I'm okay with a little Retin-A on your face, but getting off the antibiotic would just be better for your overall health. Antibiotics kills the good bacteria along with the bad, and you need good bacteria. If you come off it, definitely supplement with some acidophilus/probiotics (see my signature) to help restore good bacteria. I believe the less drugs you can take, the better!

Yeah! that's exactly what I thought years ago but I'm scared that I will break out again if I don't have tetra with me :/ I don't know actually .. and what are those supplements? do you need a prescription for them? Sorry, I'm a bit slow .. 😛

I would just gradually lower the dosage and see how you do with that. I wouldn't advise quiting it completely.

The following link explains more about probiotics: http://www.drfuhrman.com/shop/favflora.aspx .

I would just gradually lower the dosage and see how you do with that. I wouldn't advise quiting it completely.

The following link explains more about probiotics: http://www.drfuhrman.com/shop/favflora.aspx . 🙂

Thanks! that link is really helpful. Anyways, I'm gonna go to bed now.

Wish me luck on my appointment tomorrow! (:

Wishing you the best Rosette!!

Wishing you the best Rosette!! 🙂

Well I just got back from the derm..and it went great! I told him about the green smoothies helping me alot and he was surprised! he said "and here I thought diet and acne didn't have a connection.." hahaha! He also told me to only take my tetra when I breakout from now on...so I guess you can say i'm lowering the dosage of my pills now, since I used to take it every night. Hope it helps somehow.

Oh, and he didn't say anything about me wearing a bit of makeup either .. thank god! 😛

Hey Rosette!!!!! Yea!!!! That is exactly the kind of appointment I was hoping you were going to have!!!! How cool that he acknowledged the smoothies as helping and that he was okay with you not taking your prescription everyday!!! This is a huge step forward for you, and you can start taking acidophilus, which I highly recommend, especially since you've been on the antibiotics, as you need to restore that good bacteria. Congrats on this new step towards better health!

Hey Rosette!!!!! Yea!!!! That is exactly the kind of appointment I was hoping you were going to have!!!! How cool that he acknowledged the smoothies as helping and that he was okay with you not taking your prescription everyday!!! This is a huge step forward for you, and you can start taking acidophilus, which I highly recommend, especially since you've been on the antibiotics, as you need to restore that good bacteria. Congrats on this new step towards better health! 🙂

Thank you! 🙂 I asked my derm about acidophilus and he said I shouldn't start taking it just yet ... so we'll have to see 🙂 I will for sure keep asking him about it though haha! Thank you so much (:

That's odd! Did he give you a reason?

That's odd! Did he give you a reason?

No, he just kind of gave me a quick answer . ... not really a good answer. All he said was I shouldn't have it just yet. I don't like him much haha.

By the way, I woke up this morning with great results on my skin! the scars are really really starting to go away and I'm really happy 🙂 I also haven't had my tetra for two days now (because the derm told me not to unless I break out, which I haven't yet) and now I am starting to see really good results ... hmm...

That's great news Rosette! That response from your doc sounds like a typical one. haha Hoping for your results to keep getting better and better!!!

That's great news Rosette! 🙂 That response from your doc sounds like a typical one. haha Hoping for your results to keep getting better and better!!! 🙂

Thank you!!! By the way, do you think my skin all of a sudden got better this morning because I didn't have the tetra for 2 nights now? Or is it the smoothies ... It's so hard to tell!

Hi ABG Fairy (and everyone else reading this!) - good job with this thread, its inspired me to add my first reply here on acne.org! I've made quite a few diet changes to get my body acne under control this year (it got pretty bad for some reason, I'm thinking more because of stress) - I'm pretty much eating like a vegan diabetic but its not just because of the skin, the animal products are for ethical reasons and in terms of low GL, its good to be healthy regardless of what your skin looks like.

Anyway, the changes have helped a lot but I still get the occasional outbreak(&its taking a while for old marks to heal) - the current one being the worst in a while (3 or 4 cystic) - surprisingly it was brought on after I drank a whole lot of green tea in the past week (something to do with hormones or caffeine - its covered somewhere on these forums). So I've been looking for something to further my results and green smoothies sound like a good idea - Ive upped my greens for a while now but just by eating normally (mainly at supper time). I was wondering what you think of green barley supps like BarleyLife? Do they have the same effect as drinking green smoothies? Have you tried them at all?

I was actually looking it up when I came across this thread - it seems like making green smoothies would be a cheaper alternative if it works the same. Also, I see you take a multivitamin that doesn't have vitamin A, E, copper or iron - why is this? Isn't it good to supp A and E for skin problems? I take solgars VM2000 (which has all of these), Cal, Mag, Flaxseed Oil, Vit C, Zinc and I added extra A,D and Taurine after I got frustrated at this most recent breakout. I've been wondering if maybe its better to get all the vits and minerals from food but last time I stopped the supps I had a major breakout (which was around the same time that I changed to a really healthy low GL diet with more greens and no wheat and gluten - so it may have actually been my body clearing out the toxins - I'm not sure). Since I'm vegan - I think Zinc and B (specifically 12) is fine to supp but it would be great if some sort of barley grass or green smoothie addition could take care of the rest.

Apologies for rambling on for so long - and hopefully someone hasn't asked you this, I didn't go through every single page (its pretty long!). &Thanks for the great info you've put here!

rosette,

I wish I could answer that for you! Regardless, I'm so glad your skin is doing so well.

JurgenG,

Welcome to the boards and congrats on making such healthy changes in your life! Dried greens are great to supplement with, but they can't take the place of fresh greens, so I definitely advise doing the green smoothies.

The following link addresses the questions on why I don't take supplements with vitamin A, E, etc. http://www.drfuhrman.com/shop/GCF.aspx . You are correct in that it's best to get certain nutrients from foods. For example, you get a ton of beta carotene from the green smoothies, which your body will then convert, depending on how much it needs, into vitamin A.

Since you've adopted a vegan lifestyle, I definitely recommend checking out Dr. Joel Fuhrman's advice, and his blog, www.diseaseproof.com has a lot of great information as well. It's important to eat a varied diet with plenty of veggies, fruits, beans/legumes, nuts/seeds and some whole grains.

Good luck with the smoothies! I really hope they'll be the answer you're looking for. Please write again if you have more questions!

Thanks - I'm looking forward to giving the smoothies a go this week. I'm thinking one a day is okay for now, I wouldn't want to be replacing any meals and losing weight.

Thanks for the link, interesting stuff. Its difficult to know what the best supplement is to take - I thought the one that I am taking is good, but in comparison to the one in the link (Im guessing you take that one?), mine isn't great due to the added A,E,copper and iron + it has 50-100 times the vitamin B in some cases. I see big variances in this department in supplements. The Optimum Nutrition Bible recommends quite a bit per day, but who knows what the correct numbers are. In terms of the Barley Greens - people seem to have good results with that and it has way less amounts of vitamins and minerals per serving than most multis (on paper at least - there must be something unmeasurable involving absorption that makes food sources far better), makes me wonder. Maybe its best (and safest) to move towards getting ALL vits and minerals from food sources.

Supplements are confusing, but Dr. Fuhrman really tries to look at all research out there and base his multi on the findings. I do think it's best to get nutrients from food, but at the same time, that can be hard to do. I take Dr. Fuhrman's supplements. The barley green I think is a wonderful addition to anyone's diet. A lot of people do the powdered green drinks instead of multis.

I just made my first green smoothie. I kind of failed because I used 1/2 cup of fat free milk (I heard dairy is bad), and some packets of turbinado sugar. I added strawberries, bananas, and a big handful of baby spinach and it came out green (I like the color!), but it was way too bland....so I added some pineapple...still too bland. So I added some packets of turbinado sugar. At the end I couldn't really taste any fruit OR greens, just blandness......how can I make it more sweet? I don't want to overload it with sugar.

Next time I will make it without the milk, but can I still use turbinado sugar?

Trying to delete this one so I wouldn't have a "double post."

CottonCandi,

You definitely didn't fail with your smoothie! You got your greens in, and that's what most matters! Bananas and pineapples are both sweet, so I'm thinking that maybe if you used less spinach, it might have tasted more sweet. Maybe the milk made it less sweet as well. Bananas give a wonderful, creamy texture, so those can be used in place of the milk. Maybe try one banana, a "small" handful of spinach, a squirt of honey and about 2-3 tbs of cocoa powder.

The cookies sound lovely!!

I found 100% cocoa powder!!

But it's dutched proccesed does that matter?

It's best if it's not, but non-dutch processed is hard to find unless you go to a health food store. I really don't understand the difference between the two - I'm sure it's fine.

 

Edit: I just found the following quote in the description of Dr. Fuhrman's non-dutch processed cocoa. It helps explain: "This cocoa powder is not Dutch processed because, in such processing, alkalinization is used to reduce the acidity and has been found to markedly reduce the antioxidant content."

 

 

Non-dutch processed is usually referred to as natural cocoa and it isn't hard to find. There's Hersheys on most supermarket shelves. Dutch processed does dissolve better in water which is how I drink it, so I like Hershey's Special dark which is a blend of natural and dutch process with natural being the first on the ingredients list. So it's the best of both worlds.

 

Alternativista,

I was looking at something a page back and came across this post of yours! I remember getting an alert of a new post by you, but when I clicked, it wasn't there. Anyway, glad I came across it. I actually didn't know this about Hershey's, and it's great to know!!! As always, thanks for your helpful tips.

CottonCandi,

You definitely didn't fail with your smoothie! You got your greens in, and that's what most matters! Bananas and pineapples are both sweet, so I'm thinking that maybe if you used less spinach, it might have tasted more sweet. Maybe the milk made it less sweet as well. Bananas give a wonderful, creamy texture, so those can be used in place of the milk. Maybe try one banana, a "small" handful of spinach, a squirt of honey and about 2-3 tbs of cocoa powder. 🙂

I'm thinking maybe the banana wasn't totally ripe, which is why it didn't taste that sweet.

So frozen fruit is alright to use? I thought fresh was best and more healthy.

Also, so turbinado sugar is bad to use, honey is better?

The smoothie was at least edible! 😆

That is a great point about bananas being sweeter when they're riper!! Frozen is definitely okay to use! Some even say that frozen is better than fresh, because frozen produce is picked at its ripest, and in some cases, ends up having more nutrition. I think it's good to do both just in case, but I'll admit to doing more frozen veggies (except for greens) than I do fresh!! For sugars, date sugar (found in health food stores) is best I think (Dr. Fuhrman, who is against sweets, uses date sugar in recipes), but honey has so many great qualities, that I still use it. If you think you're sensitive to sweets, sugars, etc. I would stay away from the honey and sweet fruits and stick with the lower sugar fruits (the first post goes into more detail about this).

That is a great point about bananas being sweeter when they're riper!! Frozen is definitely okay to use! Some even say that frozen is better than fresh, because frozen produce is picked at its ripest, and in some cases, ends up having more nutrition. I think it's good to do both just in case, but I'll admit to doing more frozen veggies (except for greens) than I do fresh!! For sugars, date sugar (found in health food stores) is best I think (Dr. Fuhrman, who is against sweets, uses date sugar in recipes), but honey has so many great qualities, that I still use it. 🙂 If you think you're sensitive to sweets, sugars, etc. I would stay away from the honey and sweet fruits and stick with the lower sugar fruits (the first post goes into more detail about this).

What do you mean by sensitive? I love sugar, LOL, which is why I want my smoothies to be sweet. I'm looking for an alternative other than table sugar.

I can easily tell when sugar isn't table sugar...like Xylitol, that stuff is disgusting. Stevia tastes artificial. Splenda, Equal...it's all crap, and bad for you. turbinado and honey is great, though.

Some people are sensitive to sugar in that it makes them break out or gives them bad cravings. If this isn't the case for you, then I think you'd be fine with using sweeter fruits and/or a little honey. Liquid Stevia (I like SweatLeaf brand) is another option.

Some people are sensitive to sugar in that it makes them break out or gives them bad cravings. If this isn't the case for you, then I think you'd be fine with using sweeter fruits and/or a little honey. Liquid Stevia (I like SweatLeaf brand) is another option. 🙂

I don't care about my acne anymore. I'm drinking these smoothies because they are tasty and generally good for you 🙂 Hurray sugar!

Some people are sensitive to sugar in that it makes them break out or gives them bad cravings. If this isn't the case for you, then I think you'd be fine with using sweeter fruits and/or a little honey. Liquid Stevia (I like SweatLeaf brand) is another option. 🙂

I don't care about my acne anymore. I'm drinking these smoothies because they are tasty and generally good for you 🙂 Hurray sugar!

 

Woohoo!!!!! That's awesome! I love it!!!!!! hehe :dance:

ABG Fairy, you are awesome! Your post has totally inspired me to be healthy again and pay attention to my vitamin/mineral intake. I went out yesterday to buy a new blender and make a smoothie--i made one last night and today, and they're great!

I added 1 apple, 1 banana, 1/2 frozen raspberries, 2 cups water, and then filled the rest of the blender with spinach/kale. I split it with my 16 yr old godson last night, (who really liked it, actually!) and I drank all of today's smoothie by myself (i'm just finishing up the last of it now as an afternoon snack). Thanks so much!!!