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Another example of the diet-skin connection: a few years ago my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Instead of opting for drugs that would prolong his life but make the quality of his life rather poor, he decided just to let the cancer take its course and try to enjoy the remaining time. During the last year of life, he lost his appetite for all sugary foods and didn't eat any. The eczema on his body, which he'd suffered with for 15 years, disappeared within weeks of stopping sugary foods. Is this just coincidence? I think not.
@ TreatAcne
I think you should definitely read the book " The Clear Skin Diet".....it's a fascinating book, goes into great detail about all the research that has been done over the last century (!) about the connection between food and diet, and questions why it is that dermatologists continue to deny dietary issues as a cause of acne. In fact, there is TONS of research out there about the links between diet and acne !! I was amazed to see how many studies had been done over the years when I read the book. ESPECIALLY the link between milk intake and acne. There apparently has been research out there for decades about that link, but it was dismissed ( or maybe even repressed) by mainstream medicine. Give it a read, I think it will open your eyes, it definitely did mine ! [Edited image out]
First of all, I want to thank you for taking the time to share your experiences (and success) with us. I have a question regarding the glycemic load of sweet potatoes, which is the vegetable you recommend the most. I've known for some time that if I maintain a low glycemic load diet, my skin looks a lot better. Existing blemishes heal faster and sebum production is reduced. Numerous studies have confirmed that a low GL diet (which essentially means eliminating sugar and reducing carbs) is very beneficial for reducing acne. Your regimen syncs well with the concept of a low GL diet, except for the sweet potatoes as well as the bread you consume without worry.
So why is it that the natural sugars from the sweet potato aren't a problem? You're of course correct that the sweet potato is quite a bad-ass, nutrient dense vegetable, but it does have sugar (7 grams in a medium potato). Do you think the natural sugars aren't of much concern?
I'm 38 and have suffered from mild acne for 20 years. I know that there's a link between diet and acne for the genetically inferior, such as myself. For me I know that eating low GL helps a lot. Your regimen of introducing juicing makes so much sense, but the addition of veggies such as the sweet potato contradicts some of what I thought I understood about the affect of blood sugar and acne. I'm definitely not trying to troll here, but why is it that natural sugars are OK?
Sarnon, that's an excellent question.
My regime was never intended to be a low glycemic diet. It is about removing the discretionary empty calorie items only, which is something that can easily be done by everyone.
Sweet potatoes have a glycemic index of 54, which is medium. That is an acceptable trade off.
On 1/16/2012 at 12:54 AM, NCsweettea said:@ TreatAcne
I think you should definitely read the book " The Clear Skin Diet".....it's a fascinating book, goes into great detail about all the research that has been done over the last century (!) about the connection between food and diet, and questions why it is that dermatologists continue to deny dietary issues as a cause of acne. In fact, there is TONS of research out there about the links between diet and acne !! I was amazed to see how many studies had been done over the years when I read the book. ESPECIALLY the link between milk intake and acne. There apparently has been research out there for decades about that link, but it was dismissed ( or maybe even repressed) by mainstream medicine. Give it a read, I think it will open your eyes, it definitely did mine ! [Edited image out]
I love books!!! How did you know? XD
Thank you s very much for the recommendation, I shall definitely take a look into that [Edited image out]. I'm actually studying to be a biostatistician, but mostly a statistician. The medical condition on acne is so very fascinating to me, and how simple healthy eating can benefit it greatly is just incredible. This book sounds wonderful. As long as there is logic, facts, and statistics to back up large qualities of samples and good quality examples, I'm all in.
This is my second day without milk and I am craving it so badly unfortunately 
. Oh well. This is a decision that I have made and I have absolutely no problem with sticking to it. My only problem is my LACK of food I guess. Sometimes I go a day or two without eating, but only because I don't have a good appetite. This happened when I got sick at the hospital more than two years and it hasn't come back into full bloom, but my doctor is assuring me that it will. I have, however, come to love my home made vegetable juice, but carrots taste a little better than the sweet potatoes strangely enough.
If you come across any other books, please let me know! I live only 5 minutes from my town library and there is so much to read and learn that I get excited every day. I prefer text books though, but only because the vocabulary and references are better. I probably missed "The Clear Skin Diet" because of the word "diet" in it. I will not lie, I stopped looking at those long ago because of their needs to sell these advertised and chemically factory made foods that taste like rubber in the microwave than plucked freshly from the farmers soil. Also, diet books have all these boring stories that I DO respect but sort of tire of because it seems to come down to only one person or family, not a large group of people backed up by statistics and medical terms.
Ace will be my first -safe- Biostatistic experiment! [Edited image out]
Hey Treat [Edited image out] Glad my post helped!! The book actually reads more like a "textbook" to me, so you may really like it! I found myself skipping over some of the more research based stuff, because it was so.....well, dry ,I guess. But, it is full of stats, etc, and has a whole index in the back, with lists of all the research studies they quote in the book. So, yeah....give it a try. It really drives home the point that our modern diet is full of foods known to be inflammatory in the body, yet dermatologists continue to deny the link between the increasing numbers of acne cases, and our modern diet . Astounding!!
I've come to believe that it's more about $$, about the huge multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry. Think about all the money they make on acne treatments!!! And don't get me started about the cosmetic industry!! All the creams, lotions, potions, concoctions that I"ve used over the years, with the promise of giving me smooth, blemish free skin. None ever lived up to the claims, not even the pharmaceuticals!!
I"m about 3 weeks into the diet, and I've slipped up a few times already, so I feel your pain about trying to get off milk. I ate a sugary chinese food dish a few days back, and had some cheesy pizza yesterday......and, wouldn't ya know it, I woke up with a big old bump on my chin this morning!!!!! So, I'm pretty convinced of the link, as these are two things the clear skin diet book tells you to avoid- high sugar foods, and milk products. So, this morning, I'm recommitting to eating a clean diet of fruits, veggies, lots of water, green tea, simple grains, and low-fat meats. I have never been a big dessert eater, so giving up sweets isn't all that hard for me. Eating prepared foods will be hard, as I"ve lived off of them in the past. And I love to go out to eat to chinese or mexican restaurants, but will have to avoid that, as those are full of high fat, highly salted and sugared ingredients.
Again, I'm not looking for perfection ( well, ok, that's not totally true...I AM looking for perfection, but reasonably speaking, I know I can' achieve it [Edited image out] ) I just want a trend upwards, less bumps, more time in between breakouts....If I could get to, like, 95% clear, I'd be a happy girl [Edited image out]
Good luck, and keep us posted!!
oh, and I do understand about the appetite thing. I have never had a huge appetite, and I've lost 5 lbs on this clear skin diet, which I didn't need to lose. So, I've got to figure out how to eat "clean" AND not lose weight. That's a challenge for me. In the past, all the junk I ate kept me at a normal weight, if not slightly underweight. So....finding a way to eat healthy and keep weight on, for me, is going to be the challenge. I know...for lots of people, they lose weight on this diet, and that's a nice side-effect. It's not for me, so I guess I need to make sure I"m eating plenty of protein, and healthy fats, like olive oil, etc....
Why do you say you limit sugar? Your juiced vegetables have so much sugar you are probably eating more sugar than most people. I'm by no means saying your plan is unhealthy, I'm just saying that it is not low-sugar. Table sugar comes from plants like beets originally, don't forget! You still shouldn't have more than 30 g per day.
If you were eating even more sugar before this, it is no surprise you benefited from this regime and certainly no surprise if your health was poor beforehand!
One thing that is known and I have experienced is that caloric restriction, whether an unhealthy crash diet or a healthy diet, clears skin. I was never overweight so any diet I ever did was unhealthy, purely out of vanity and to be "skinny", and it always helped my skin. Now with work and studies I can't be bothered with feeling tired from 1000 calories a day. Soon after weight loss stops, the acne returns. This is one reason why I would contend with your hypothesis that your acne was a symptom of a more systemic problem- you can be healthy and have bad skin and unhealthy and have good skin.
It's possible that an extremely fat person could keep calories low for a long time, even years before having to stop losing weight so they could keep their skin clear for longer than a slim person could by this method.
Nowhere have I stated that I equate acne with poor health.
I simply stated my suspicion that people who suffer severe acne for many years of adulthood are suffering from a more deep-rooted cause of the condition than a teenager with acne. That is a reasonable hypothesis.
I'm not "probably eating more sugar than most people." Let's do the math.
A medium sized carrot (40g) has 2g of sugar. An average sized beetroot (60g) has 8g of sugar.
I could therefore eat two carrots and one beetroot every day and eat 12g of sugar.
Now compare that to a can of coca-cola, which contains 39g of sugar, or a regular size Snickers bar which contains 18g. These are the items that I am encouraging people to remove from their diet. Judging from the posts on here, this is not an easy task for most people.
When you add into the equation that the average American eats just one vegetable a day, and the huge health benefits that accrue from eating more vegetables, then there is no contradiction in my advice to people to remove sugar from their diet and eat more vegetables.
To anyone who is following my program to the letter and not seeing visible benefits:
I know how tempting it is to quit after a couple of weeks and move on to another treatment. It is inherently challenging to continue with programs that appear to be producing poor results. But often the one thing we haven't tried with skin programs is time. I guarantee that there are people who will have read my regime, tried it for a few days, seen a couple of new lesions pop up, then quit, concluding it doesn't work, off to another thread to try that for a few days, and so on. How do I know that? Because I used to be that person!
If you've reached your 30s or 40s with acne, then it's clear that no short term approach will work for you. If there was a short term treatment, you would have found it by now. Only the long term treatments remain. I know that's an unpalatable truth for many people reading this, but it is the truth nonetheless. Facing up to that is the way forward.
If you can manage it, try to formally assess the condition of your skin just once a week, say every Sunday night, for twelve weeks. Use objective measures such as how many active lesions, how many are healing, how oily your skin is, etc. Perhaps put this down on a spreadsheet. This will help you see the broader trend over time and keep you on track to the 12 week goal. Only at that point, can you make an informed decision about whether to continue.
So try to hang in there.
I applaud Windedserpent for his advice and knowledge....in a way I look up to him and I am really trying hard to stick to his program....
To all the doubters, if you dont like what he has to say then go elsewhere. He isn't forcing anyone to do his program. He has shared his experience with us, and hey if it helps clear my acne, then Ill follow it for the 3 months....
Thanks mate!!!
Thanks Hollywood, I appreciate that!
I really hope my program works for you and anyone else out there struggling with their skin. I know how difficult it can be.
For anyone not yet reaching their desired outcome, remember that you have already placed yourself in the top percentile of people most likely to succeed because you have demonstrated a willingness to do things that many people do not possess, in order to reach your goal. Ultimately, it's this tenacity that counts in life. People who possess it are maximising their chances of success.
One of my favourite quotations is from Thomas Edison: "Many of life's failures are people who did not realise just how close they were to success when they gave up."
26 years old...started getting mild/normal acne around 17...very gradually over time it spread and worsened into cystic acne on my cheeks,temples,chin,jawline, and forehead....i have very oily skin, but also dry and red patches by my mouth and my eyebrows....but anyways,,ive been getting very concerned lately because its been getting worse(cysts developing deeper in the skin and taking 2-3 weeks from the moment of that pinpoint tingling that starts before it even shows any sign of redness all the way to inflammation going down after pus is squeezed out,,,and where as before, hyperpigmentation was not a problem,NOW EVERY pimple,zit,cyst,whitehead i get leaves a brownish reddish blotch,dot,once its healed) SUCKS HELLA BAD...and obviously ive tried everything within my monetary allowance,(BP, salycylic acid(which i think is causing the hyperpigmentation),sulfur,baking powder, lemons,egg whites,,etc ,and so on and so on)....that is y ur post intrigued me...i know the problem is coming from INSIDE my body so i went and bought that jack la lanne guys juicer,,,(pretty easy to clean besides the filter) and have been drinking a glass of juice for about a month now and i have no expectations to see results yet,,, but either way i do feel good after drinking the juice,,,but for some reason b-5 is difficult to obtain @ the neighborhood pharmacy,,,will b-complex,b-6,or anyother b vitamin work?????? as for the sugary junk foods,,im TRYING my hardest to quit but i gotta quit smoking treees first...so theres another challenge to overcome...im korean so cutting rice (high glycemic load??) from my diet just doesnt feel right..IDK....and the WATER...it is life and i drink as much as i can without feeeling like throwing up... and thats about it...this is my first post on this site ,so sorry about the run on format..... life is turninig into a no-fun, embarrrasing, miserable existence as my acne gets worse... THANK YOU winged serpent, u can count me in as a devoted follower of ur natural internal acne treatment...hopefully it works!!!! fight on everyone!!!!!
What I really want to see is that this approach becomes the primary, frontline method of treating acne, not something that's just tinkered about with on the sidelines by a handful of people.
My view is that everyone should adopt the dietary approach first and use medication or topicals only if there isn't sufficient improvement.
^^^this statement is the definition of REAL^^^
Hi Cheese, welcome aboard.
B5 is the only B vitamin that has clinical trials behind it, so there really isn't any basis for using the others. B complex pills are very unlikely to have sufficient B5 in them. Don't forget the L Carnitine too. If you can't get B5 and Carnitine locally you can find them online.
Don't force yourself to drink lots of water! The body has an inbuilt mechanism for telling us when to drink more liquid -it's called thirst. If it feels like an effort to drink more water, that's your body telling you that it doesn't need any more! I recommend drinking more water but NOT forcing it down.
Obviously stopping smoking and sugary foods together is a testing challenge. I recommend choosing one of them (frankly, I'd quit smoking first) and making it your number one priority to remove it completely from your life. I recommend the pain-pleasure reversal process -see the FAQ on page 1.
Good luck with the program!
It is hard to stop sugary foods especially sweets, several times Ive stuffed up and scoffed down a handful of gummi bears or some rocky road.....its all about trial and error, we are all human and stuff up from time to time. It will get easier as time goes bye.... The first week n a half for me was a killer, I miss my sweets but now dont grave them as much.
I have upped the water, my only prob is Im forever peeing lol.
U can get cheap B5 on ebay etc.
I need some support, my skin was getting better, but now its all shit aagin, lots of large pores and blackheads all over my nose and now about ten pimples on my face..... ugh, I go to Scotland in 40 days.....I did have lollies last night, would this break my skin out over night?
Depressed people
;o(
Maximus -no, I don't peel my carrots. I buy organic. If you don't buy organic you may wish to peel them -opinion is divided on the necessity.
Travelzd -I've no opinion on artificial sweeteners since it's not something I've ever used. I would advise doing some research. But using them seems counter-intuitive to me -if you're trying to remove the desire for eating sweet things, why reinforce that desire?
Hollywood, my friend, I know Scotland well. I spend about a month a year in the Highlands. Clean air, nice scenery, everything London isn't! If you haven't been before I would strongly advise taking plenty of warm clothes, and waterproofs. But back to your skin. Others may disagree with me, but I believe that it's biologically impossible for any food to break out the skin overnight, short of a genuine allergic reaction, but in that case, it would probably be a medical emergency, like a nut or shellfish allergy. Linking individual meals with spots just makes no sense to me. Remember you're still less than four weeks in -your target is 31st March. As I recall, skin only renews every six weeks. So try to keep up the longer term view I mentioned.
Is there a reason for juicing vs blending?
I do green smoothies and probiotic supplementation as well as trying to avoid sugar, grains, etc.
Has helped a lot. I'd think the fiber from blending would be a benefit in helping to move toxins and hormones out of the system more regularly. Also would slow down the sugar absorption.
It's an undeniably healthy drink, but how effective it would be at fighting acne is anybody's guess since it's mostly fruit. I didn't encounter bananas, apples, or berries mentioned in research.
In my experience, people who opt for fruit smoothies do so because they find them more palatable than vegetable juice, but remember we're here to get great skin, not to make delicious drinks!
Its been abouta month, totally depressed, skins shit.
Trying to wean myself of BP....hacve massive pores, open ones, all over my face from using it...
Still juicing and doing green smoothies....
Deciding wether I should use a facewash or not. I do the whole OCD thing and go alittle crazy at times...
Eating better.
Where I work, I am constantly sweating....I splash my face with water and theres always a thick layer of gunk. I just dont know what to do. I am off to Scotland MArch 2 for a month....just lost, and was hoping my skin would improve by then
;o(