Very good post. Thanks for backing up your claims as well.

I've been avoiding all dairy and it has been helping a lot. I have been eating less high GI foods, but it's difficult to completely eliminate them.

Very good post. Thanks for backing up your claims as well.

I've been avoiding all dairy and it has been helping a lot. I have been eating less high GI foods, but it's difficult to completely eliminate them.

Thank you! And yes, high GI/GL foods are difficult to get rid of, especially when everyone reacts differently to them and when they have the nutrients we need to survive. All I can say is find what works for you and provide as much data as you can to support your claims. Personally, getting rid of some bread was pretty difficult for me, but not impossible. try to start from scratch if you can: If a spoonful of rice once a week won't do anything to you, try two spoonfuls. Gradually increase your dose until you are able to come up with a satisfactory conclusion. It takes time to start from scratch like this (months at the least), but it's way better than bouncing all over the place unorganized and without support for years and years. Good luck to you!

 

Very good post. Thanks for backing up your claims as well.

I've been avoiding all dairy and it has been helping a lot. I have been eating less high GI foods, but it's difficult to completely eliminate them.

Thank you! And yes, high GI/GL foods are difficult to get rid of, especially when everyone reacts differently to them and when they have the nutrients we need to survive. All I can say is find what works for you and provide as much data as you can to support your claims. Personally, getting rid of some bread was pretty difficult for me, but not impossible. try to start from scratch if you can: If a spoonful of rice once a week won't do anything to you, try two spoonfuls. Gradually increase your dose until you are able to come up with a satisfactory conclusion. It takes time to start from scratch like this (months at the least), but it's way better than bouncing all over the place unorganized and without support for years and years. Good luck to you!

I'm glad you came back and bumped your great post.

And regarding the high GI/GL foods, remember, it's the GL of the whole meal that matters. And by meal I mean the sum total of whatever you consume at a given time. So that includes snacks & drinks throughout the day.

I'm glad you came back and bumped your great post.

And regarding the high GI/GL foods, remember, it's the GL of the whole meal that matters. And by meal I mean the sum total of whatever you consume at a given time. So that includes snacks & drinks throughout the day.

Sure thing!

Thanks for the tip! I'll be sure to be aware of that as well. High GI/GL foods was difficult to learn at first because of all the variables, food combinations, overall meals, and individual impact.

 

I'm glad you came back and bumped your great post.

And regarding the high GI/GL foods, remember, it's the GL of the whole meal that matters. And by meal I mean the sum total of whatever you consume at a given time. So that includes snacks & drinks throughout the day.

Sure thing!

Thanks for the tip! I'll be sure to be aware of that as well. High GI/GL foods was difficult to learn at first because of all the variables, food combinations, overall meals, and individual impact.

Don't worry about it so much. Fat & carbs, plus a few things like vinegar, salt, cinnamon slow down carb absorption. Just don't eat/drink sugary/refined carbs by themselves. And ideally, don't eat very much of them regardless.

Other than that, a few things are insulinemic without being high GI/GL such as animal proteins especially dairy. So don't have a glass of milk, ideally ever, but definately not by itself, especially not low fat milk.

Free Bump!

I came back to print out my pictures because I lost everything in my computer a few months ago .

Another Free Bump!

I added and updated my Eczema information...

So, I finally just finished reading your entire thread! Then I saw your signature at the bottom with your previous regimen. I take it you were on that when you were eating healthy and reacted to the tomato? Also, I see you said no more high Gl's, sugars, and Milk has cleared your acne. Was that immediate, or after months of avoiding them? And is you're acne %100 gone?

On 4/5/2015 at 10:43 PM, Melloman said:

Melloman, on 06 Apr 2015 - 00:48, said:

So, I finally just finished reading your entire thread! Then I saw your signature at the bottom with your previous regimen. I take it you were on that when you were eating healthy and reacted to the tomato? Also, I see you said no more high Gl's, sugars, and Milk has cleared your acne. Was that immediate, or after months of avoiding them? And is you're acne %100 gone?

Hello! Great questions.

It took me about one year to completely clear up. There was some trial and error along the way, but my skin was very clear after one year. It may take you threemonths, or it make take you two years. But for me, it was about one year. After that first year, the red spots left over on my skin started very slowly fading away.

Yes, thiswas my first DIET regimen, and I wanted people to see it so they could see where I started out. I bought a juicer and juiced vegetables every day for over a year. It worked wonderfully.

I wasn't able to digest other foods sometimes, such as spinach and potato skins, but like I said trial and error. When I stopped juicing so much, it took a while for my body to readjust. I need to make a strong note about that, because juicing isn't an indefinite replacement for food at all.

This definitely took months of experimentation. The first thing I learned about acne was actually reading about it from The Regimen on this website (The face wash Regimen, which I did). I learned that it took me almost three months to become completely clear from Acne.org's regimen, or for the acne to at least stop producing itself. I knew that whenever I tried something else, it would take a while for the acne to create itself, emerge, puss and then finally go away. Spots can stay hidden under the skin up to several weeks once the acne has been "triggered", so if you had whole milk 2-3 weeks ago and then a cyst comes up, then it could very likely be from that. Patiencepatience patience.

Sugar and Milk are a terrible combination for me. 90-95 percent of your diet has to be an acne-free one with avoidance for your specific triggers (such as onions were to the man who owns AcneEinstein.com).

More sleep means less facial redness too.

I still get some acne if I steer away from my diet, but the spots are small and heal in a few days. I WILL make that very clear in my post above. Any acne I get now is vastly different than the 50 or so spots I use to always constantly have on my face. A cyst WILL return if I eat milky breads and sweets, and/or sleep very little. Since I changed my overall diet and lifestyle, and I eat more vegetables, my skin is healthier and the acne heals much more quickly and is a lot less painful to deal with. I'm pretty much in the same boat of people where if you see a spot on their skin then it's fairly rare and not even worth mentioning.

Point in case, if you know the acne is coming from your food, then accept and allow it, and see what you can do to change it. Maybe one day when your body stabilizes, you can go back to having a treat here and there, but that depends entirely on you. Good luck :).

Wow. Yeah, it took the girl on a video of the youtube channel you sent me, 3 months to heal as well. And she didn't even have acne. That's good.  It sucks that you still can't tolerate those foods yet.  It's been a year and a half, huh? That's disappointing that the wasn't enough time to fully heal. Hopefully in a couple more years, you'll be more tolerant. So your diet is vegan, but you're a vegetarian? I've noticed sleep is a good healer as well. I looked so much better yesterday morning! Thanks for posting your diet on my thread. The last couple of days help put me right back on track thanks to those comments. For some reason, no one ever goes into detail on their diet, ever online

On 4/9/2015 at 11:22 PM, Melloman said:

Wow. Yeah, it took the girl on a video of the youtube channel you sent me, 3 months to heal as well. And she didn't even have acne. That's good.  It sucks that you still can't tolerate those foods yet.  It's been a year and a half, huh? That's disappointing that the wasn't enough time to fully heal. Hopefully in a couple more years, you'll be more tolerant. So your diet is vegan, but you're a vegetarian? I've noticed sleep is a good healer as well. I looked so much better yesterday morning! Thanks for posting your diet on my thread. The last couple of days help put me right back on track thanks to those comments. For some reason, no one ever goes into detail on their diet, ever online

Hey, sorry for the wait. I didn't watch any of her videos all the way through, but I am not surprised. Most people do not consider how much time things actually take... even the Acne.org facial regimen took me three months before I looked clear, but six weeks was all it took for most of the acne to stop emerging. Skin shedding and healing always takes longer, and waiting to get rid of the red spots and scars that acne leaves behind is probably the worst thing to look at.

The final regimen I tried (the vegetable juicing every morning) took longer than three months for sure... in fact it felt more like six months or so before my skin started showing improvement, but I stopped timing myself and just let nature take it's course. You can see the dates on all my pictures in my gallery.

Yes, it's been approximately two years or so since I stopped eating tomatoes. A vegan is a vegetarian who ALSO avoids milk and eggs... they have little to nothing to do with animals. However, I do occasionally have sweets such as dark chocolate, but I don't eat them often and eat small portions when I do. These things commonly have milk and eggs in them, so that's the only kind of flexibility that I will allow.Your diet must have a heavy emphasis on VEGETABLES and FRUITS,so that if and when you consume other things, you are not thinking about them so much.

Yes, sleep sleep sleep! And no problem about the recipes... I'm trying my best to gather recipes from other places as well, so it's taking longer than I thought. I'm thinking of starting a blog on Blogspot or Instagram, whichever comes first.

 

! And no problem about the recipes! I'm trying my best to gather recipes from other places as well, so it's taking longer than I thought... I'm think of starting a blog on blog post or Instagram or something.

Yeah, I was actually going to start a topic on all the recipes I came up with. They're really good. I was going to include pictures of the finished product and instruction and all that. Since adding more veggies and a bit of fruit, my acne cleared drastically. I think my gut has been healing for the past 8 months, but the wheat kept tearing holes which didn't let me see the results. Before I followed your advice and got rid of wheat, I broke out almost immediately from Blueberries. I ate blueberries after kicking wheat, and there was little to no reaction! Of course I still breakout if I eat a lot lf bad food, but at least now I don't have to worry about cysts so much.

Tomatoes must be really bad to give you acne that easily. I know if I eat a single donut from the store, I'll get a huge cyst that lasts for a month and a half, but I can eat an entire pound cake from the same store and get little to no acne. I guess it's just one of those things.

I suffered through long bouts of nodular and pustular acne all through my late teens and most of my twenties without realizing that milk was driving my acne problem. My dermatologist at the time said that diet had no effect on acne. I went on Accutane for 6 separate treatments. Yes, you read that right....6. I was drinking up to a 1/2 gallon of milk everyday in addition to eating cheese slices on sandwiches and also ice cream or sour cream every once in awhile. After every Accutane treatment, my face was clear for a time up to 6 months, but invariably the pimples would come back in varying degrees. When I got older, I figured out that milk was driving my acne through experimentation by eliminating milk and milk products and then seeing a dramatic decrease of acne. Essentially 98% clear just by avoiding it. I feel cheated by my doc back then. It was not pleasant going on that much Accutane. Doctors who claim diet has no effect on acne are just plain wrong and can cause damage by that belief. The research shows the inflammatory effect of milk on individuals who are sensitive to it's effects. There are people for whom diet has no effect on their acne. It is however wrong to say diet is not a factor in some people.

On 10/11/2015 at 3:40 PM, gladiatorman3 said:

I suffered through long bouts of nodular and pustular acne all through my late teens and most of my twenties without realizing that milk was driving my acne problem. My dermatologist at the time said that diet had no effect on acne. I went on Accutane for 6 separate treatments. Yes, you read that right....6. I was drinking up to a 1/2 gallon of milk everyday in addition to eating cheese slices on sandwiches and also ice cream or sour cream every once in awhile. After every Accutane treatment, my face was clear for a time up to 6 months, but invariably the pimples would come back in varying degrees. When I got older, I figured out that milk was driving my acne through experimentation by eliminating milk and milk products and then seeing a dramatic decrease of acne. Essentially 98% clear just by avoiding it. I feel cheated by my doc back then. It was not pleasant going on that much Accutane. Doctors who claim diet has no effect on acne are just plain wrong and can cause damage by that belief. The research shows the inflammatory effect of milk on individuals who are sensitive to it's effects. There are people for whom diet has no effect on their acne. It is however wrong to say diet is not a factor in some people.

I am sorry to hear that... are you clear from your acne now?

I felt very cheated by my doctors and dermatologists too, who's education and practices caused them to prescribe to me only topical and oral medications withlittle insight into my diet. It was only when I started researching myself that I found dozens of other things thatcould, and did,help.

"There are people for whom diet has no effect on their acne. It is however wrong to say that diet is not a factor in some people".

That is very true.Diet will always help your health and skin, make no mistake about that. Redness can go down and skin regrowth may rise...

... but in the end, please remember thatit may never be enough for somepeople,or the right thing, to help theirskin get rid of their acne. I was already doingmultiple other things, such as exercising and having good sleep at the time. I have no clue if a lazy lifestyle with JUST a healthy diet would have worked on its own.

Just avoiding dairy wasnot enough for me; Sugary foods and deserts (without milk)also caused many pimples for me, and even THEN I'm wasn't clear. You must in addition eat good things, and that's when you'll finally see some improvement over a couple of months, which to many people may seem like too long time. However, they must try it fairly and honestly otherwise they will never know.

Our skin is always affected by our diets, but for people who do not get acne, their skin may not appear to change that much. It is still achange, but all that may happen is that they will go from "glowing" to simply "averagely smooth" with some slight dryness and redness, and without one spot in their entire life. And for those who are paleo/raw/vegan/whateverwho eatno junk foods or sugarand have very healthy lifestyles, they may be all over the place with their acne and extremely sensitive from the tiniest of things...such as the sugar in fruitsand the starches in potatoes and rice.

Even today I'll still get pimples if I eat too much of those things and have an imbalance with my diet, but I was more than willing to walk that path because not only I am definitely far better off nowthen before, I have matured and changed in so many other ways.

I am confident that in over the next couple ofyears, my health will be good enough to tolerate a cookie here and there, but in the end it's not worth the suffering to fantasize about never having them.Sweets are not the pinnacle of life, and shouldn't be fixated on. What I have come to understand is that most people are addicted to food, something that I never had to really struggle with. In that case, they need to seek help with understanding their taste buds and how the human body developed to seek those things out in the first place. Many documentaries exist with this kind of knowledge, and are very much worth looking into.

I used to drink so much milk as a kid and teenager. I guess everyone has been brought up believing that it is normal to do and good for you. But after I learned milk provoked inflammatory response I eliminated milk completely for over 10 years, however it has not really reduced the severity of my acne. Although I still eat cheese from time to time in small quantities. I don't think I would want to ever give up high quality cheeses. Who knows if the cheese I eat has the same if any effect. I also wonder if all the cow milk I drank when developing perhaps changed my gene expression and primed my body to be excessively inflammatory.

Even though not drinking milk hasn't helped much with my acne, I think its healthier to do without it. I feel better not having it and I'm still milk free to this day. I always think to myself - would you ever see an adult dog drinking milk from a horse?

On 1/8/2016 at 5:30 PM, beyondinfinity said:

I used to drink so much milk as a kid and teenager. I guess everyone has been brought up believing that it is normal to do and good for you. But after I learned milk provoked inflammatory response I eliminated milk completely for over 10 years, however it has not really reduced the severity of my acne. Although I still eat cheese from time to time in small quantities. I don't think I would want to ever give up high quality cheeses. Who knows if the cheese I eat has the same if any effect. I also wonder if all the cow milk I drank when developing perhaps changed my gene expression and primed my body to be excessively inflammatory.

Even though not drinking milk hasn't helped much with my acne, I think its healthier to do without it. I feel better not having it and I'm still milk free to this day. I always think to myself - would you ever see an adult dog drinking milk from a horse?

Haha, no. I was the same with milk, and all dairy products. I loved cheese, ice cream, and even yogurt. When I gave it all up, however, it wasn't as terrible as I thought. It was just awkward at first and confusing because of how the current food industry operated, and what we are told is healthy and safe to eat.

Unfortunately, I must tell you that even in small quantities dairy is not good for you. This includes unpasteurized and raw special milks, not just cow's milk. You have to get rid of it all, and no focusing on wishing you could eat it. If this is difficult for you, then I recommend watching food documentations and looking into human evolution/behavior developments. You are not alone in this, so please don't feel bad, but eating these things will keep your gut inflamed and the bad bacteria well fed for months on end.

You can, however, look into milk based Kefir and fermenting your own yogurt at home. This is the only alternative option that I can think of, but again, it may be toodifficult of an art to craft.

Bumping the board because of recent updates.

Thank you for the very detailed post.

Yes there is some scientific evidence on the link between diet and acne, howevereven if I believe that, I have a very hard time figuring out WHICH foods break me out... Do you have any tips and tricks on how to systematically "find out" which foods are safe and which do break out (for example. trial & error)?

Also, the evidence out there regarding "acne-triggering foods" is very contradictory. For example, some studies say that people with acne can eat apples, other studies say that they cause breakouts. Should I not fully rely on these studies, and instead find out myself, which comes back to my first question above?

Lastly, as you mentioned in your post that one should leave out diary completely to a 100%, is this very important? Does the same go with e.g. bread and sugar? Why is it so important to completely leave something out?

Best regards,

M

Your diet is very good although consider adding more emphasis to the vegan aspect.

After 20 years of dealing with many types of acne on the face, chest, back, thighs, I have recently (and independently) arrived at a very similar dietary solution. Although I had tried the dairy free / low sugar diets before, it wasn't until I combined that with 100% plant based diet that all of my acne disappeared. It has been over two years now and it seems like a miracle.

1) Plant based (vegan) diet.
- No meat, eggs, fish, or dairy.

2) Low sugar diet

3) Vanity mirrors
- If your acne is really bad and is causing depression or anxiety, it helps to avoid looking at the problem in the mirror.

4) Mind and body
- Try not to touch your face or other affected parts of your body. This tactile feedback is similar to looking in the mirror and leads to anxiety and itchiness.
- While your body is healing itself with the new diet, which for me took six months, it helps to think about the problem as little as possible. That's why avoiding mirrors and reflections is recommended.

Dietary change should be the first option for acne treatment because it is free and effective. Hopefully, in the future, this type of diet will become common knowledge. It encapsulates both the cause and cure at the same time. Do a search for 'acne vegan' or 'acne plant based' for other success stories.

Sounds like a combination of allergen avoidance and severecaloric restriction

It really is amazing what a difference clear skin can make in someones life. Im pretty happy for you.

People who say looks dont matter never had to deal with a face full of cystic acne, or any other part of their body covered in this horrible disease. The damage it does to a person goes much deeper than the skin and if you are not strong it will wreck you.

I am 36 years old and been struggling with this for about 2/3 of my life. It began when i was 12 and peaked when i was about 15 with probably the worst case in my school of 1000 people (no hyperbole here, i was terrrified to even go to school, new pimples would develop literally between classes).Other boys were growing facial hair and getting girlfriends. i was...well it was different for me.

All my 3 younger brothers were on Accutane. I was on it 4 times. Each time it would clear me up but then come right back. I didnt really know what to do

But i was always pretty curious and good at seeing patterns

I knew that some people would never get acne no matter how bad their diet was but i knew that for me certain foods would break me out...raw milk was a big on...and peanut butter. growing up on a dairy farm i had more than my share of raw milk, pouring gas on the fire there without even knowing it probably.

into my 20s it calmed down but was always there, just enough to be a concern...i would be constantly looking for a way to eliminate it forever. it feels like i tried everything. all the creams, the pills...everything. Everything except taking a good look at my diet and seeing what should have been obvious

acne is an external condition but it starts from within, mostly genetic, both of my parents had moderate cases and all of my brothers were bad enough to be put on accutane

----------------------------------------------------------------------

acne is basically a disease of inflammation.

this is why things like milk, with all the IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor, a hugely inflammatory peptide compound) particularly raw farm milk, do a lot of damage, also it comes from the mammary glands of another species, we aint supposed to be drinking that.

peanut butter and all other foods containing an imbalance of omega-6 to omega-3 and 9 are also pretty bad.

sugar and starch spike blood sugar, causing a release of insulin and the cascading release of more IGF do much the same thing

hard training also causes me tobreakout, basically any shift in hormonal balance.

essentially my "cure" was found in eating a paleolithic diet. with a relatively short eating window of 3 or 4 hours for optimal results

if i adhere to this i stay clear

if we eat like our ancestors we wont suffer so much from this

--------------------------------------------------

this is more or less a reiteration of what has been said but lately ive been slack and some of the discipline has fallen by the wayside, perhaps i am writing it out to remind myself of what works

its not easy but it works and it is very much worth it.

fresh fruit and veggies, nuts, seeds, meat, fish, poultry, lots of water, fresh air, sunshine, keep stress down, cold showers, fasting and exercise... all these things help. well they help me anyway...