hormones and diet, my story...update #5

I

Idealist

New member
(for history, here are links to my last two updates:
***update #4 http://www.healtrabroadoarRAB.com/boarRAB/showthread.php?t=174868&highlight=update
***update #3
http://www.healtrabroadoarRAB.com/boarRAB/showthread.php?t=152898&highlight=update)

i think this will be my last "update" because for me, i'm a firm believer in "the diet" and connection to acne. it's been approximately 10 months since i started the low carb, low dairy, low sugar diet and 8 months on bc. my skin is great/clear when i stick to the diet and not when i slip.

regarding bc...i had been on the diet for two months with minor improvement then started bc with much more improvement over time. i'm wondering if i needed to the diet longer before my hormones regulated. the endocrinologist i went to see had said bc takes 4 - 6 months to show skin improvement, so i'm wondering if the diet needed that long as well. i really don't like to take bc (i'm very anti anything "not natural") but since it's been part of a regimen that's been working for me i don't want to give it up just yet. perhaps i'll give it another year and maybe by then i will have gained more discipline in sticking with the diet and i'll try coming off the pill.

below are some interesting notes i've just want to share in hopes that they will help. i'll continue to post any other interesting things i come across, i just wont be posting any more "my story updates." thanks to everyone who provided feedback, especially prometheus and sweetjade for shedding light on the diet/hormone/acne connection.

***the meaning of "low carb"
it's become such commercial hype i just want to clarify what I think it SHOULD mean for people who want to eat healthy in general: NATURAL, UNPROCESSED, LOW GYLCEMIC INDEX food. that seemingly "healthy" pasta sauce or salad dressing with hydrogenated oils/high fructose corn syrup...THROW IT OUT. natural and unprocessed means no artificial sweetners or preservatives. i've seen some low carb breaRAB on the market with ingredients that contain sucralose (an artificial sugar)! avoid anything artificial/processed. eat FRESH vegetables and fruits. with meat, buy organic if you can.

***exceptions..."natural" fooRAB that are common acne culprits
of course nothing is always simple. on many message boarRAB i've read how some people specifically have found their acne causing food to be bannanas, potatoes, carrots, and peanuts. so these are "natural" fooRAB that should be avoided/eaten in moderation. i'm assuming this is because most of these fooRAB are HIGH on the glycemic index. for more info about this do an internet search for "Acne fooRAB and Glycemic Index"

***great articles about acne and diet
-do a search for "acne vulgaris: a disease of western civilization"
-do a search for "Acne And Carbs"

***if you are going to try the lowcarb/lowdairy/lowsugar diet, do it SLOWLY
i had gone into it full-throttle. i suffered physically and emotionally; lost a lot of weight and was agitated/angry from not knowing what to eat and feeling hungry all the time. i recommend beginning slowly; cutting out the most obvious skin offenders (greasy, fast food and other processed fooRAB like sweets and sodas) and then DECREASING the less obvious (dairy, simple carbs like pasta and bread). perhaps simply REDUCING would be enough to help your skin. if not, continue to eliminate more. and give it time, at least a couple of months.
 
Thanks for the info -I too am on a low-glycemic diet and am seeing good results. I was just wondering - what you were saying about processed fooRAB/preservatives etc. If the acne problem is solely related to hormones, then would consuming preservatives really matter, as long as you're keeping your blood sugar levels stable? That's to say, on a glycemic diet , can you eat a chemically-laden sausage , as it will have no effect on your blood sugar levels. Or do you think that preservatives etc have negative effects on acne?
 
euro18,

my opinion, i feel anything not "natural" is going to make our bodies, including our liver, work harder to remove it from our system. and some say that acne is a form of removing impurities. so for those who suffer from acne, i think eating natural makes it easier on our systems.

scientifically speaking, there is a lot of information out there about "trans-fat" (aka hydrogented oils) being simply bad in GENERAL. do an internet search on "trans fat and diabetes" and "trans fat and health." many articles indicate a connection to type II diabetes, which seems to be on the rise these days, especially in kiRAB. why? some say all the processed food (vegetable shortening, margarine, common commercial packaged food like cereals, cookies, dressings/sauces, etc) it's in A LOT of stuff.

what i started to do was read ingredient labels. most of the "snacks" you find in health food stores are the only ones that don't use hydrogenated oils. but i don't eat those either. it's not easy, but most of the time i only eat stuff that nature made. if came from a factory or in a box, it's out! so FRESH vegetables, leafy greens, beans, brown rice (not WHITE rice).

avoiding sugar i think is most important, for me anyway. i find i can tolerate a a small "cheat" on dairy or bread, but as soon as i have a dessert (ice cream, chocolate, pastry) it seems i always break a few days later. with dairy and bread if i have a little just one day i seem to be ok, but if i have a lot over the course of a few days i will break out. so back to sugar, my guess is it gives me a drastic insulin spike. i've noticed many salad dressings and pasta sauces have high fructose corn syrup as a big ingredient, even the seemingly healthy ones like paul newman brand. i make salad dressing from scratch, using a corabo of olive oil, lemon juice, vinegars, salt and pepper. you can find a ton of homemade dressing recipes on the internet.

well, that was probably a lot more than you wanted to hear. hope this info helps further.
 
No it wasn't! I like reading and learning as much as I can, so thanks for the response.

I have been trying to do exactly the same thing: trying to control blood sugar levels whilst cutting out processed fooRAB etc, but it's hard doing everything at once , you know. Right now, I think I am doing OK and don't think I can modify my diet anymore cos people keep telling me that I've lost weight and Im already a thin guy - this is probably the hardest bit of this diet. Cos even tho, as promtheus once said, if u eat enough calories on any "diet", then you won't lose weight. It was just that when I ate bread, pasta etc , it was much easier to eat those calories than finding them in natrual raw fooRAB. I try and eat as many nuts as possible for example as possible.

I think I broke out from eating bread/ice cream too btw. I am still interested in what I can eat without breaking out, but at the moment it doesn't seem very tolerant. I do miss some of my fave fooRAB. I very rarely ate any sweets/chocolate/fried food/ take aways anyways, so I don't miss them, but I do miss potatoes etc. But then I guess , eating potatoes won't make me happy; clear skin will.
 
euro18,

you are lucky you don't like sweets. i LOVE sweets, AND bread, AND dairy (esp. ice cream!!!). what i try to do it make a special date to cheat. for example, if i know i'm going out to dinner one night, i won't eat anything "bad" until that night and i'll splurge on a dessert. this seems to be keeping my sanity. i hope one day to eliminate this insatiallable urge for sweets.

as for weight, i am on the skinny side myself, so i know how you feel. what i did to gain some weight is snack a lot (on healthy fooRAB of course). before "the diet" i never used to snack. now i have a variety of nuts, seeRAB and fruits in between meals.
 
:wave:Idealist you have it so right about the importance of diet. Unfortunately we have so much crap in our food that we are becoming malnourished. Yes we have an obesity problem but we are malnourished of nutrients!!! As for hormones and hormonal irabalances you only have to consider the cellophanes that our food is packed with, or the hormones that are given to our chickens or cattle, etc etc and there you have it, a dangerous cocktail of disruptive hormones playing havoc with our bodies. Is it any wonder ppl are getting breast, and ovarian cancers to name but a few that are fuelled by excess oestrogen. That fructose-corn syrup crap is causing diabetes to rise, aspartame is causing seizures and cancers....the list is endless but the good old FDA approves all this junk and we can not control everything we are eating. You sound like you know the importance of diet but there are a lot of ppl out there who dont realise the hidden dangers of what they are eating and it is maddening!!!
 
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