Do the forbidden foods of acne really cause you to break out? The good news is that they don't. Those forbidden foods that we've all heard aboutโ€” chocolate, fried food, nuts, caffeine, colas, fried chicken, pizza, by and large do not cause people to break out with pimples. So, at this point in your life, if you haven't seen a relationship between eating those foods one day and getting pimples the next day, then there's probably no reason that you need to avoid them if you have acne.