Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Master Your Acne PDF
Master Your Acne PDF
by
Devin(Mooers
!!!!!©!2011
Table of Contents
How To Use This Document .................................................................5
1 .............................................................................................................8
The Ending, First 8
2 .............................................................................................................9
Are You Listening to Your Acne? 9
How Come My Dermatologist Didn’t Tell Me All This? 11
The Shotgun Approach 12
Overcome the Victim Mentality 13
Find Your Own Truth 13
Symptoms vs. Causes 14
3 ...........................................................................................................16
What Is Acne, Anyways? 16
IGF-1 22
Blood Sugar and Insulin 24
Glycemic Index and Acne 25
The Dangers of Inflammation 29
The Role of P. acnes Bacteria 30
Foods That Cause Inflammation 30
Foods That Cool Inflammation 32
On Supplements 33
4 ...........................................................................................................35
Genes and Acne 35
Master Your Acne! ! Page 3
by Devin Mooers
5 ...........................................................................................................39
What Can Tradition Teach Us? 39
6...........................................................................................................42
The Four Worst Foods For Acne 42
Acne Demon #1: Dairy 42
Acne Demon #2: Sugar 45
Acne Demon #3: Vegetable Oil 46
Acne Demon #4: Gluten 49
Summary 51
7 ...........................................................................................................52
How to Get Even Faster Results 52
Grains 52
Beans & Legumes 53
For Vegetarians and Vegans 55
8...........................................................................................................56
So What Can I Eat? 56
The Master List of Clear Skin Foods 57
How NOT To Use This List 63
Organic vs. Conventional 63
Hidden Ingredients 66
Eat Like Royalty 67
Tricks to Save Money 69
Benefits of Butter 70
Educate Yourself 71
9 ...........................................................................................................72
Supplements 72
Omega-3s (EPA) 73
Vitamin D 76
Zinc 78
10 ........................................................................................................82
Digestion and Gut Health 82
11 .........................................................................................................85
The Last Few Keys to Clear Skin 85
Sleep 85
Stress 86
Exercise 89
Quit Using Skin & Hair Care Products 90
Clean Up Your Home and Office 92
Smoking 93
12 .........................................................................................................94
Final Words 94
Appendix .............................................................................................96
Glycemic Index and Insulin Index 96
Some parts are fairly complex, because acne is a complex problem, and I
want you to understand the real causes of acne, because you must
understand it before you can master it. I’ve tried my best to make this
information as easy to understand as possible, but it’s tough work. If you
find terms or concepts that are confusing, you can email me at
info@masteryouracne.com, but don’t sweat the small stuff.
A note on navigation: if you’re reading this as a PDF, you can click on the
page numbers in the Table of Contents to go the corresponding page.
Kind Regards,
Devin Mooers
Master Your Acne
info@masteryouracne.com
Official Disclaimer
Content in this book is for reference purposes and is not intended to
substitute for advice given by a physician, pharmacist, or other licensed
health-care professional. You should not use this information as self-
diagnosis or for treating a health problem or disease. Contact your health-
care provider immediately if you suspect that you have a medical problem.
Information and statements regarding dietary supplements have not been
evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to
diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition.
Unofficial Disclaimer
With this method, results vary from person to person, depending on how
much effort you dedicate to the method, and how strongly you persevere. By
working hard at making these diet and lifestyle changes, you can truly
transform your skin – that’s a promise.
So work hard, apply yourself, and you will see clear skin in less time than
you ever thought possible!
When you write a book, you’re not supposed to give away the ending on the
first page. But here we go. Here’s how to cure acne:
Rub your face with coconut oil twice a day, drink green tea three times a
day, sprinkle cinnamon on everything you eat, eat nothing but apples for
three days, take a twice-daily cocktail of chromium, zinc, selenium, vitamin
B5, vitamin B6, vitamin A, vitamin E, fish oil, fermented cod liver oil, EGCG,
garlic extract, coconut oil, red palm oil, high-vitamin butter oil, evening
primrose oil, MSM, saw palmetto, L-glutamine, alpha-lipoic acid, probiotics,
Co-Q10, and resveratrol, and finally, surgically remove all your pimples with
a scalpel. Bang, no acne!
Okay, that's pretty morbid. But aside from the scalpel, this approach would
virtually guarantee you clear skin in a matter of weeks.
This approach is the sum total of all the advice given by the “acne gurus” out
there. Then why not do all of these things?
ADDISON WHITHECOMB
Here's the thing: acne may well be the most important thing that ever
happened to you.
Acne is not your enemy; it’s a messenger, carrying critical news about your
health. You've got to listen, or risk serious disease down the road.
If you hadn't had acne, you wouldn't be here now, reading this. You have
acne because your body's trying to say, "Listen to me, will you? You’re
hurting me! You're doing something wrong, and I'm suffering, and acne is
the best way I know how to tell you that!" If you cover up those signals with
makeup or harsh medicines, you're stifling your body's cries for change.
Think about that for a moment. What are you doing every day to cover up
these signals, to cover up your acne?
I say that having acne may be the best thing that ever happened to you,
because you're learning something that people with perfect skin may never
learn: how to listen to your body and give it what it needs for ultimate
health.
So really, this acne stuff goes deeper than just a bunch of humiliating red
bumps on your face – it's about taking your health into your own hands,
overturning all the false information that's been drilled into your head, and
taking control of your life. And finally achieving clear skin in the process.
I want you to flip acne around and start thinking of it as a positive force of
change in your life.
The biggest leap you have to make between you and clear skin is to accept
acne as a positive thing. As a friend, watching out for you.
When I was a child, I was deeply affected by the novel Ender’s Game, in
which a boy prodigy commands humanity’s forces in an attack against a
hostile alien race. One thing the boy says burned itself into my mind forever:
love your enemies.
You have to give up the war on acne immediately. You can't win. You've been
fighting that battle for a long time, and you're about ready to break down
and surrender – that’s why you’re here, reading this. It turns out that
surrendering is exactly what you must do. You must work with your acne.
You must learn to see it as a partner, mentor, and tutor. You must respect it
and feel compassion for it, and listen to what it has to say. Only then will its
purpose be fulfilled, and it will disappear into the shadows, coming back only
now again to give you a gentle tap on the shoulder and say, “Hey, you're
going astray. Remember what we learned together? Remember that TLC you
promised me?”
Another way to think about this: instead of fighting acne, instead of fighting
the messenger, wage war on your real enemy, the enemy your acne’s trying
to warn you about. Wage war on the toxins, the pollutants, the chemicals,
the stress – all the bad stuff you've been unknowingly poisoning your body
with.
- ESKIMO PROVERB
You thought you could trust your doctor. After all, he went to medical school,
right? He or she should know everything there is to know about skin health,
including how diet affects acne, right?
So your average doctor has barely studied nutrition at all, besides the
minority of holistic or naturopathic doctors (and you probably would not be
reading this if you had one of those). Consequently, your doctor probably
believes that diet has little or nothing to do with acne – which you will soon
see is absolutely false. Quite simply, diet has almost everything to do with
acne. And so your doctor may be misleading you, because they don’t know
the whole story.
Acne, on the other hand, is your friend; it will not lie to you, has your best
interest in mind, and will not try to sell you prescriptions. It gently nudges
you on the shoulder when you go astray.
Why? Unless your aim is perfect, you'll miss every time, because acne is a
complex moving target. No, we'll be using the shotgun approach. Why?
Because it's the approach that will get rid of your acne the fastest. For most
people, there is not just one single thing missing from their diet or lifestyle,
but rather there’s a sticky, interconnected web of problems that must all be
addressed to have the greatest chances of success.
“If it's never our fault, we can't take responsibility for it. If
we can't take responsibility for it, we'll always be its
victim.”
Do you ever catch yourself thinking this? “I'm a victim of acne. I got bad
genes, and there's nothing I can do to fix it. The best I can do is use cover-
up, or get prescription medicines to combat the acne.”
You have to take responsibility for your acne. You brought it about, nobody
else. Now, that might seem unfair, and you're right to think that your choices
have been largely dictated by others – parents, friends, doctors, the media;
but you've got to start taking responsibility now for turning those choices
around. You've got to educate and empower yourself. This course is the key.
You might be asking yourself, “why should I believe what this guy has to
say?” And you’re absolutely right to think that. Ultimately, I'm just another
guy with my own experience, my own knowledge, and my own opinions and
beliefs. However, I urge you to read this if it resonates with you, if it speaks
to you – to your logic, your emotions, and your bullshit meter. Accept what
resonates, and discard (or at least carefully scrutinize) what doesn't – the
things that strike you as odd or misguided or just plain wrong. This is not
about me telling you what to do. It's me giving my stance on things, and you
taking what you want from it. I've had enough of people telling me how to
eat, how to exercise, how to live. And I bet you have too. Here's to
independence of thought, and to free will.
With that, let’s dive into current acne treatments, and why they so often fail
in the long term.
Here's the problem with almost every acne treatment in existence: in treats
symptoms, not causes. You might be thinking, I don't care, as long as it gets
rid of my acne! But listen: that's not a path you want to go down. You've
been down that road, you know what it looks like. Trying cure after cure,
rubbing baking soda on your face every night, paying hundreds of dollars for
medications, in a blind stumbling search for something, just something that
works, and doesn't leave you with too many nasty side effects. (Has anyone
told you about the side effects of Accutane? Birth defects, hair loss,
depression, sleep problems, seizures, nosebleeds, eczema, lower back pain,
inflammatory bowel disease, breathing difficulties, and reduced blood flow to
the brain? Is that something worth messing around with?)
type of soil. Give them the sun, water, microbes and temperatures they need
to grow and thrive.
Still going on the tomato analogy. Living things – tomatoes, plants, animals,
and you – require healthy environments to grow and thrive. If conditions
aren't right, you get problems. For example, planting tomatoes in muddy,
soggy soil leads to tasteless, pale, mushy tomatoes. Similarly, planting
humans in a poor environment leads to all sorts of diseases, of which acne is
a very benign but extremely humiliating one.
The Internet is full to bursting with supposed miracle acne cures. A quick
search turns up everything from prescription drugs to apple cider vinegar to
baking soda to putting your own pee on your pimples. I'm willing to grant
that there may be something of value in urine therapy, but it's still a surface-
level, symptom-treating solution, and hence not really a solution at all – it
just puts off the problem until later, when you decide to stop using whatever
miracle cure you're on this week, or it decides to stop working. Then you hop
onto the next miracle cure, the one that's actually going to work this time!
You get the picture. It's cyclic.
To break out of this cycle, you and I need to examine our assumptions, and
discover how we've been led astray. No more being addicted to acne drug
companies and miracle cure-alls; it’s time to take the power into our own
hands.
Here we go. It’s science time, but I’ll keep it short and sweet. Skip it at your
own risk. The better you understand acne, the faster you'll master it.
From Wikipedia:
(And keratinocytes are skin cells that form the entire structure of your outer
skin layer. They’re really just dead skin cells that have been “keratinized,” or
filled with semi-rigid waxy proteins, forming the tough, protective outer
layer of your skin.)
Note: washing your face with acne scrubs irritates the skin, and can worsen
inflammation. Furthermore, using benzoyl peroxide (Clearasil, others) can be
effective in reducing acne, but it only covers up the problem, and thus
prevents you from getting the critical warnings about your health that your
acne is trying to give you.
Benzoyl peroxide is a drying and peeling agent, which works to extract those
excess dead skin cells from your pores to unclog them. It also fights P. acnes
bacteria and reduces inflammation. I used benzoyl peroxide for a long time,
but I strongly advise against using it, based on what I know now. (It also
bleached my favorite shirt on more than one occasion.)
Benzoyl peroxide causes over-drying of the skin, and slows down your skin’s
self-healing process dramatically. People who use benzoyl peroxide
frequently report red, dry, itchy, flaky skin – I had a friend in college using
BP, and his whole face looked like it was about to flake off.
Benzoyl peroxide also causes problems you can’t see: for example, it
destroys your body’s natural skin antioxidants, reducing skin levels of
vitamin E by up to 95% and vitamin C by up to 70%.4 Vitamin E and C are
two of your skin’s most potent natural defense mechanisms against
pathogens and free radicals, and the fact that benzoyl peroxide almost
completely knocks them out is extremely worrying.
Let’s add a fourth stage: P. acnes bacteria colonize your blocked pores; once
they set up shop, they reproduce by feeding on your sebum, and provoke
extreme inflammation.
It’s a little dry, but it’s accurate. Here’s what I call “The Action Movie
Definition” (try saying it out loud with that epic “movie trailer” voice):
So what’s to blame for acne? Why does our skin produce excess sebum?
Why do dead skin cells get stuck in our hair follicles, when they should be
able to escape naturally? Why do we have so much inflammation, to make
the problem worse?
The actual science behind this would be news to your average dermatologist,
especially because no one fully understands it yet, not even the front-line
researchers. For now, I’m going to talk about one major player in acne that’s
fairly well understood.
IGF-1
What is IGF-1? Well, IGF-1 is responsible for stimulating human growth, and
is most active until the end of puberty; afterward, it's supposed to decline
dramatically as you stop growing. But you can trick your body into producing
extra IGF-1 in a few different ways – and most importantly, for our
purposes, is diet. More on that in a minute – but first, how does IGF-1 give
you acne?
IGF-1 makes acne worse because it directly signals your oil glands to
produce more sebum. As we already know, too much sebum clogs pores,
creating comedones and eventually acne. To make the problem worse, IGF-1
causes dead skin cells in your pores to stick together, so they can’t slough
off and exit the pores like they’re supposed to – the second key ingredient in
clogged pores and acne.
Here's how it works: skin cells die naturally all the time, as your skin renews
and replaces itself. These dead skin cells are supposed to exit the skin
through your pores, but essentially, IGF-1 prevents these dead cells from
leaving, by clumping them together and binding them to the inside of your
pores so they can't break off (the "follicular hyperkeratosis"). When these
dead skin cells can't exit the pores properly, they build up and clog your
pores, leading to those little (or big) red bumps we're so familiar with. Once
your pores are clogged, all you need is a highly inflammatory diet and/or
lifestyle, and you'll get great big acne lesions.
And here’s the kicker: certain foods make you produce way more IGF-1 than
you’re supposed to. And a lot of those foods are mainstays in our food
culture – you’ve probably eaten all of them in the past two days. I’ll get to
these in a little bit.
So, fix your acne, fix your health. Put another way: fix the underlying causes
of your acne, and you’ll be giving your body everything it needs to create
optimum health, and shielding it from damaging foods and chemicals that
could lead to disease and an early death.
What's one of the worst foods for stimulating IGF-1? Cow's milk. That's
because cow's milk is meant for rapidly-growing calves, and is loaded with
bovine IGF-1, which is structurally and functionally identical to human IGF-1.
Drink milk, elevate your IGF-1, suffer from more acne.
What else should you watch out for that boosts IGF-1? Whey protein,
creatine, and low-fat diets. Bodybuilders beware: it’s a widely-accepted fact
that GOMAD (gallon of milk a day), protein powders, creatine, and
testosterone boosters are likely to give you tons of acne along with those big
muscles. If you use these products regularly, but you still want to get rid of
acne, you have two options: 1) stop using them when you reach your
desired mass goal, and then focus on curing your acne with the program
outlined in this course; 2) continue to use them, but try your hardest to
counteract them with powerful anti-inflammatory foods and anti-acne
supplements, which I’ll get into later.
(Here's a tip: if you want to quickly and dramatically lower your IGF-1 levels,
eat tomatoes. Tomato extract, tomato juice, tomato soup, cooked tomatoes,
or fresh tomatoes. For whatever reason – some researchers think it might be
the lycopene – tomatoes have a powerful positive effect on lowering IGF-1,
and thus reducing acne. As I write this, I’m eating an omelette with fresh
tomatoes, cooked tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, and a hefty dollop of
tomato paste. Now that’s tomato power.)
So we know that IGF-1 makes your body produce too much sebum; it turns
out that blood sugar swings do exactly the same thing. The culprit? Insulin,
that hormone so intimately involved in diabetes. Don't get me wrong, insulin
is crucial to human health – it removes excess glucose (sugar) from the
blood and packs it into your liver, muscles, and fat cells to be used as energy
later. As a side effect, insulin keeps your blood sugar levels low, which would
otherwise be toxic.6 And when insulin stops doing its job, you get diabetes,
because your blood sugar stays high all the time. This can also cause acne.
Indeed, studies have shown that acne sufferers tend to have insulin systems
that don't work very well. That means when they eat blood-sugar-spiking
foods, their blood sugar stays elevated – especially sugar levels in the skin.
(More on that in a moment.) So you might think of acne as “diabetes of the
skin.” Of course, if you have diabetes of the skin, you can bet that there’s
something wonky with your whole insulin-and-blood-sugar system, and you
could be well on the road toward diabetes. Shocking fact: an estimated 79
million Americans have pre-diabetes but don't even know it.7
As one person put it, all you have to do to cure acne is to “eat, sleep,
supplement and exercise like you are a diabetic.” 8
In short: insulin provides very important functions in the body, but it has a
dark side. Whenever you eat something that spikes your blood sugar, and
thus your insulin levels – be it bread, sugar, white rice, potatoes, milk, or
fruit juice – you're telling your skin to produce more sebum, which, as we
now know, clogs pores and leads to acne. This leads us in to the final key to
the acne puzzle: whenever you spike your blood sugar and release a cascade
of insulin, you’re setting the stage for the most evil villain of all:
inflammation.
A recent analysis of the literature found six studies supporting the fact that
high-glycemic diets – meaning diets with lots of sugar, refined
carbohydrates, and other foods that spike your blood sugar – contribute to
acne.9 How? Primarily, by increasing IGF-1 and reducing sex hormone
binding globulin (SBHG), thus increasing androgen activity, and causing
excess sebum and keratin production.10 If you’ll remember, that’s a recipe
for disaster, and leads to clogged pores. In addition to excessively boosting
androgen activity, high-glycemic diets lead to insulin resistance, constantly
elevated blood sugar, glycation, and a depressed immune system – all
ingredients in a recipe for acne.
As you may already know, it’s actually possible to measure how strongly
certain foods spike your blood sugar. The most well-known measurement is
called the “glycemic index”. Foods are measured in how quickly and severely
they spike your blood sugar, and given a corresponding numerical value.
In terms of acne, the best place to be is the “Low GI” range. These foods will
not cause nearly as much of a blood sugar and insulin rush as “Medium GI”
and “High GI” foods, and thus will not make your skin produce excess sebum
or become inflamed.
The problem with “Glycemic Index” is that it doesn’t take into account how
much of each food is actually carbohydrate. It only measures the blood-
sugar-spiking effect of a gram of carrot carbohydrate versus a gram of white
bread carbohydrate. It’s misleading, because carrots have a high glycemic
index, but they also contain lots of water, fiber, and other nutrients, so when
you eat a serving of carrots, you’re not actually getting much sugar at all –
so it really doesn’t matter that it has a high glycemic index.
White bread contains 50g of carbohydrates per 100g, and has a GI of 71.13
That’s a glycemic load of 71 * 50 / 100 = 35.5. That’s 10 times as high as a
serving of carrots! Stay away from white bread – your skin will thank you.
Now, glycemic load is indeed a useful measurement, but I’m sorry, I’ve just
taken you through all that math just to tell you that there’s an even better
one. It’s called the “Insulin Index.” It measures how much foods spike your
insulin, not just your blood sugar. Your body releases insulin when your
blood sugar rises after eating. This usually occurs after eating
carbohydrates. However, the “Insulin Index” is so important because some
foods that don’t contain any carbohydrates at all, including meat and eggs,
The real poster child for the Insulin Index is dairy – it creates an extremely
high insulin response, even though it has a relatively low glycemic index and
glycemic load. In fact, it spikes your insulin three to six times as much as it
should, given its GI / GL.14 As we’ll soon see, dairy is one of the key foods to
avoid in our diet-based approach to clear skin.
The best thing to do here is to learn and internalize the Insulin Index of
common, everyday foods, and choose foods on the lower end of the
spectrum. Here’s a combined list of the glycemic and insulin index of
common foods:15
Whole-meal Carbohydrate-rich 97 96
bread
(Note: you won’t find fresh vegetables on this list, but it’s a moot point. All
fresh vegetables – not including tubers such as potatoes – have an
extremely low insulin index, and make excellent clear-skin foods.)
If you’d like to look up the glycemic load of other foods, visit the USDA’s
nutrition database:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/
The above list is also included in the Appendix for easy reference.
how absolutely critical it is to solve your acne if you want to live a long and
healthy life?
In a little bit, I’m going to share a bunch of ways to douse the fires of
inflammation, but first, I want to talk about which foods contribute the most
to this silent killer. You’d do well to stop eating these foods immediately if
you want to halt inflammation and see an almost immediate improvement in
your acne. (And, if you really follow this list well, permanent clear skin.)
Sugar
Trans fats (commercial baked goods, margarine, fast foods, deep fried
foods)
Food additives
These foods are found everywhere in our modern food landscape. Go to your
local grocery store, visit the middle 90% of the aisles, and start reading
ingredients: you’ll notice that certain ingredients pop up over and over:
vegetable oil, sugar, corn syrup, wheat flour, skim milk powder, sodium
nitrite, potassium sorbate, yellow 5, blue 1, red 6... the list goes on and on.
These things are not foods, they are food products. Would your great-
grandmother have recognized these things as food? No. (Well, dairy,
perhaps, but she would have eaten raw dairy, which is a whole different
subject.)
Increasingly, these highly inflammatory “foods” are forming the bulk of the
Westerner’s diet. Is it any surprise that diseases of inflammation are so
rampant in our society?
Alright, time for some antidotes. Here’s a list of the most potent foods you
can eat to stop inflammation in its tracks:
✓ Ginger
✓ Turmeric
✓ Rosemary
✓ Basil
✓ Cherries
✓ Blueberries
✓ Shiitake mushrooms
✓ Papaya
✓ Sweet potato
✓ Coconut oil
✓ White tea
✓ Free-range eggs
By focusing on these foods, and avoiding the worst inflammatory foods, you
practically guarantee clear skin. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s how
powerful of an effect food has on acne.
On Supplements
I’ve seen it too often: people get obsessed with buying the perfect
supplements, and don’t give a moment’s thought to the bulk of their diet.
They think they can simply “make up” for all the bad stuff by popping pills:
quercetin, resveratrol, fish oil, vitamin E, gamma-linoleic acid, enzymes,
echinacea, green tea extract, and CoQ10. What’s the next magic supplement
going to be?
Don’t take enzymes; eat the right foods so your body produces its own
enzymes. Don’t take curcumin; cook with whole turmeric. Don’t take green
tea extract; drink green tea. Whenever you take an extract of something,
you’re denying yourself the synergistic power of that nutrient in its original
context. Nutrition science has historically been one of the worst-practiced
sciences out there. Just because some study finds that taking a resveratrol
supplement reduces your chances of cancer doesn’t mean you should run
out and buy resveratrol; nutrients like this act in concert with other nutrients
when they’re still together in whole foods. Such whole foods have hundreds,
thousands of chemicals that interact in extremely complex ways we’re just
beginning to understand. These complex interactions will take lifetimes to
fully grasp. When you extract resveratrol from red wine, what else are you
losing in the process?
In sum: don’t try to take shortcuts. If you do, you’ll suffer for it later.
Shortcuts are for people who don’t actually want to reach their goals.
Shortcuts are like get-rich-quick schemes; they glitter on the outside but
sting on the inside, leading you into pain and debt. If you take shortcuts with
your health, you might improve your acne now, but you’ll start running into
all sorts of health problems down the road. And you’re worth more than
that.
“Devin, answer me this: I know someone who eats waffles for breakfast,
pizza for lunch, and burgers for dinner, every single day, and they still have
beautiful skin! That’s so unfair. I get acne no matter what I do. How does
that work?”
I hear you. This can be extremely frustrating – I know, I had a friend exactly
like this in college. You might struggle to eat really well, depriving yourself of
all those comfort foods and junky wonder pastries, and you still have acne,
while your friend munches away on a McChicken and fries and has nary a
spot on that crystal-clear face.
You might be tempted to think it’s just genes – your friend got lucky, and
you got the short end of the stick. There’s a bit of truth to that, but in
reality, it’s way more complicated. And you have more power to change it
than you think.
Basically, you have about 20,000 genes, which are more or less set in stone.
All doctors know this. However, what most doctors don’t yet acknowledge is
that genes are only part of the story. The fact is, the way your genes are
expressed changes dramatically with your diet and lifestyle. This strikes a
huge blow to modern diet, nutrition, health, and science as we know it, but
it’s still relatively unknown, because it’s such a cutting-edge science. Most
health professionals went to medical school long before we knew anything
about epigenetics.
What is epigenetics? Quite simply, it’s control above the genes. Here’s the
definition according to Wikipedia:
English? Try this: your body can change the way your genes behave, and
you can pass those changes on to your offspring, without altering your
underlying DNA at all! Think about your genes as lightbulbs; epigenetics
gives you a dimmer control for each of your genes, so you can turn them on,
off, or dim them down for mood lighting.18
Why is this important for acne? Well, essentially, you can build up a reserve
of “epigenetic wealth,” by living in the healthiest environment possible; in
terms of the “lightbulb” metaphor, this means you’ve selectively turned on,
off, and dimmed all the lights (genes) to give the perfect ambience. That’s
“epigenetic wealth,” and it creates radiant health. When you have kids, you
pass on this “wealth” to them, so they too bloom with health. Your kids can
repeat the process, living in an outstanding environment, improving their
gene expression even more, and adding to that epigenetic bank account.
They’ll pass that on your grandkids. Essentially, with each successive
generation, your epigenetic bank account rises or falls; the influence of your
environment multiplies. This concept of “epigenetic wealth” is nothing other
than rapidly accelerated adaptation, or in other words, evolution without any
actual changes to DNA.
You and I may have inherited a depleted reserve of epigenetic wealth, and
consequently our gene expression suffers. Our genetic “lighting” is all wrong.
– some lights that should be on for clear skin are actually off, and vice versa.
We tend to get acne more easily, as well as a range of other diseases. C’est
la vie. We have to take more extreme measures.
After all this, you might be feeling a little defeated. After all, if your “bank
account” is already overdrawn, what can you do but just continue to suffer
from acne? Fortunately, you have a lot more power than you think to rapidly
build back epigenetic wealth. You can build up that epigenetic bank account
by replicating living conditions to which humans are best adapted: eating the
optimum foods, living a happy and fun-filled life, getting lots of sun,
exercising regularly, and pulling the plug on stress. All these things combine
synergistically to create mountains of epigenetic wealth, which you can pour
into that bank account and start enjoying outstanding health – which
includes, of course, perfectly clear skin!
So, it might be a little tougher for you than for your friend to achieve that
beautiful skin, but if you do tackle this challenge, you'll also be creating
healthy habits for the rest of your life. Your friend won’t be quite so lucky.
While you continue your youth into your old age, your burger-eating-friend
has no impetus to change diet, and consequently vaporizes her inherited
epigenetic wealth like a spoiled princess. The epigenetic bank account can
easily be obliterated in one generation. Your friend is at risk of declining in
health later in life, developing fat around the waist, diabetes, arthritis, and
heart disease.
In other words, your friend is spending money, while you’re earning it. Who’s
going to be wealthier in 20 years?
For me, tackling acne was the first test on my road to seeking ultimate
health. I strive to add a little more to my epigenetic bank account every day.
My acne is completely gone, and while I’m not yet where I want to be in
terms of overall health, I'm giving it all I've got. Step by step, slow and
If I hadn't had acne to begin with, I would probably still be eating puffed
wheat cereal and pasteurized, homogenized, feedlot-produced milk for
breakfast. Instead, I have found a diet and lifestyle that not only keep acne
away, but also give me thicker hair, keep me from getting sick even when
everyone around me has colds or the flu, and give me more energy, mental
clarity, and better all-around mood and approach to life.
If you visit the Mbenga pygmies in the Congo basin, you won’t find a spot of
acne. If you visit the Aché tribe of Paraguay, all you’ll find is flawless, clear
skin. How about the Kitavan Pacific Islanders? After examining 1200 of
them, acne expert Dr. Loren Cordain found not a single pimple.19
Visit your local high school, and you’ll find things a little different.
Fish, wild vegetables, wild game, Fish sticks, canned corn, burgers,
berries candy
Trees Cubicles
Is it any wonder that these traditional societies are not only completely
acne-free, but also free of most of the so-called “diseases of civilization”?
The cancers, the heart disease, the diabetes? Looking at the above
comparison, even someone with no knowledge of nutrition or health
whatsoever could tell you which group was likely to live the longest, and be
the healthiest.
This course is my attempt to reach out to you. To help you do what I’ve
done. So you can enjoy the clear skin you were meant to have.
This is the bread and butter of this whole program. There are four criminal
foods on the “Most Wanted” list for acne. If you start avoiding these foods
today, you will mostly likely see a huge improvement in days. You will see
pimples start to shrink and dry up, you will see redness and swelling go
down, and you will be well on your way to clear skin.
To put it succinctly: removing these foods from your diet will be the
single most powerful thing you can do to cure your acne. It’s the
“80%” in the 80/20 equation. It’s Occam’s Razor. It’s the big stick. The
grenade launcher. The big kahuna. Remove these foods first, and you will
have done most of the work toward becoming clear once and for all.
with IGF-1, other growth hormones intended for rapidly-growing baby calves
and which cause inflammation and acne in humans, artificial antibiotics and
hormones, difficult-to-digest proteins that turn your immune system against
itself and also fan the fires of inflammation, and the sugars lactose and
galactose, which damage your skin cells and blood vessels and (you guessed
it) worsen inflammation. Dairy causes acne on all fronts:
(Side note: raw dairy is also easier to digest than pasteurized dairy, for
several reasons. First, raw dairy still contains lactase and other enzymes
which make it easier to digest. Second, and perhaps more importantly, raw
So the only readily available dairy has been pasteurized and homogenized.
These processes subject the dairy to intense heat and pressure to make it
last longer on the shelf and in your refrigerator and to prevent the cream
from separating.25 These processes turn a possible health food into an utter
poison. If you want clear skin, you must stop eating dairy. Milk is the worst
dairy product for acne, so cut it out first, and avoid it with a vengeance.
You’ll see me recommend eating butter later on, but that’s because butter is
mostly fat and contains very little of the chemicals, hormones, and proteins
that cause acne.
Note: you have to be especially vigilant when you cut out dairy, because it’s
addictive in the same way that opium is addictive. Dairy contains opioid
peptides, which activate opiate receptors in the brain via the same
mechanism that illegal drugs use. Don’t give in – cravings should disappear
after a week or two.
Sugar gives you acne. Plain and simple. Sugar causes your blood sugar to
spike, releasing an insulin cascade – as we’ve seen already, this causes your
skin to produce too much sebum and drives inflammation. Sugar also
glycates your cells as it travels through your bloodstream, damaging,
stiffening, and prematurely aging skin cells and blood vessels. Glycation is
largely responsible for wrinkles, as well, so you can kill two birds with one
stone by cutting out sugar. Acne and wrinkles, both.
Sugar can be extremely difficult to cut out if you eat it regularly. Why? It’s
incredibly addictive. Shockingly, a 2007 study found that sugar is more
addictive than crack cocaine.26 That should be serious cause for worry,
because sugar is everywhere. Fruit juice, cereal, bread, Thai food, Chinese
food, pastries, doughnuts, candy, chocolate, soy milk, almond milk, dairy
products, sports drinks, energy bars – the list goes on ad infinitum. It’s
everywhere, it’s addictive, and it’s incredibly dangerous for your health.
Eating sugar makes your pancreas work overtime to produce enough insulin
to deal with the sugar; do this enough times, and your pancreas can’t keep
up. You don’t produce enough insulin, and what little you do produce doesn’t
work very well because your cells become insulin-resistant. Eventually, your
fasting blood glucose rises just a little bit higher than it normally should be,
leading to constant, minor damage of all your body’s systems through
glycation. In contrast, on a low-sugar, low-glycemic diet, your immune
system has no trouble flushing out the toxic by-products of glycation – called
AGEs, or advanced glycation end-products – but on a moderate or high-
sugar diet, your immune system can’t keep up, and the sugar constantly
attacks your body. This damage shows up most visibly in your skin, with
acne.
limbs. For acne’s sake, you need a circulatory system that’s working at full
capacity to transport all the required nutrients to your skin. That way, your
skin can reduce inflammation, fight off infection by P. acnes bacteria, and
work to stop lipid peroxidation and unclog your pores.
To sum up: if you eat sugar, your pores will become clogged and inflamed,
and you’ll worsen your acne. If instead you choose to avoid sugar, your
inflammation levels will fall, and your skin will start to heal itself naturally.
This is one cause of acne you might not have heard before. Vegetable and
seed oils, including canola, rapeseed, sunflower, safflower, soybean, corn,
and cottonseed oils, as well as shortening and margarine, contain alien fats
that wreak severe havoc on your body, including your skin. You’ve heard
about trans fats, right? Trans fats completely destroy your cholesterol levels
and physically clog up your arteries. It goes without saying that you should
completely avoid them. However, most vegetable oils contain trans fats, due
to the extreme pressure, solvents, deodorizers, bleaches, and heat
processing required to extract and refine the oils.
Five percent trans fats? This is “heart-healthy” canola oil we’re talking about!
These kinds of shocking findings start to make one wonder about the
intentions of vegetable-oil companies and their “heart-healthy” advertising
campaigns. Trans fat is one of the most heart-damaging food substances you
can eat.
It turns out that vegetable oils also reduce the germ-fighting power of your
own sebum, making your skin even more vulnerable to colonization by P.
acnes.30 Normally, your sebum fights off invading pathogens with
antioxidants, enzymes, and immune cells. But it needs a key type of nutrient
to do so. When you eat vegetable oil instead of healthy saturated fats like
coconut oil, butter, and lard, you’re depriving your skin of medium-chain
fatty acids, which are extremely potent bacteria-fighters that we’ll dive into
later when we talk about coconut oil. Medium-chain fatty acids are highest in
coconut oil, red palm oil, butter, lard, tallow, and meat fat. For now, just
remember: if you want to support your skin in fighting off Propionibacterium
acnes, toss out the vegetable oil, and use these healthy saturated fats
instead.
(Note: you may have heard that saturated fats cause inflammation. It’s true
that when saturated fat accumulates in your body, it causes chronic
inflammation; however, as researchers from the Netherlands have shown,
saturated fat only accumulates in your body if you eat a high-glycemic diet.34
If you’re eating a low-glycemic diet, as I recommend in this book, then
you’ve got nothing to fear from eating saturated fat – your body will not let
it accumulate it, but instead will burn it for energy immediately.)
My advice: if you want clear skin, start treating vegetable oils like poison.
The trouble is, vegetable oils are in almost everything. Breads, cookies,
cakes, baked goods, pasta sauces, dipping sauces, margarine, shortening,
spreads, hummus, cereals, granola, candy, energy bars, salad dressings, and
anything else that comes in a package more often than not contains some
form of vegetable oil. Beware. Read labels carefully. Better yet, buy all your
own fresh ingredients, and make your own sauces, salad dressings, and
dips. They’ll taste better that way.
Also, stay away from commercially-raised chicken, beef, and pork; according
to fats researcher Dr. Ray Peat, animals that eat polyunsaturated fat (corn,
grains) don’t produce saturated fat like they normally would; instead, they
produce more polyunsaturated fat.35 So when you eat commercially-raised
meat, you’re essentially loading yourself with soy and corn oil. Just because
it doesn’t say “vegetable oil” in the ingredients doesn’t mean it doesn’t
contain any. Opt instead for free-range, organic chicken, grass-fed beef, and
pastured pork (if you can find it). Stores like Whole Foods are the best
places to find these, along with your local farmer’s market. With these
naturally-raised meats, you’ll be getting healthy saturated fat and a good
dose of omega-3s as well, instead of damaging, acne-causing vegetable oils.
In sum, vegetable oils are a huge problem for acne, and could help explain
why acne is so widespread in Western society. Recently, I’ve seen a lot of
acne sufferers finding huge success by cutting out vegetable oils completely.
Some even find that they cure their acne completely, only by removing
vegetable oils. Everyone’s different, though, and for me – and most likely for
you – vegetable oils are only part of the acne problem.
So we’re going to stick to the shotgun approach, and fix everything at once
– because that’s the fastest route to clear skin.
Almost every food product containing vegetable oil will also contain gluten,
an extremely problematic protein for acne. Now, the first problem with
gluten grains (wheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut, oats) is that they spike your
blood sugar, causing a rush of insulin and a surge of inflammation. However,
this is true of all grains. The huge problem specific to gluten is the gluten
Essentially, when you eat gluten, your body tries to break it down into its
building blocks, called amino acids, just as it does with all proteins; the
catch is that most people lack the enzymes necessary to begin this process.
Gluten is a huge protein. When your body can’t break it down, it passes right
through into your small intestine, damaging the villi on the intestinal wall –
the tiny fingerlike protrusions that absorb nutrients from your digested food
– and thereby damaging your ability to absorb nutrients. Nutrient
deficiencies can indeed lead to acne – zinc, chromium, selenium, vitamin B5,
vitamin B6, vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E are common ones.36 To
make matters worse, gluten then passes through your intestinal lining and
into your bloodstream, where it unleashes utter mayhem. Your body thinks
gluten is a poisonous, alien invader, and creates antibodies to fight it off. The
next time you eat gluten, it passes through your intestinal wall and triggers
your immune defenses. When this happens over and over, you put your
immune system on constant red alert, and it begins to attack healthy
tissues.
You can get a blood test for celiac disease and full-blown gluten allergies,
but you run the risk of getting a false negative. You’re more likely to have
sub-clinical gluten sensitivity than full-blown celiac disease, and these tests
simply aren’t sensitive enough to diagnose that. So you might test negative
and think that gluten is all fine and dandy, but could still have a strong
enough gluten sensitivity that just a small amount would make you break
out. Again, trust in the shotgun method here; it will get you clear skin the
fastest. Wait until after you’ve cleared up completely to start experimenting.
After all, what’s more important to you? Eating gluten, or avoiding acne?
Summary
Alright, we’ve finished learning about the four worst foods for acne.
Congratulations! If you immediately cut these foods from your diet, you will
most likely see major improvements in one week or less, and completely
clear skin in just 90 days.
If you want even faster results, there are a few more things you can cut out
of your diet. They are not quite as awful as the Top Four Worst Foods listed
above, but they are sufficiently damaging to your skin that cutting them out
as well can speed up the process of clearing your skin. Here they are:
Grains
Grains rob your body of minerals and vitamins, thus contributing to acne.
Whole grains are even worse. I know, demonizing whole grains is
tantamount to nutritional heresy, but it must be done. Here's why they're
such a problem: Whole grains are the seeds of plants. The mission of any
seed is to survive long enough to burrow its way into soil somewhere,
germinate, and grow into a new plant. If a seed gets digested by an animal,
guess what? The seed failed. So seeds have defenses – lots of them. (Fruit is
an entirely different matter – its preferred method of spreading seeds is
through animal feces, and thus fruits have co-evolved with animals to
delight the taste buds and nourish the body.)
Whole grains, however, are grasses, and prefer to spread seeds via the wind
and simple gravity. Whole grains have all of the seeds’ built-in defenses still
intact, including all kinds of compounds designed to damage you and
prevent you from fully digesting the seed. Grasses can't run away like
animals can, and they don't have claws or sharp teeth, so they defend
themselves with chemical weapons instead. These chemicals make you sick
and mineral-deficient, or at least prevent you from getting any nutritional
value out of the seed, in the hopes that you'll stop eating it. Humans first
started refining grains to get around all these chemical barbs, and make the
grains easier to digest and assimilate, but recently we've swung back to
eating the whole seed, because of some well-meaning (but misguided) ideas
about fiber. Fiber is for old people with bowels that don't work. By some
accounts, high-fiber whole grains make you fiber-dependent, because you
have so much fibrous bulk pushing fecal matter through your intestines that
your poop-moving muscles forget how to do their job. Whole-grain fiber can
also be very sharp, and rips miniscule tears in your intestines as it travels
through. You get plenty of fiber from vegetables and fruits – the soft, soluble
kind of fiber, completely safe for your intestines – so skip the whole grains.
Your acne will be better for it, too, because you won’t have the problem of
whole grains leaching important acne-preventing minerals like zinc and
magnesium from your body.
Whole wheat is really about the worst grain you can eat. Not only are you
blocked from digesting and assimilating much of the protein, starch and
minerals by all the seed’s built-in defenses, you also get gluten to deal with,
which most people can't fully digest either. As I mentioned earlier, gluten
wreaks havoc in your intestines and unleashes a torrent of auto-immune
disease precursors, including – that’s right! – inflammation and acne. So
grab your ass and toss the wheat flakes in the compost, and you’ll be two
steps and a leap closer to clear skin.
Beans are like grains, in that they’re also seeds. They defend themselves
with enzyme inhibitors, phytates and other nasty toxins so that you won’t
try to eat them. They use amylase and protease inhibitors to prevent you
from digesting their starch and protein, and then selfishly guard their
minerals with phytic acid so you can't absorb them. (This is why the
Nutrition Facts labels on grains and beans are so misleading, because they
have absolutely no regard for whether we can actually absorb the vitamins
and minerals.) Phytic acid also accounts for why beans give you gas, and for
why you have to process or cook the bejeezus out of beans to be able to eat
them. Even then, they are starch-dense and nutrient-poor; in other words, a
low-quality food.
This includes soy, in all forms. Soybeans, tofu, soybean oil – if it came from
the soybean plant, don’t touch it. The “healthy soy” idea is a huge marketing
scam perpetrated by the soy industry to help move product, to convince
people that soy is a “health food” so that they will trip over themselves to
buy this lucrative cash crop in the form of tofu, tempeh, soy milk, soy
yogurt, soy oil, soy-based fake meat, and everything in between.
Here’s a few facts about soy that they didn’t tell you. Soy:
Impairs cognition
I could keep going, but how many reasons do you need to stay away from
this poisonous substance?
While my personal beliefs are that eating a vegetarian or vegan diet is not
optimal for health,37 I respect the humanitarian and ecological reasons for
doing so, and I respect your freedom to make your own choices. If you
choose to avoid meat and/or eggs for ethical, environmental reasons, or
otherwise, you will find the method of eating in this book a bit more difficult.
Here’s what I recommend: avoid the Top Four Worst Foods completely
(dairy, sugar, vegetable oils, and gluten), and when you eat grains and
beans, process them in such a way as to remove the phytates, enzyme
inhibitors, aflatoxin, and lectins. One of the most effective methods of
processing grains is to soak the whole grains first before you cook them.
Quinoa, brown rice, buckwheat, amaranth, millet, and all the other non-
gluten grains are great options. Soak these grains overnight, preferably in
an acid medium: cover them with water and add some lemon juice, vinegar,
whey, yogurt, kefir, or buttermilk for acidity. After they’re done soaking,
rinse them with water to get rid of the released anti-nutrients, and then cook
them as you normally would.38
Sprouted grains are even better. Sprouted and then fermented grains are the
best, producing the healthiest and most digestible form of grains; this
method has been used for thousands of years by traditional cultures all
around the world. Fermenting grains is not always practical, but sprouting is
actually quite easy. You can buy your own home-sprouting kit 39 and be
eating fresh, nutrient-rich sprouts in no time.
We’ve covered a lot of this already, and I’ll go over some greater detail in a
minute. But first, the Master List. In the column labeled “CLEAR SKIN,” you’ll
find a wealth of foods that promote clear skin and heal acne. In the column
labeled “ACNE,” you’ll find all the foods that you’ll want to avoid, as they’ll
make your acne worse and slow your progress.
* indicates foods to be used with extreme caution, and only in very small
amounts
Along with this book, you should have gotten a separate PDF file of this list
so you can easily print it out and stick it on the fridge or take it with you to
the grocery store.
As I mentioned earlier, this list is absolutely not “The Holy Bible of What
Thou Shalt Eat and What Thou Shalt Avoid Like the Plague.” This list
represents an ideal scenario. For most people, the “ideal scenario” is just
that – an ideal – and sometimes an impractical or prohibitively difficult one.
People get so uptight about idealistic diets, worrying that if they “slip” even
once, all their efforts will have been wasted. (I often fall into this trap
myself, and I’m learning to control it.) This is just plain wrong. The healthier
you eat, the better your acne will get – it’s a spectrum, not black and white.
The point is, do the best you can.
If you find yourself absolutely lusting over bread, or your friend bakes
cookies and you can’t say no, then don’t say no. Indulge once in a while if
you feel the urge. Make the choices for yourself. Some people work better
sticking 100% to the plan, finding that they tumble down a slippery slope if
they indulge just once; others do fine taking breaks from time to time to
indulge, and yet still manage to stay on track 90% of the time. Bottom line:
it’s your life, so do what you want. Experiment, see what works for you, and
don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. Your own experience is your best
teacher.
a bunch of interesting foods that take some creativity to use, and will
expand your culinary vocabulary.
Even better, here’s a list of the “Dirty Dozen,” the twelve foods that get the
worst pesticide treatment – and consequently foods you should buy
organic:40
Apples
Celery
Strawberries
Peaches
Spinach
Nectarines
Grapes
Bell peppers
Potatoes
Blueberries
Lettuce
Collard greens
And here’s the list of “Clean” foods, the produce items that rarely get
pesticide treatments, and that you don’t have to worry about buying
organic:41
✓ Onions
✓ Sweet corn
✓ Pineapples
✓ Avocado
✓ Asparagus
✓ Sweet peas
✓ Mangoes
✓ Eggplant
✓ Cantaloupe
✓ Kiwi
✓ Cabbage
✓ Watermelon
✓ Sweet potatoes
✓ Grapefruit
✓ Mushrooms
Note: some of these foods are on the “Acne Foods” list, and should be
avoided at the beginning when you’re trying to get your acne under control.
This is simply an overall reference for organic vs. conventional produce, and
not specific to which foods contribute to inflammation and acne and which
foods combat them.
Hidden Ingredients
Also, keep in mind that many of the things you find in the grocery store are
processed foods, including sauces, breads, crackers, cookies, cakes, baked
goods, dips, frozen dinners, instant soups, canned meals, and all manner of
other concoctions. You have to read the ingredients. Just because a jar of
pasta sauce says “100% Natural” doesn’t mean it’s going to cure acne. To
this day, I have immense difficulty finding pasta sauces without sugar; so I
choose to make my own, with fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh rosemary,
olive oil, olives, mushrooms, cracked pepper, lemon, and plenty of garlic.
And let me tell you, it’s a world of difference.
This is a theme: the more you make your own meals, using raw, whole-food
ingredients from the organic and free-range sections of your grocery store –
or better yet, your local farmers’ market – the more control you’ll have over
what you put in your body, the faster you’ll cure your acne, and the healthier
you’ll be. Not to mention that flavors are more intense, textures are crisper,
and roasts are more savory when you make them yourself. Skip the
restaurants, skip the pre-made meals; if you absolutely don’t have time,
either pick up a time management book (Getting Things Done by David Allen
is one of the best), or go to the deli at Whole Foods or your local organic
grocery. They’re more likely to use “Clear Skin” foods and less likely to
sneak in “Acne” foods, but you still have to be careful and read the
ingredient lists.
The best way to guarantee your success with this way of eating – the best
way to eat your way to clear skin – is to eat relatively low-carb. And if you
look at the list above, you’ll have no trouble eating low-carb if you stick to
the “Clear Skin” foods and avoid the “Acne” foods. I don’t have space to go
into all the science of low-carb diets here, as the subject merits an entire
book in itself – check the Resource Guide for some excellent books on the
topic. What’s important for us is that lowering your carbohydrate intake
accomplishes two main goals:
✓ It reduces cravings, making it easier to stay the course with this diet.
If you’ve never tried eating low-carb before, the basic thing to keep in mind
is that you have to replace those carbs with satisfying foods, so that you
don’t deprive your body of calories and satisfaction. That means don’t eat
just a salad for lunch, unless you load it with olive oil, chicken, salmon,
olives, almonds, walnuts, and avocados. That means eat a lot of fat and a lot
of protein. Eat lots of fatty meat, lots of healthy oils and fats, lots of fish,
and modest amounts of nuts and seeds (no more than a handful or two per
day). You are not depriving yourself with this style of eating – you’re giving
yourself the most nourishing, satisfying, delicious food you’ve ever eaten.
(Note: if you find yourself getting low in energy after a week of eating low-
carb, try adding more sweet potatoes or even some brown rice – just make
sure to soak the brown rice overnight before you cook it, as this will
deactivate much of the damaging phytates and enzyme inhibitors. Some
people’s bodies just need more calories to enjoy optimum energy levels – I
am one of those people myself, so I make sure to eat some starchy
vegetables, root vegetables, sweet potatoes, and soaked brown rice.)
(Another note: If you eat this way, and you currently weigh more than you
would like to, you will notice your weight drop off effortlessly as your acne
goes away. No calorie-counting, I promise. It really, really works.)
This style of eating takes a deep shift in perspective. That will take time.
Here are a few ideas, though: think red curry, with vegetables, shrimp and
loads of coconut milk; or try
acorn squash doused in
butter and cinnamon,
alongside a cardamom-spiced
pork roast. Or king crab legs
in a butter-lemon sauce, with
steamed mussels and
tomato-basil bisque.
Bottom line: live it up. Low-fat, calorie-restriction diets are for masochists.
But that’s not us. No, we’re going to eat like royalty.
You might be asking, “But I’m not royalty! How can I afford all this? Organic
produce and grass-fed meat is so expensive!” This is an excuse, cleverly
disguised as a legitimate complaint. I apologize if I sound harsh; my goal in
writing this course is not to make friends, but to help you cure your acne,
once and for all. Saying you can't afford to buy high-quality food is like
saying you don't have time for your kids. You have to make time, by
siphoning it off from other activities like watching TV and fooling around on
Facebook. Similarly, you can easily make money by cutting unnecessary
costs, making your own lunch instead of eating out, and saving loads of
money on medical bills that you won't need to pay anymore because not
only do you have clear skin, but you're in ultimate health too, and you don’t
get sick. If the money thing is still a sticking point for you, here’s a few ways
to get creative:
✓ Buy fish straight from the fishermen (or the fishmongers at the
market)
✓ Eat canned fish instead of fresh fish – sardines in olive oil, mackerel in
water, herring in tomato sauce, or salmon with bones (stay away from
tuna – it’s loaded with mercury and PCBs). You can make delicious
dishes with canned fish with paprika, olive oil, fresh herbs, olives,
eggs, and a little creativity!
✓ Buy grass-fed organs and soup bones from your local butcher or
grocery – they’re cheaper, and packed with way more nutrients than
expensive lean cuts of meat.
There are tons of ways to eat this way on a shoestring – I’m sure you can
come up with loads more if you set your mind to it. A few other things to ask
yourself: how much are you paying for acne medications now? How much
does laser scar removal cost? How much life energy and happiness does
acne cost you every day, every month, every year? Consider buying healthy,
organic food an investment in your health, for now and for the rest of your
life. It's worth it, and will really be worth it in a few decades, when your
pizza-eating, Coke-guzzling friends get clogged arteries, arthritis, diabetes,
and thinning hair. Invest in yourself. This is like health insurance, except
more fun.
Benefits of Butter
To make things easier, I hereby give you license to eat as much butter as
you want, as long as it’s grass-fed. Look for Kerrygold or Organic Valley
Pasture Butter, or raid your local farmers’ market. Salted is fine – it tastes
better, and the amount of salt is negligible in the grand scheme of things.
You might be asking yourself, “Surely butter isn’t a health food?” And I
answer, contrary to popular wisdom, butter does not give you heart disease
or cancer, and in fact protects against these, along with a host of other
benefits:
Special note about CLA: this healthy fatty acid has strong anti-cancer and
anti-inflammatory properties. But butter made from grain-fed cows has very
little CLA in it. In fact, grass-fed butter contains 300-500% the amount of
CLA as conventional grain-fed butter.
http://paleodietlifestyle.com/the-many-virtues-of-butter/
Eat butter. Lots of it. If you have trouble eating enough vegetables like I do,
try cooking them in butter, and then douse them in butter again before you
eat them. You will suddenly start looking forward to eating those vegetables.
Butter truly makes everything better – from eating vegetables to curing
acne.
Educate Yourself
To learn more about this style of eating, and even more importantly, about
what to cook, I urge you to pick up a few of the diet / cookbooks listed in
the Resource Guide. Three fantastic places to start are Deep Nutrition,
Nourishing Traditions, and Primal Body, Primal Mind.
Trust me: eating this way takes some getting used to, but it is not hard to
maintain. My food tastes richer and better, I feel full and satisfied and no
longer have the urge to snack between meals, and I don’t have to eat as
often so I free up time that I used to spend buying and cooking food. And
most importantly, my acne stays away.
Supplements
I’ll say it once: supplements are crutches. They are a temporary solution,
while you work on getting the real underlying problem fixed – your diet and
lifestyle. Some people use supplements to great effect, and some people
skip them entirely and just go straight to the heart of the problem. It’s up to
you.
In the long run, though, if you take supplements but keep eating the same
acne-causing diet, it’s like having a broken leg that never heals; you have to
keep using crutches forever. If you stop using crutches, you can’t walk. It’s
the same with supplements and acne; if you stop using them, your acne
comes back, unless you heal the deep, underlying problems. (Plus, crutches
are a pain in the ass. So are pills. You want to get to the point where you
don’t have to take any pills at all, where you don’t need crutches, where
you’re running free like Forrest Gump.)
enzymes and co-factors that aid in assimilation and amplify the effectiveness
of the target nutrient.
That said, there are a few key supplements that acne sufferers typically
benefit from. In fact, some people cure their acne completely simply by
taking the following three supplements. After everything I just said, though,
why would I be recommending supplements now? Well, because of our
modern food landscape and lifestyles, we are likely to be deficient in the
following three nutrients, all of which play a huge role in acne prevention.
Omega-3s (EPA)
One of the most common mistakes here is taking flax oil for omega-3
benefits. The problem is, flax oil has plenty of ALA, or alpha-linoleic acid, but
it doesn’t actually contain EPA or DHA, the animal-derived forms of omega-3
fatty acids. And of all omega-3 fatty acids, EPA has the strongest anti-
inflammatory effect, and this is really the one that matters most for acne.
Flax oil is commonly touted as a healthy “omega-3” oil, but the reality is that
it doesn’t have nearly the same inflammation-reducing benefits as EPA. And
contrary to popular belief, your body cannot synthesize EPA or DHA – you
need to ingest them.42 Chickens, on the other hand, can synthesize EPA and
DHA when they are fed flaxseed – so buy omega-3 eggs instead of normal
eggs. The best source of EPA, of course, is fatty fish and fish oil.
Here are some of the other benefits of true, animal-derived EPA in healing
acne:
Fish oil is the most potent natural source of EPA available. Typical fish oil,
unconcentrated, is about 20% EPA by volume.
There are many other reasons besides acne to take fish oil:
✓ Reduced depression
✓ More energy
✓ Improved cholesterol
That's a key theme in this course – by improving your acne, you're going to
be greatly improving your overall health as well. And fish oil can be a huge
factor in that.
This is important: if you suffer from depression, it’s especially critical that
you take fish oil. New research is starting to show that depression actually
shares some of the same root causes as acne – including inflammation.49,50
This is a breakthrough finding, which starts to illuminate the complex acne-
A note on dosage: recommended intakes on fish oil bottles are far too low to
see significant acne-healing benefits. To get the maximum benefit from fish
oil's powerful anti-acne properties, aim for 10 one-gram fish oil capsules
every day, or 3-4 tsp of liquid fish oil.
That's going to give you 1.5-2.0g of EPA every day. Beyond this amount,
there's no scientific data to support any further benefit.
Stay away from cod liver oil. Cod liver oil is packed with vitamin A, which
sounds like a good thing, except that it’s possible to reach toxic levels of this
vitamin if you consume cod liver oil every day. Stick to regular fish oil, or
fish oil concentrate. (If you go the fish oil concentrate route, make sure you
adjust your dosage so you still get 1.5-2.0g of EPA every day.)
Other tips: look for fish oil capsules that are tested free of PCBs and
mercury. In today's polluted oceans, fish bioaccumulate all sorts of nasty
chemicals and heavy metals into their fatty tissues, so it's critical to get fish
oil that's tested free of these harmful substances. (“Tested free” usually
means the levels of mercury and PCBs are in fact detectable, but are so
vanishingly small that your body will have no trouble detoxifying and
eliminating them.)
A word of warning: when you start taking fish oil, you may experience "fishy
burps." This happens to a select few. The solution is simple: switch to
"enteric-coated" fish oil capsules. This type of capsule passes through your
stomach intact, only breaking down when it reaches your small intestine.
This usually prevents fishy burps.
It doesn’t matter what brand you buy, as long as it says it’s been tested free
of mercury and PCBs.
Unless you eat fish at least a few times a week, make a point to take fish oil
– it’s one of the fastest, most powerful supplements you can take to start
improving your acne. Note that fish oil is a stopgap measure; once you get
into the rhythm of eating described in this book, you won’t need to take fish
oil, because you won’t be creating any new acne in the first place.
Vitamin D
Excuse the rhyme. In all seriousness, liquid sunshine, also known as vitamin
D, plays a major role in healing and preventing acne, and chances are that
you’re not getting enough of it. In fact, serum vitamin D levels have been
steadily declining over a number of decades, and 75% of American adults
are clinically deficient. Here’s what vitamin D does for you, and why you
should be very concerned if you’re not getting enough. Vitamin D:
✓ Reduces wrinkles and makes your skin soft, strong, and smooth (the
“glow”)
You must get enough of this vitamin, for your health and longevity, and
especially for your acne. Your body makes all the vitamin D it needs for a
few days in just 10-15 minutes of full-body sun exposure (think: swimsuit),
depending on your latitude and skin pigmentation. The darker your skin, and
further away from the equator you live, the longer you’ll need to stay in the
sun. Avoid most sunscreens, as they prevents your skin from producing
vitamin D, poison your skin with parabens, chemicals, and preservatives,
and clog your pores. I only use sunscreen after I’ve been in the sun long
enough to get my maximum vitamin D dose for the day (well before
sunburn), and I only use oil-free, non-comedogenic suncreens, with no
parabens or other harmful chemicals. They’re more expensive, but they
lessen the toxic load on your body, which is a chief concern for any acne
sufferer.
On any day that you don’t get sunshine – which for most people will be the
majority of days – take a vitamin D supplement. This is one of the only
supplements you’ll find me recommend in this whole course. Vitamin D is
just too critical to your health to skimp on, and too many people live in
rainy, cloudy climates for much of the year to be able to get enough vitamin
D naturally. (Take it from me – I grew up in Seattle, grey and rainy capital of
the States!)
Look for vitamin D3 at around a 5,000 IU concentration per pill, and take
one per day. As of 2011, the FDA’s recommended daily allowance (RDA) of
vitamin D is a paltry 400 IU, but the latest research shows that this is not
even close to your body’s actual need, and there are groups of concerned
scientists trying to lobby the FDA to raise their recommended intake. In just
10-15 minutes of sun exposure, your skin produces 10,000 IU of vitamin D,
so taking 5,000 IU per day is absolutely no problem. And you don’t have to
worry about toxicity, because you’d need to take over 50,000 IU per day for
several months before approaching toxic levels.51
(Make sure you’re getting cholecalciferol, also known as vitamin D3. You
may run across ergocalciferol, or vitamin D2, but the majority of the current
research suggests that vitamin D3 is much more potent and effective.)
Zinc
Zinc, like vitamin D, is a key factor in acne, so you want to make sure you’re
getting enough. Zinc is a trace mineral essential to all forms of life because
of its fundamental role in gene expression, cell development and
replication.52 Zinc is the 24th most abundant element in the Earth's crust.
It’s also the second most common trace mineral in the body. And yet,
according to a 2004 study by the World Health Organization, 31.7% of the
world’s population is zinc-deficient.53 That’s more than two billion people.
dry skin
hangnails
hair loss
increased allergies
diarrhea
infertility
acne
While the exact mechanisms are unknown, zinc most likely benefits acne by
ferrying vitamin A from your liver to your skin and by regulating your body’s
hormonal balance.55 In addition, a recent study found that zinc facilitates
apoptosis, or pre-programmed cell death, which is a natural part of your skin
renewing itself; if apoptosis is delayed, as in the case of zinc deficiency, skin
cells stick together instead of dying and sloughing off like they should, which
leads to clogged pores.56 (Like zinc, isotretinoin, the active ingredient in
Accutane, also uses this mechanism of cell apoptosis to treat acne.57 )
✓ Supplement zinc
✓ Both
At this point, it seems that the most easily absorbed form is zinc picolinate,
much more so than zinc gluconate or zinc citrate. This is because your body
forms zinc picolinate naturally from foods – zinc combines in the intestines
with picolinic acid, which is secreted by the pancreas. This is a compound
requiring vitamin B6 for production. The zinc picolinate complex is then
transported across the absorptive cells of the intestine, then to the liver
where some is stored.
✓ Oysters
✓ Clams
✓ Liver
✓ Pork
✓ Salmon
✓ Beef
✓ Lamb
✓ Sunflower seeds
✓ Pumpkin seeds
✓ Nuts
10
Here’s how it works: normally, your small intestine is densely populated with
beneficial bacteria that help to break down food, transform nutrients into
new ones that the human body can’t synthesize by itself (e.g. vitamin B12),
and protect the delicate lining of the small intestine.
What causes SIBO? According to one study, causes include constipation, low
stomach acid, and a compromised immune system.62 You can see a cyclic
pattern here – these are the same problems that were found in acne
sufferers in the 2008 study mentioned above. The reality is, these problems
are not actually causes of SIBO; they are links in a chain of events beginning
with diet and lifestyle, as is SIBO itself.
stress, taking vitamin D, zinc, and fish oil, and following the other tips in
Chapter 11, you will be giving your gut the tools and resources it needs to
heal itself, restore optimal digestion, and thereby improve your skin.
If you fail to see results after these changes, or you still experience
gastrointestinal problems, consider supplementing with probiotics to restore
gut health.64 One of the highest-quality probiotic supplements currently
available is made in Japan; each batch undergoes a 3-year culturing process,
and the specific mix of bacteria is more complex and effective than most
brands of probiotic supplements. The brand is called “Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics”
and can be found on Amazon.com. It’s more expensive, but it’s worth it. If
cost is an issue, go with a cheaper brand with a 5-star review on Amazon
(after many years of buying products online, I’ve come to the conclusion
that the Amazon star rating is one of the most reliable judges of quality out
there). Again, this is a last resort; I typically advise against supplements
because they’re expensive and a pain in the ass to take every day.
11
For most of this book, I’ve focused predominantly on diet. And while diet is
perhaps the biggest player in acne, there are a few other important lifestyle
points that you won’t want to miss. Try combining the above food guidelines
with the lifestyle choices below, and you’ll be acne-free in the shortest
possible amount of time.
Sleep
✓ obesity
✓ depression
Stress
Stress causes acne – you’ve probably heard this before, or you know it to be
true from personal experience. Stress causes complex hormonal changes in
your body, involving the adrenal glands, androgens, and cortisol, which
together mimic the acne-producing activity of IGF-1. These hormones
stimulate excess sebum production, and can put the body into a serious
chronic state of inflammation.
Here’s one way that stress causes acne: stress releases cortisol, a hormone
designed to block insulin from shuttling glucose into the muscles, so that you
can burn the glucose for energy immediately instead of storing it (fueling the
“fight-or-flight” response). In effect, cortisol makes your cells insulin-
resistant.68 However, when cortisol is always elevated – like when you’re
chronically stressed out – you get constant insulin-resistance. Your pancreas
struggles to pump out enough insulin, but your blood sugar stays high
because your cells don’t answer the door when insulin knocks. So you get
chronically elevated insulin on top of high blood sugar, a dangerous
combination that sets the stage for clogged pores, inflammation, glycation,
oxidative damage, and everything we talked about in Chapter 2.
Adding insult to injury, stress dampens your immune system, blocking the
production of T-cells. That means your body gets deprived of its immune-cell
warriors, and will struggle to fight off foreign invaders, get rid of damaged
cells, and defend against P. acnes.
In one study done in 1953, acne sufferers got more acne and worse
inflammation days after an interview in which anger was intentionally
provoked.69 School examinations and stressful, high-visibility jobs have also
been shown to worsen acne.70 However, doctors still prescribe dangerous
acne medicines first, when instead teaching stress-coping methods to their
patients might be a safer and more effective option. (Unfortunately, reducing
stress is more complicated than simply taking a pill, and far less profitable.
So you’re going to have to be your own “stress doctor” here, unless you feel
like seeing someone about it. I went to a psychotherapist a few years ago
for an eating disorder, and initially I was very hesitant to do it, as I didn’t
want to be seen as “crazy” or “messed up,” but then I realized that everyone
gets in a weird state of mind sometimes. Everyone could use a little help
from time to time, and seeing a psychotherapist does not mean you’re crazy.
Even though society would seem to say otherwise, it’s not any weirder than
going to see a dermatologist.)
Now, in the grand scheme of things, stress itself is not a bad thing – in fact,
the body’s stress response is extremely adaptive to dangerous encounters. A
lion pounces on you, and your body launches into a fight or flight response;
you see a loved one in grave danger, and you run to the rescue and lift a car
off of her. The stress response is fantastically adaptive because it magnifies
your senses, reflexes, physical strength, and speed temporarily, and then
calms down to a relaxed state when the terrifying stimulus ends.
systemic inflammation and acne. Your body keeps pumping out stress
hormones, which keep driving inflammation, and your body never truly
relaxes.
Only when your body is in a relaxed state can it devote energy to repairing
itself – expelling toxins, regrowing cells, healing wounds, fighting off foreign
invaders. And healing acne.
For some acne sufferers, stress is the single most important cause of their
acne, and reducing stress virtually eliminates their acne altogether. But for
most people, stress is just another factor in the complex problem of acne.
But it’s an important one. Stress deserves your attention, as do diet, sun,
and everything else mentioned in this book.
You could fill a sizable library just with books on how to reduce stress,
cultivate inner peace, relax, and live in the moment. The most powerful book
I ever read on the topic is called The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle. If you
haven’t read it, I strongly encourage you to try it. I know it looks like new-
age fluff, but it’s not. It’s an incredibly powerful, insightful book about how
to stop your mind from mulling over things you can’t control – in other
words, it’s a chill pill for your brain. There are genuine biological reasons
behind why this works to reduce stress. It did wonders for me, and I’m
willing to bet it can do the same for you.
It’s worth mentioning that by reducing stress in this way, you can not only
transform your skin, but you can also transform your entire life. For me,
reading The Power of Now started me on a journey from a confused, angry,
perpetually stressed adolescent to a patient, compassionate, and relaxed
adult. I have a much easier time letting things go now, and I experience
more of that quiet inner peace on a day-to-day basis than I did in my first
20 years of life. The benefits have extended far beyond healing my acne,
and for that I am eternally grateful.
Exercise
What’s another great way to reduce stress? Exercise! Everyone knows this,
but most people go about it the wrong way. The “common wisdom” is that
jogging for an hour on the treadmill relieves stress. In fact, the opposite is
true. When you subject your body to low-grade exercise (jogging, running)
for an extended period of time, you start to kick in the very same stress
response that we just talked about. Long-distance runners age more quickly
than sprinters, have higher cortisol levels, and less healthy muscle mass.
That’s because sprinting exploits the evolutionary reasons for our stress
response – you sprint away from the lion and live to see another day, and
after your body relaxes again, it builds muscle, lung power, and vascular
strength so you can get away even faster next time. If you are a distance
runner, try switching up your exercise routine a few times per week by
substituting in some sprints. Each session typically takes only 10-20
minutes, so you can forget the hours of painful endurance training. For more
information on high-intensity interval training (HIIT), go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training
So what are some good exercise options for reducing stress? Sprinting,
weight lifting, and sprint rowing, along with their relaxing counterparts, yoga
and rock climbing. Walking and hiking are also fantastic options, as they
don’t activate the stress response like jogging does, but still give you the
stress-reducing benefits of intense exercise.
This might sound a bit radical, given today’s obsession with personal care
products and anal-retentive levels of cleanliness, but stick with me here. If
you regularly use shampoo, lotion, soap, facial cream, scrubs, deodorants,
and makeup, consider weaning yourself off them, or looking very carefully
for some alternatives. Personally, after years of experimentation and reading
about others’ experiences, I have found that shampoo, soap, lotion, and
deodorant are all unnecessary. Shampoo and soap strip your hair and skin of
natural oils, so they become dry and brittle; to combat this, you use
conditioners and lotion. Washing your armpits with soap every day upsets
the delicate ecosystem of beneficial bacteria, leading to overgrowth of foul-
smelling bacteria – hence creating the need for deodorant. This works in the
same way that using antibiotics leads to bacterial overgrowth in the gut,
upsetting the delicate gut flora and leading to a host of problems.
When I stopped using shampoo, soap, lotion, and deodorant, I found that
with basically zero effort, my hair stayed soft and full, my skin soft and
moist, and my armpits completely innocent – or even “smelling good”,
according to the ladies – I can only suspect that quitting deodorant gives
your natural pheromones a chance to express themselves. And no, I’m not
talking about B.O. That’s a completely separate phenomenon.
Once you start using one of these personal-cleaning products, it creates the
need for others, until you find yourself putting twelve different lotions and
creams and things on your body every single day. You create a whole
ecosystem of needs and interdependencies that feeds itself. If you forget to
use a product just once, it upsets the whole balance and leaves you with oily
skin, terrible B.O., and no end of other issues. However, if you let your body
do its thing naturally, you will see an amazing amount of resilience and
adaptability develop. Don’t take a shower for a few days? No problem. Your
body adapts.
(I’m going to tell you my dirty little secret. People are shocked when I tell
them this, because they never would have guessed. I take only two to three
showers a month, and I never use soap or shampoo. The interaction goes
something like this: “I take two to three showers per month.” “What? No
way! But you don’t smell at all! And your hair looks great. What’s your
secret? How do you do it?!” And they’re amazed to find out that there is no
secret, other than the fact that I use ZERO personal care products, except
for lip balm, to which I am hopelessly addicted.)
Your body might be different, or your desires different – for example, you
might have long hair, which goes either limp or frizzy without proper
conditioner – but I encourage you to experiment with phasing out these
products. You probably don’t want to go cold-turkey, because you’ll be nasty
and gross for at least a week, so it’s a better idea to gradually reduce your
use of these products and avoid the negative withdrawal effects. For
example, start out by using shampoo and conditioner only every other day,
instead of every day, and after a week or two, go to every third day, etc.
Eventually, your body’s natural mechanisms kick in and normalize, and take
perfect care of your hair and skin naturally.
There are also real health reasons to be careful personal care products:
recent studies have suggested a link between deodorants or antiperspirants
and cancer.75 There is considerable debate around this, but the fact that
aluminum salts are the main active ingredient in antiperspirants, and that
The last and final key: to maximize your chances of radiant health and
beautiful skin, live in a clean, pure environment. That means:
✓ Pure water
✓ Clean air
house filter; after you do so, you’ll notice that your water tastes a whole lot
better without all the chlorine, chloramines, and other chemicals added to
most municipal water supplies. In addition, you might try installing a shower
filter; I did this myself, and instantly noticed that my skin felt softer and less
irritated after taking showers.
Furthermore, you might try getting an air filter for the main rooms in your
house. The range of toxic chemicals, carcinogenic fibers, allergens, and other
pollutants floating around in the average household is really quite
staggering. If you don’t live on a crowded, noisy street, try opening doors
and windows on all sides of your house or apartment to get a good cross-
breeze, which will totally clear out stale air and bring in fresh air in a matter
of hours. If you do live on a noisy street, or other reasons prevent you from
keeping your doors and windows open (the dead of winter, for example), try
installing a HEPA-type air filter – not those ionic ozone-generators – and
start enjoying clearer sinuses, increased energy, and improved disease
resistance during cold and flu season.
Smoking
The idea that smoking worsens acne is not new, but it bears repeating here.
Smoking increases sebum production, and we’ve already seen how that
causes acne and inflammation. Smoking also increases sebum lipid
peroxidation, the formation of the extremely dangerous cell- and DNA-
damaging zombie fats we learned about in Chapter 5. Finally, smoking
significantly lowers skin levels of vitamin E, one of your skin’s most powerful
natural defense mechanisms, leaving your skin open to infection by P. acnes
and damage by free radicals.77
If you do smoke, and you have tried to quit in the past but failed, read Allen
Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking.78
12
Final Words
All these things will help energize you for the seemingly Herculean task
ahead of you: curing your acne, once and for all. Step by step, knock off the
big offenders; start with the dairy, the sugar, the vegetable oils and the
gluten. Then go down the list, hitting all the important keys that I’ve
outlined, knowing that you’ll not only be working toward clear and acne-free
skin, but toward the radiant health that is one of the most valuable things
you will ever have.
Once you have achieved that beautiful clear skin, you might feel like
experimenting again with some of the foods you’ve removed from your diet;
by all means, do so! You’ll gain a deeper intuition about which foods set off
your acne the most, because we are all unique, and all respond differently to
the the same things. After some experimentation, though, you might find
that by sticking mostly to the guidelines presented here, you feel the best
you ever have, and you don’t feel like going back again. You have my
blessing!
THE END
info@masteryouracne.com
Remember, I’m here to help. I know how much acne sucks, and I want to do
everything I can to help you get rid of yours as fast as humanly possible so
your true inner beauty shines through.
Sincerely,
Devin Mooers
Appendix
Lentils Protein-rich 62 ± 22 58 ± 12
Fish Protein-rich 28 ± 13 59 ± 18
Baked beans Protein-rich 114 ± 18 120 ± 19
Average: Protein-rich 54 ± 7 61 ± 7
Apples Fruit 50 ± 6 59 ± 4
Oranges Fruit 39 ± 7 60 ± 3
Bananas Fruit 79 ± 10 81 ± 5
Grapes Fruit 74 ± 9 82 ± 6
Average: Fruit 61 ± 5 71 ± 3
Peanuts Snack/confectionery 12 ± 4 20 ± 5
Popcorn Snack/confectionery 62 ± 16 54 ± 9
Potato chips Snack/confectionery 52 ± 9 61 ± 14
Ice cream Snack/confectionery 70 ± 19 89 ± 13
Yoghurt Snack/confectionery 62 ± 15 115 ± 13
Mars Bars Snack/confectionery 79 ± 13 122 ± 15
Jellybeans Snack/confectionery 118 ± 18 160 ± 16
Average: Snack/confectionery 65 ± 6 89 ± 7
Doughnuts Bakery product 63 ± 12 74 ± 9
Croissants Bakery product 74 ± 9 79 ± 14
Cake Bakery product 56 ± 14 82 ± 12
Crackers Bakery product 118 ± 24 87 ± 12
Cookies Bakery product 74 ± 11 92 ± 15
Average: Bakery product 77 ± 7 83 ± 5
3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebaceous_gland
4Bowe WP, Logan AC. Clinical implications of lipid peroxidation in acne vulgaris:
old wine in new bottles. Lipids Health Dis. 2010 Dec 9;9:141.
5The Association of Acne Vulgaris With Diet Veith WB, Silverberg NBCutis.
2011;88:84-91. http://www.cutis.com/PDF/088020084.pdf
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin
7 http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/diabetes-statistics/
8These words are from prolific user “alternativista” on the excellent forums at
Acne.org. She has posted over 7,000 times at the time of this writing, and has
some really insightful things to say about acne. http://www.acne.org/
messageboard/index.php/user/54738-alternativista/
11 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index
Master Your Acne! ! Page 99
by Devin Mooers
12 http://www.glycemicindex.com/
13 http://www.glycemicindex.com/
15Holt SH, Miller JC, Petocz P. An insulin index of foods: the insulin demand
generated by 1000-kJ portions of common foods. Am J Clin Nutr. 1997 Nov;
66(5):1264-76.
17Bowe WP, Logan AC. Clinical implications of lipid peroxidation in acne vulgaris:
old wine in new bottles. Lipids Health Dis. 2010 Dec 9;9:141.
18 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics
24 Woodford, Keith. Devil in the Milk. Chelsea Green: Vermont, 2009. This is an
excellent book on the little-known distinction between A1 and A2 milk. To
illustrate how important the difference is, New Zealand is currently in the process
of converting all their dairy herds to A2-producing cows, while they have been
heretofore dominated by A1 cows.
25This is done for aesthetic reasons, but I happen to think that cream-top milk
and yogurt are the most delicious kinds out there. They seem more “real” to me,
more genuine, than homogenized versions.
27Shanahan MD, Catherine (2011). Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need
Traditional Food (Kindle Locations 2858-2859). Big Box Books. Kindle Edition.
28Shanahan MD, Catherine (2011). Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need
Traditional Food (Kindle Locations 2869-2870). Big Box Books. Kindle Edition.
29Bowe WP, Logan AC. Clinical implications of lipid peroxidation in acne vulgaris:
old wine in new bottles. Lipids Health Dis. 2010 Dec 9;9:141.
30Fife ND, Bruce. Saturated Fat May Save Your Life. Healthwise Publications,
1999. 114.
33
For more on this subject, dubbed the “lipid hypothesis,” as well as debunking
myths about cholesterol and saturated fat, look into Gary Taubes’ excellent book,
Good Calories, Bad Calories.
34
Kuipers RS, de Graaf DJ, Luxwolda MF, Muskiet MH, Dijck-Brouwer DA,
Muskiet FA.Saturated fat, carbohydrates and cardiovascular disease. Neth J
Med. 2011 Sep;69(9):372-8.
35 http://thescreamonline.com/essays/essays5-1/vegoil.html
36 http://www.thresholdthree.com/as/deficiency.html
37 The China Study is not good science. These articles point out serious flaws:
http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/comp-anat/comp-anat-8e.shtml
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/cancer/the-china-study-vs-the-china-study/
http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/China-Study.html
http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/07/31/one-year-later-the-china-study-revisited-and-
re-bashed/
38 http://www.allaboutfasting.com/soaking-grains.html
http://nourishedkitchen.com/soaking-grains-nuts-legumes/
39 http://sproutpeople.org/
40 http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/
41 http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/
44Conklin SM, Manuck SB, Yao JK, Flory JD, Hibbeln JR, Muldoon MF. High
omega-6 and low omega-3 fatty acids are associated with depressive symptoms
and neuroticism.Psychosom Med. 2007 Dec;69(9):932-4. Epub 2007 Nov 8.
47 Couet C, Delarue J, Ritz P, Antoine JM, Lamisse F. Effect of dietary fish oil on
body fat mass and basal fat oxidation in healthy adults. Int J Obes Relat Metab
Disord. 1997 Aug;21(8):637-43.
50Lu DY, Tsao YY, Leung YM, Su KP. Docosahexaenoic acid suppresses
neuroinflammatory responses and induces heme oxygenase-1 expression in
BV-2 microglia: implications of antidepressant effects for ω-3 fatty acids.
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