Acne And Diet
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For years, many persons thought that acne had nothing to do with their diet. Even the medical industry claims that diet is not related to acne as a means to protect their income from dispensing drugs. The American Medical Association has established that the only way to treat acne is through the use of medication. They say there is no evidence that your diet can cause or help acne. |
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When you have acne, it is due to a high sebum production. Sebum is the name for the oily substance produced by your sebaceous gland. The function of the sebum is to protect the hair shaft and the skin. However, when their is an excess of sebum it becomes thick and sticky and traps dirt and bacteria which clog the pores and leads to acne.
Your sebaceous gland is a hormone, an when it produces an excess of sebum it is because there is an imbalance in your body chemistry and thus an imbalance in your hormones. This is a result of eating processed and junk foods.
Think about it — underneath it all, we're just mammals and the human body has an innate ability to heal itself. Animals in the wild don't get these diseases, so why should we? It's a symptom of modern society. Most modern diseases, including acne and much more serious illnesses such as cancer and heart disease, are caused by diet. Our natural diet is fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds. When you cook many of the foods that have become the staple diet of people today (bread, pasta etc), they become similar in chemical structure as sugar and cause the following reaction in the body:
Refined carbs/sugar = more insulin = more hormones = more sebum (oil) = more bacteria = more acne.
Fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds in their natural state provide the body with all the nutrients and enzymes required for digestion and absorbsion. In cooked food many of the vitamins and minerals have been destroyed and virtually all of the enzymes, this means the body has to work even harder to digest and absorb what nutrition is left. Increasing temperature causes exponential increase in the rate of chemical reactions. When food is heated, the rate of reactions of degradation and oxidation of nutrients increases dramatically. As a result, we consume fewer nutrients and more acne aggravating free radicals.
The molecular structure of cooked food has changed so much, the body doesn't recognise it and produces white blood cells (leukocytosis) — this is what happens when we are sick. When you put raw food in the body, it doesn't produce white blood cells and digestive leukocytosis does not occur. What does that tell you? And, because the molecular structure of food has changed in the cooking process, there are free radicals (atoms or groups of atoms with an odd (unpaired) number of electrons) floating around the blood stream. Free radicals are what people commonly refer to as 'toxins'. In a person with acne, often the digestive system is sluggish — from poor diet and/or antibiotics. This means it doesn't work efficiently to get rid of toxins and absorb nutrients from food, and these toxins are expelled via the skin (acne).
Foods That Can Aggravate Acne
Caffeine—sodas and chocolate. Caffeine is a stimulant and can be found in many different foods. Coffee and cola are the more well-know examples, but caffeine is also in many other foods. The stimulant properties in caffeine seem to aggravate both acne breakouts and Candida infections.
Sugars—particularly refined such as white and powdered. Sugar is also in many different foods. In its natural form, such as in fruit (fructose), it is easily digested and managed by the body.
Vinegar—also in many foods, from canned veggies to catsup, mustard, and salad dressing. Vinegar doesn’t cause problems for all individuals, but many have sensitivity to it and do not even know it.
MSC—monosodium glutamate is found in most processed foods. Many people have sensitivities to MSG and in some people who are highly allergic to it, MSG can even be deadly. MSG is required to be listed on all foods, as it is added as a flavor enhancer and preservative.
Some symptoms of MSG sensitivity are extreme tiredness and sleepiness right after ingesting it. Skin reactions usually occur within 24 hours.
Bananas—Believe it or not, a lot of people have high skin sensitivity to bananas. Usually, these same people have an acute sensitivity to pineapple as well.
Iodine—such as in seafood like shrimp and lobster. Most people with sensitivities to seafood already know they have a problem. What a lot of acne and Candida sufferers don’t know is, even if they seem to be able to eat seafood with no trouble, the iodine content has been shown to aggravate acne breakouts. The iodine seems to release a lot of stored toxins in the blood and leads to greater and more prolonged breakouts.
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