the likelihood of conceiving a new baby. The truth is that “the fruit of love” contains only tiny amounts of vitamin E, and probably won’t work.

They’re also claimed to be the secret to thinness, because of one study where people who ate a mango daily had significantly lower rates of obesity. However, that’s because of the other lifestyle and dietary choices they make. Adding a mango won’t suddenly make you stop smoking, make you wake up running a marathon, and mysteriously make your plate be full of fruit instead of burgers.

However, many of the other claims are true. For instance, the claim that mangos can enhance your eyesight is real, due to the decent quantities of vitamin A they contain…

…and another claim with a hint of truth is that mangos can clear acne.

 

How mangos compare to other fruits

For acne, the best fruits you can eat are berries such as strawberries and raspberries thanks to their antioxidants and vitamin C. Pomegranates are the richest commercial fruit in antioxidants, while pineapple is a unique proposition because of the bromelain enzyme it contains which aids protein digestion.

However, mangos compare very well, and beat the likes of honeydew melons with ease.

To start with, 100 grams of mango contains 46% of the recommended daily allowance for vitamin C, the greatest nutrient for stress-induced acne. Vitamin C suppresses the stress hormone cortisol in the bloodstream, and also constructs collagen proteins which prevent ageing and keep the skin strong. This study found that acne patients have 40% less vitamin C than healthy people.

Mangos are beaten by strawberries (97% of RDA), pineapple (79%), and oranges (88%). However, they beat blueberries (16%), the supposed king of healthy fruits. The absorption will be high as well because of the mango’s flavonoid antioxidant content, which protects the molecules from disintegration.

What’s interesting is that mangos are one of the higher fruits in vitamin A, the best vitamin for decreasing oil production. The counts aren’t monstrous – 100 grams contain 15% of the daily allowance. However, strawberries, raspberries and pineapple contain 0%, 0%, and 1% respectively. The fruits which beat mangos include apricot (38%) and cantaloupe melons (67%).

Read Annihilate Your Acne – get the ultimate diet for glowing and clear skin!

The vitamin E content of 6% beats almost all other fruits despite not being extremely high. Then there’s the ORAC score, the scale of measuring antioxidants, on which mangos score 1100. Once again, that’s around average; a high example is strawberries with 4302 and a low one is bananas with 795.

In the basic nutrition, the only area where mangos fall down is in their high sugar content of 15 grams. Excluding dried fruits, which are a sugary disaster for acne, mangos are one of the highest. Strawberries and raspberries only contain 5 grams each.

This doesn’t mean that mangos are off the menu, but you would need to tighten your sugar intake elsewhere, to prevent a new wave of inflammation and pimples.

Mangos rank around average for a fruit, but even a middling fruit is superb for clearing acne from the inside out. 

 

Mangos have a unique acne-clearing compound

Yet there’s one area where no other fruit can compete with mangos. The mango tree is the sole commercial fruit crop, and one of the few foods in nature, to contain a xanathoid polyphenol called mangiferin.

Mangos contain various common antioxidants such as quercetin, rhamnetin, ellagic acid, and kaempferol, but the yellow-pigmented mangiferin is unique, and one of the two most abundant in the fruit. It seems to be miracle substance, which is far more researched than mango itself. There’s endless studies on cancer, brain damage, and cholesterol levels.

Specifically for acne, mangiferin works wonders for reducing inflammation levels. This study showed benefits for colitis, an inflammatory gut disease which wreaks havoc on digestion, and this study reduced the inflammation in weakened lungs.

Important article – the top 6 vitamins and minerals for clearing acne

Mangiferin is also highly bioavailable, thanks to its molecular C-glucosyl linkage structures which grant it easy access to the bloodstream. This study even found brain enhancements, as mangiferin reduced the inflammatory chemicals roaming the brains of rats, and the cognitive impairments caused by those chemicals. The self-made antioxidant superoxide dismutase increased as well, hinting that mangiferin revs up your own antioxidant factories through some unidentified mechanism.

The anti-inflammatory powers are well supported by evidence, but do they work on the skin? 

This study says yes. Giving mangiferin to mice reduced their symptoms of dermatitis noticeably, an inflammatory skin disease consisting of rashes and red patches. Pro-inflammatory chemicals such as TNF-a and NF-kappaB fell superbly.

According to the scientists: “mangiferin could provide a new target for the therapy and prevention of skin inflammation”. It isn’t a stretch to speculate that mangiferin could do the business for pimples and acne too.

 

Mangos can enhance your sunlight defences

The unique acne powers don’t end with mangiferin either. The act of eating this fruit will cause invisible yet powerful changes in your skin’s structure, which strengthen it against UV radiation. 

Some hairless mice were divided into three groups: a control group, a group exposed to ultraviolet radiation, and UV group given mango extract daily (study). In the mango group, the sunlight managed to cause far less wrinkles and ageing. The epidermis remained thicker (the outermost layer of skin), and there was a significant increase in collagen fibres, thus strengthening the skin.

Eat a mango every day, and maybe you can go on a beach holiday and enjoy the sun rather than fearing it. The only remaining threat would be the chlorine. Is there any explanation? There’s the high antioxidant count; many polyphenols and flavonoids can build themselves into skin cells and increase their stability, and with an ORAC score of 1100, the mango easily contains enough.

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However, our old friend mangiferin strolls into town again with a study of its own. Wrinkle formation, skin thickness, and changes in collagen fibres were tested in hairless mice exposed to UV radiation, and when ingested, mangiferin prevented every negative change. The study was a virtual mirror image of the original mango one.

It looks like we have our answer. Mangos have a unique acne compound and a unique acne power, among fruits at the very least.

 

The potential downfalls of the mango

But now the question of side effects rears its ugly head. A far more pressing problem than the sugar is the high content of FODMAP relative to other fruits.

FODMAPs are poorly digested short chain carbohydrates which give acne to sensitive people, and explain why some people breakout from supposedly clean and nutritious foods. Apples are one good example, and mangos are another. They’re very rich in the FODMAP called sorbitol, a subvariety of polyol (which forms the letter P). Apples and cherries are also reservoirs of sorbitol, while the FODMAPs of garlic and onions and mainly fructans.

Do you break out savagely from garlic, apples, or celery? You may have a secret FODMAP sensitivity. Avoid mangos, or read this article and discover the system for removing the sensitivity altogether.

Secondly, we’re hailed the uniqueness of mangos, but unfortunately for some unlucky people, this works both ways. The mango contains a plant toxin called urushiol also found in poison ivy and poison oak.

Urushiol is why some people bite into a juicy mango only to recoil in horror at a red, painful rash around their mouth later in the day. A significant percentage of people are sensitive to urushiol, and in those people, eating mangos can lead to the inflammatory skin disease dermatitis.

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In fact, there’s even a specific disease called urushiol-induced contact dermatitis. The urushiol is found in the peel of the mango, but low to moderate levels remain in the whole fruit. Many allergic people have peeled the mango harshly, to no avail.

Mango is the only common fruit to contain urushiol. There’s no proven link to acne, but dermatitis shares numerous root causes. There’s a strong chance that urushiol can at least exacerbate your existing pimples. 

Will it give you acne? Eat a mango and find out. Normally I’d suggest spreading the juice on your skin for an ultra rapid test, but one cause of urushiol sensitivity is overexposure to it. The skin detects the presence of this compound which it cannot tolerate, and prepares for a significantly stronger assault next time.

If love the taste of mangos but they tend to break you out, you should restrict your intake to every few days. You definitely shouldn’t get tempted to use mangos as a topical treatment; in that case, it’ll be game over fast.

 

Two secret tricks for enhancing mangos

Want to be an acne-clearing professional and squeeze every last drop out of mangos? Of course you do, and therefore, you cannot skip exposing your mangos to sunlight before cutting them.

Mangos are high in antioxidants, and when exposed to ultraviolet radiation, the levels increase further. The fruit is stimulated to provide its own UV defences, and their names are polyphenols and flavonoids.

This study exposed freshly cut Tommy Atkins (the most common variety) mangos to ultraviolet C radiation for between 1 and 10 minutes prior to storage at 5 degrees. Polyphenols and flavonoids started to multiply, in correlation with UV exposure. The ORAC score and total antioxidant capacity went up substantially. This principle applies to other fruits and vegetables as well, including broccoli (study), grapes (study), and oranges (study).

The solution: place your mango in the garden or on the balcony and acquire a bombshell of antioxidants. You’ll enhance the flavour too, because antioxidants are responsible for it.

Speaking of taste, your second trick is to eat your mango in the green unripe state. Unripe mangos have significantly more vitamin C according to this study, which analysed mangos at various stages of their life. After being picked, the vitamin C content increased until the 4^th day of storage, and then began a steady decline.

Read the eBook: learn why common vegetable oils are an acne nightmare

On the other hand, phenolic antioxidants were higher in the ripe mangos. When stored at 4 degrees Celsius there was a slight increase in polyphenols up until day 12 . However, when stored at 1 degree there was a “remarkable” increase until day 12.

If you want vitamin C, sink your teeth into a green mango. If you desire the broader, more varied plant antioxidants, eat a normal mango. If the standard nutrition is good enough for you, then do the same.

 

Conclusion

You probably won’t clear your skin entirely by eating mangos. Correcting your entire diet is a must, but they’re a great weapon nevertheless.

Mangos can lower your inflammation levels and calm acne, and they can supply acne nutrients like vitamin C. There’s a strong chance that mangos act like a natural sunscreen as well, a power which few fruits can lay claim to.

Just having a unique compound as strong as mangiferin is a big bonus. The research is so promising that mangiferin and therefore mangos could be revealed to have new acne properties at any time.

Mangos rank as a middling fruit overall, being inferior to strawberries due to their lower antioxidant and vitamin C count, but easily superior to a honeydew or cantaloupe melon.

NEXT: learn the root causes of acne, clear your skin permanently

 

 

Thanks for reading!