61 replies to this topic

[Whitey]

sorry if i sound stupid but im confused with this gluten stuff, is there a list somewhere of products that contain gluten or could someone tell me the main things to stay away from on a gluten-free diet

[metallica1]

this is a stupid question but does being allergic to gluten necessarily imply that it will
provoke an acne episode?
I mean, i got my blood tested for food allergies and it lists gluten as a tolerant food,
as opposed to an intolerant food.
so can you be tolerant of gluten and yet still have it cause you to break out?
I'm assuming acne is simply more than just an allergic reaction to food?

how do you get your blood tested for allergies? do you just talk to your GP?

[Thuglife2k5]

What foods have gluten in them?!?!

pm me or something i need to know

[RebeccaDeWinter]

Okay, I must be the biggest hypocrite in the world. Really, I must be. At first I thought it was milk, and while my acne did improve a bit it never went away from dairy-free diet.

Then I thought it was candida...again, great improvement but then leveled off at a level I didn't want.

Then I thought it was diabetes or pre-diabetes. Again, improvement but never to a level I want.

Then gluten...I read through various forums and googled "gluten acne" and found an amazing number of people who lost their acne as soon as they lost their gluten.

Of course going gluten-free is very difficult, even candy and soy sauce has gluten (though soy itself does not). Rice milk does, but at .002% (or 200 parts per million) which is considered the maximum threshold for many celiacs.

The reason I believe gluten plays a role for me is that I stopped taking all of my candida regimen stuff: the antifungals to probiotics. My eczema never flared up, though probiotics did help calm it down when I stopped probiotics it usually comes back. I stopped my gluten intake for 2 days now...sure, it might be a "placebo effect" and I could be putting my own foot in my mouth.

But I did something that I shouldn't do: I drank a 32oz bottle of gatorade in 10 minutes. I took a couple of 4g glucose tablets. Total carb intake in 10 minutes? 88-90g. We're not talking about brown rice and low GI foods here folks, we're talking about major blood sugar spikes. I did this for about 4 times. My pores, which are very sensitive to foods that I eat, did not dilate. I eat 3 slices of wheat bread with 8g net carbs each in 5 minutes...my pores dilate 20 minutes later. I know I know, how can you tell if pores dilate? Believe me, I can...it sounds ridiculous, but no one knows my own skin better than me. Supposedly candida feeds on simple sugar (the glucose-fructose syrup in Gatorade is as "simple" as you can get), and spiking my blood sugar like that is dangerous in the long run, but I mostly did it to rid my "brain fog". It worked for a bit, but not much...I think my intestines might be damaged and I might have not even known it.

I suggest people give this a try. Is it hard? Yes...but worth it? If it works, definitely. This isn't to say this can work for everyone...but we'll see.

What happened with the massive doses of Vit D?=)

[xtr3m]

The original post is 2 years old.

[rakbs]

Good to know people knew about gluten way back when. =x

[f1fan87]

as above....i need a list of gluten free foods/ low gluten foods.

[I am Snow]

my acne is pretty much all hormonal, but quitting gluten sure improved me a lot. I would suggest anyone try to do this too. But yeah, it is really hard. I am big on pasta, and I still eat it a lot on the weekends.

[acnejean]

it took me maybe 4 months to get gluten completely out my diet but my skin was finally clear. i never had any stomach problems from it either. just dairy and i always have avoided that.
gluten is a known inflammatory.
and if you have any questions about gluten GOOGLE

[fbmbassist]

Same here, gluten was BY FAR the biggest factor in clearing up my skin. Just remember that not everyone is gluten intolerant, and some gluten intolerant people don't have acne - they have reactions elsewhere like their digestion, eczema, fatigue, etc.

So you really just have to try it FULL FORCE. If you're gluten intolerant and you don't eat a speck, you'll notice a difference in a few weeks. It'll start with less inflammation, less itching and redness, and then finally fewer cystic acne.

Basically stay away from wheat (all bread, pasta, anything made with flour), barely, rye, and most oats (it has gluten through contamination with wheat fields/processing plants). Then look for wheat starch in some foods, wheat protein, gluten, etc. Use google. It's all there. Visit celiac sites for more help.

You'll find that by omitting wheat, you'll improve your diet a lot since you'll end up eating more veggies, protein, fruit, etc. instead of filling yourself up with bread or pasta, which isn't that nutritious anyway (unless it's fortified, but those aren't natural vitamins & minerals).

BUT, if you really want to eat grains and junk food, here are some alternatives:

Rice (lots of different kinds: brown, red bhutanese, black, jasmine, regular white...)
Corn, QUINOA, MILLET (the latter are both very nutritious)
Kinnikinik bagels
Glutino flax bread
Kinnikinik donuts
Pasta made from quinoa, rice, etc.
the list goes on...visit celiac sites! recipe blogs!

Go to any Whole Foods grocery store, and ask for the gluten free aisle. There are usually 2 aisles: one is the frozen section with the donuts, bagels, and bread. The other is the snack aisle with gluten free cookies and stuff. The GF pasta is in the pasta aisle. The best sweets I've found are Glutino chocolate wafers (they're like kit kats). You can also make your own chocolate cake from gluten free cake mix.

Alternatives are out there, and people keep improving the products to make them taste better.

It'll take a while to learn where gluten is hiding, so don't expect to be perfect the first few months. I had some bad break outs cuz I accidentally ate gluten, not realizing that the restaurant used flour in the sauce. People use flour in everything. Luckily, I wanted to cook at home more often, and this was the perfect way to get me to do it.

Also, your skin heals gradually, so even after not eating gluten, your skin takes time to heal from all the previous breakouts, picking (DON'T PICK!), red marks, etc. So i still get a few pimples because my skin is weak, but as it gets stronger from not eating gluten, everything heals faster, and over all my skin looks so much better.

At some point I'll tell my before & after story on this forum...it involved more than just gluten, but that was a big factor.

Hope this helps.

[h20]

I would bet that if everyone replaced wheat with rice and consumed the same amount of carbohydrates with the rice meal as they do with the wheat meal, people acne would still be the same. For most of you it isn't the gluten, its the large amount of high gi carbs consumed in a short period of time, its pretty similar to taking a insulin spiking maltodextrin supplement.

[Spikey]

Don't rush into conclusions. You might be disappointed.

[fbmbassist]

I would bet that if everyone replaced wheat with rice and consumed the same amount of carbohydrates with the rice meal as they do with the wheat meal, people acne would still be the same. For most of you it isn't the gluten, its the large amount of high gi carbs consumed in a short period of time, its pretty similar to taking a insulin spiking maltodextrin supplement.

The latter part is true - it definitely has some to do with insulin spiking. But of course there are also the people who are truly gluten intolerant or celiac. When I eat even a small amount of gluten, I get itchy little rash specks (like bits of rosacea) and cystic/hive things, both of which turn into pimples. But it starts out as an itchy reaction to gluten - usually 16 hrs later. That doesn't happen when I eat normal amounts of other grains/starches. However, if I do eat a ton of starches, I get other types of pimples simply from the insulin spike.

Oh, and FYI everybody - it doesn't matter if they're grains, potatoes, sugar, rice...those starches all break down to sugar! Keep that in mind when planning meals, and try to get carbs from vegetables & leafy greens instead.

[h20]

Allergies play a part for those who have allergies, but i think the majority of people stop eating such large amounts of high gi carbs then automatically jump on the gluten free bandwagon.

[Chocobot]

Been on gluten-free diet for the past three weeks. Had a few occasions where I had to eat gluten, like from the buns of a burger, but overall it has been helping a LOT, my face is clearing up really fast. I highly recommend it. But I lost weight as a result, so I'll have to make up for that.

[SurferGirl656]

Hey. I recently realised lots of my symptoms are the same as gluten intolerance. ive stopped eating gluten since yesterday. how long did it take for your acne to go away?????

[fbmbassist]

Hey. I recently realised lots of my symptoms are the same as gluten intolerance. ive stopped eating gluten since yesterday. how long did it take for your acne to go away?????

If you're truly gluten intolerant, the first things that START to go away will be redness, itchiness and inflammation, usually within a week. Not the pimples themselves. After the first week, you'll notice it continually fading.

The acne that you already have will have to heal naturally like it normally would, but it will heal a faster. As your old acne fades, you'll start to have fewer breakouts. It usually takes 3+ months for your intestine to fully repair from the gluten damage, so that's when you'll see most of the break outs stop all together.

If nothing happens after the first few weeks, then you're probably not gluten intolerant and your acne stems from something else.

Just make sure you're really careful because if you're truly intolerant then even a little bit of gluten (like wheat in soy sauce) will cause a reaction. Also, you'll be surprised by how many foods contain wheat (couscus, spelt, etc. all come from wheat). Google is your friend.

Notice however that you might still get hormonal break outs around your period, but they should be much milder. Also, keep in mind that if you replace your normal gluten foods with rice, potatoes, gluten-free bread, etc. you're still going to have blood sugar spikes, which might lead to break outs. i recommend replacing gluten calories with more veggies, fruits, nuts/seeds, quinoa/amaranth/millet, and meat if you're a meat-eater.

[lara6]

just my 2 cents -

Avoiding gluten has helped me a lot as well. However, I recently broke out from having from corn (which does not contain gluten) and read on another thread in this forum that some people who are senstive to gluten may also be sensitive to corn....

I know it sucks, but for the people who are just starting a gluten free diet - try to limit how much corn you have...

oh also don't forget white potato - gluten free, but VERY high GI....

[Azaza Angel]

Thanks for sharing

Edited by Azaza Angel, 24 February 2010 - 03:24 AM.

[fifiusha]

if somebody make his face clear by diet without gluten, please drop here, it's important for me
thanks