My Acne Story - 30 Years Before I Discovered Diet Would Clear My Skin

It just occurred to me that I should tell you about myself.   So, here goes.  I began getting acne at age 10. Fifth Grade. Just when kids are starting to enter their mean phase. It began on my forehead as teen acne often does. To the best of my recollection and a few photos, it was pretty inflamed probably because I picked at it.  I wasn't taken to a dermatologist until my later teens when I began the antibiotics and harsh topicals that never helped.   Prior to that my mother thought I just needed to wash my face. My skin was grotesquely oily.  I'd feel like my skin was melting before the end of the school day.  I began getting it all over my face, chest, back, upper arms, neck.  So for about 10 years, I saw various dermatologists who gave me various antibiotics and topicals none of which ever helped. Finally I tried accutane, but two courses also did nothing except give me chapped lips.  So I mostly gave up for many years after that.

When I was about 25, I had a coworker who had perfect skin except for occasional nodules on her chin. One day she pointed them out saying she 'had two big glasses of orange juice at breakfasts his weekend and look at my skin!!'  I had been having oranges everyday as an afternoon snack and my skin had gotten worse.   So I avoided oranges and most other citrus and the vast majority of my giant inflamed nodules went away.  It would be many more years before I would figure out that while I could have lemons and Persian limes, I was intolerant to key limes which I randomly bought and so I had nodules off and on.  And I still had grotesquely oily skin and other forms of acne on my face, chest and back.  Oh, and then I developed rosacea in my late 20s.

Note: Nodules, along with cysts, are considered the two most severe, disfiguring forms of acne. Big, red and slow to heal.  I usually refer to them both as cysts as people are more familiar with that term, but technically I got nodules which unlike cysts, don't contain pus.

Also Note:  I am not suggesting that oranges cause acne in everyone and that everyone should avoid them.  But it is fairly common to be allergic to citrus and it's something you might test for yourself. I have encountered quite a few others that also break out in cysts or nodules from citrus. And in fact, I have a suspicion that this type of acne is a reaction to some kind of food or perhaps environmental intolerance and not true acne at all. Especially if they appear in the same part of your face or body over and over.  Remind me to explain to you about delayed type allergic response and the various antibodies involved in your immune response besides those that cause the immediate reactions most people are familiar with and all most allergists are concerned about. 

Also, Just so you know, the citrus caused nodules primarily all along my hairline, jawline and neck, but I also got them elsewhere and have the scars to prove it. I think different citrus cause my acne in different places. When I tried having a tangerine a couple of years ago, I got one on my scar covered temples and I hadn't had a pimple there in many years.  (Your temples scar easily)

Then, nearing my 40th birthday, and shortly after my now ex-husband was diagnosed with diabetes, I started learning about diet and the post prandial affects of a high glycemic meal and the importance of various nutrients.  And I just 'got' that we can not be eating this way.  If we hadn't invented added sugar and refined carbs, we would almost never elevate our insulin the way the typical American does today.  The Standard American Diet aka SAD diet has become incredibly bad and is the root cause of most of the degenerative diseases that have become some of the fasted spreading diseases in history.  And they are self inflicted.

So, despite being a Coke-aholic, I quit drinking it and any other sugary drink cold turkey and began improving my diet, removing empty calories in favor of the most nutrient dense foods.  My skin cleared completely in less than two months!!  It was only after this that I could make the key lime connection. Still, the nodules I got from the key limes were much smaller, much less inflamed and much faster to heal due to my anti-inflammatory and nutrient rich diet habits.  And as a bonus, this diet also keeps my rosacea under control.

I now don't follow a perfect diet. Just a mostly very, very good diet.  I cheat pretty often, daily in fact. But most of my meals are very nutrient rich and low glycemic.  The only thing I'm strict about is never drinking sugar.  And I keep my skin clear most of the time and my skin is now just on the slightly oily side and glowing.

(Remind me to also tell you about sebum quality that makes the difference between sebum that protects skin and makes it glow versus sebum that looks greasy and clogs pores.)

Be sure to see my prior posts about anti-inflammatory diets, the damage caused by excess sugar, and my basic How to eat for clear skin.

Add Ginger to Your Diet

Ginger isn't just delicious, it is filled with beneficial compounds that have been found to aid common ailments such as nausea, cramps, headache, and joint and muscle pains.  And it prevents and and relieves symptoms and complications of the common cold as well as more serious conditions such as diabetes, stroke, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cancer.  It's antibacterial, antifungal and helps clear intestinal parasites.  There has even been research that finds it effective in treating heartworms in dogs. 1

Most of its benefits are due to it being a powerful anti-inflammatory.  And remember, we want to reduce inflammation for clear, acne free, youthful skin.

And like I said, it's delicious.  The two easiest ways to make ginger a habit are to carry candied ginger with you to ward off nauseau and various aches and pains. And to add it to your drinks.  The simplest recipe is to put about 1 cubic inch of ginger in a cup of boiling water for ginger tea.  Or do what I do and add a few slices to my morning cup of green tea or my evening cup of chamomile. I  nibble on the slices after finishing my tea.

Ginger tips:

• Peel ginger by scraping the skin off with the back of a spoon.
• You can freeze it to keep peeled and sliced ginger on hand ready to drop into your tea. Or you can leave it in small chunks. Once defrosted it is soft and you can squeeze the juice into your drink.
• Freeze grated ginger in logs making it easy to break off just what you need for your stir fry!  Spread a row of grated ginger a couple inches thick on a piece of waxed paper or plastic wrap. Roll up and pop in the freezer. 
• Some people claim good results from applying the juice topically to an inflamed pimple. I shall try to remember to try this next time I get one.  There is research into the anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects of topical ginger.

Drink Recipes:

Sassy Water

This recipe is part of the Flat Belly diet. It's delicious and has good stuff in it. Anti-inflammatory and good for digestion. It's meant to reduce bloating.

2 liters water (about 8 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 medium cucumber. peeled and thinly sliced
1 medium lemon thinly sliced
12 small spearmint leaves

Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher and let flavors blend overnight.

Iced Ginger-Green Tea
Both green tea and ginger have fat-blasting properties. The green tea contains nutrients that help block fat absorption. And both the tea and ginger help raise metabolism and help your body utilize carbs more efficiently.

Ingredients
12 quarter-inch slices of fresh ginger
4 tbsp loose green tea or 12 bags
3 cups water

Directions
Bring the water to a boil. Turn off the heat and let the tea and ginger soak in the boiling water for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags or leaves and pour the concentrated tea into a jug. Fill the rest of the jug with cool water. Put the tea in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours to chill. Then enjoy!


And did you know you could Make Your Own Ginger Ale? 

It's used so much in bar drinks. Make your own so you can indulge a little.  These recipes of course, calls for sugar. You will want to use a substitute and use it to taste and according to the directions for using that substitute in place of sugar in recipes. Hopefully your tastebuds are adapting to your better diet and you no longer like things to be as nauseatingly sweet as most commercial products.

2 Cup cold water
1 Cup lime juice
4 tsp fresh ginger - mince or grate
3/4 Cup superfine sugar or substitute of course, use to taste
3 Cups sparkling water or seltzer water

Process water, lime juice and ginger in blender

Strain through cheesecloth into pitcher

Stir in sweetener to dissolve, add sparkling water.

If you like it, it might be worth getting a seltzer maker so you can make the seltzer water from your own filtered water.

Here's another:

Ginger ale

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup peeled and chopped ginger root
2 TBS vanilla
1 TBS lemon extract
1/4 tsp stevia concentrate powder
Carbonated or sparkling water

How to Prepare:
Rapidly boil ginger root in water for 10 minutes. Strain and place liquid in a jar. Stir in vanilla, lemon and stevia. Cool and store in the refrigerator.

Alton Brown's Ginger Ale:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-b...cipe/index.html

This one is fermented with yeast to provide the carbonation. I'm sure you can reduce/substitute most of the sugar, but you probably need at least a tablespoon to feed the yeast. And you might want to read all the comments before trying it or if you don't like the results of your first batch. Reviewers suggest quite a few variations, doubling of ginger, using brewers yeast instead, etc.

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 ounces finely grated fresh ginger
* 6 ounces sugar
* 7 1/2 cups filtered water
* 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
* 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions

Place the ginger, sugar, and 1/2 cup of the water into a 2-quart saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat, cover and allow to steep for 1 hour.

Pour the syrup through a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl, pressing down to get all of the juice out of the mixture. Chill quickly by placing over and ice bath and stirring or set in the refrigerator, uncovered, until at least room temperature, 68 to 72 degrees F.

Using a funnel, pour the syrup into a clean 2-liter plastic bottle and add the yeast, lemon juice and remaining 7 cups of water. Place the cap on the bottle, gently shake to combine and leave the bottle at room temperature for 48 hours. Open and check for desired amount of carbonation. It is important that once you achieve your desired amount of carbonation that you refrigerate the ginger ale. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, opening the bottle at least once a day to let out excess carbonation.

1 Ginger's Many Evidence-Based Health Benefits Revealed
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/node/83545