Hang in there. You will eventually stumble across the best diet for your needs. It is great that you are researching and trying to find a solution. What books have you read? Would you be interested in our thoughts on the best books to read?

Here are my suggestions:
In considering what you should do, it is very important to avoid foods that spike your blood sugar and cause high insulin levels. As I'm sure you know, insulin problems lead to so many other hormonal imbalances. Secondly, your body needs animal proteins and fats for cellular growth. Without animal proteins, you will compromise your health. If you can, try to eat free range meats (not corn fed). Make sure your meat also has not received any hormone injections or antibiotics. Try finding this meat at a local health food store. It is more expensive but it could benefit you. How cutting dariy could have helped your acne is that have could have a yeast imbalance. Cheeses can cause an overproduction of intestinal flora, which can cause problems. Or, the hormones found in dairy could have affected you. Long ago, before I was diagnosed with PCOS, I had to give up milk because I found it made me very ill. I tried organic milk, and it suited me just fine. The culprit was the hormones used for dairy cattle. As with PCOS, my hormones were all out of whack and adding cow hormones just made it worse for me.

For your acne problems, have you noticed any trigger foods or trigger behaviors? You mentioned sugar, is there anything else (like corn or wheat based products) that trigger acne? (I found out my trigger food for acne is alcohol.)

As a fellow PCOSer, I'll relate my story to you. I've been on the LC bandwagon for two years (after being on Glucophage and Aldactone for two years prior). I had thinning hair, facial hair, awful periods and hypoglycemia, and fluctuating weight (My weight range was 120-140 pounds and it would swing like that in a year without me doing anything). I decided that the PCOS drugs, although they made me feel a lot better, really masked the problems. I had to get myself in order. So I decided to go LC, then later to a natural LC diet. By natural I mean I eat organic fresh foods, nothing processed or refined. I eat a lot of eggs, meat and dark green veggies, limited fruits, nuts, fish, butter, cheese, and a lot of natural fats. These are my results since going natural: my head hair has stopped thinning and I had a bit of reversal. My periods are normal. My blood sugar is stable. No more hypoglycemia. When I avoid alcohol, my face is totally clear. The only lasting effect is my facial hair. But I can live with that because I feel so much better otherwise.