acne

[Yoremo]

what´s up guys.

I have had acne for like 6 years now (from like 12 to now, 17 soon 18). I have gone to check it out and I have taken antibiotics for it, and also something called "epiduo", don´t know if that´s the same all over the world but that´s what it´s called in Sweden. So right now the skin care routine I have is basically just putting on a moisturising cream before bed which has settled it down a little, but not much. I think my skin is just pretty disgusting from not cleaning it properly, I also have blackheads on my nose.

Any reccomendations are appreciated, as I don´t know what to do because it seems like it never ends. Btw, epiduo and the antibiotics didn´t do anything long term, my acne slowed down for a week or two and then came back. And my skin also got super irritated by epiduo

[slicketygiggedy]

@Yoremo I literally just posted a topic on the forum earlier about this haha, it might seem like somewhat of a bizarre recommendation but you should take a look at the elimination diet, it's helped many people with skin problems. Basically you remove everything from your diet except meat (go carnivore) then you gradually reintroduce certain foods back in to your diet to see which foods cause your acne to flare up.

https://carnivoreinsider.com/beat-acne-and-skin-problems-with-carnivore-diet/

https://community.revero.com/pyroxidine-improved-skin-ibs-anxiety-carnivore-diet/

This guy, Rob Stuart is also pretty good. He got rid of his skin issues with a similar dietary approach: 

https://www.youtube.com/c/robstuart

Hope this helps.

[Yoremo]

@slicketygiggedywell, I live at home and can´t really decide for myself what to eat. Atleast not to a carnivore diet. Could I maybe do a reverse approach and remove things from my diet and see if that works? Also just posted a thread on diet as I want to change that up too to the extent I can. A question: such a elimination diet, if you find something which is making your skin bad would that offer other benefits too? Because that would make sense right?

[slicketygiggedy]

Yeah do whatever you are able to with what you have, maybe ask or suggest things with your family on what you want to eat. 

Sure a reverse approach could work. I'd say first try to cut out all the processed stuff, then if your acne is still there you could try cutting out carbs.

To answer your question, of course that would most likely be the case, one thing will either directly or indirectly benefit another thing. Actually what you'll probably find is that when you start to see and feel the benefits, you'll never want to go back to what you were doing before. A bit like awakening actually lol.

[Leo Gura]

Acne is a function of eating the wrong foods or hormonal imbalance.

Using creams and antibiotics is silly. You need to change your diet first and foremost.

Do a strict elimination diet where you only eat 1 or 2 items for a few weeks. You should see new acne stops happening. For example, eat only organic home-cooked chicken and rice for 2 weeks. A lot of foods prepared outside your home will cause acne because they use lowest quality ingredients, oils, and toxic additives.

[Yoremo]

@Leo Gura@slicketygiggedyhmm, didn´t think it was like that but it makes sense since creams and antibiotics didn´t work. I don´t eat that much processed food, but I eat a lot of diary and wheat and stuff like that so what would be a good start to change my diet?

[Leo Gura]

2 minutes ago, Yoremo said:

I eat a lot of diary and wheat and stuff like that so what would be a good start to change my diet?

Cut out all diary and wheat.

And most crucially, stop eating any food you didn't prepare yourself. And zero processed foods.

I eliminated all my acne this way.

[Yoremo]

are there any other things that could be damaging me? @Leo Gura there is probably a lot more than that that is bad for me which I don´t even think of as bad. One thing of the top of my head is sugar from fruit and stuff but that can´t possibly be damaging me that much if I eat in moderation

[Leo Gura]

@Yoremo Perhaps sugar, although I've never had problem with fruit.

I can eat a bag of raw sugar and it won't cause any acne. You can easily test that out. Acne takes about 2-6 hrs to appear after eating the wrong food. Fast for a day, eat a bag of sugar, see if any acne appears. You need to carefully monitor every item you eat and when each new pimple appears. Then you can find the causal connections between the two.

Make a log of every new pimple that appears and what you ate within the last 8 hrs of it appearing.

[Yoremo]

@Leo Gura right, I don´t eat that much sugar. Maybe once every two months or so. What do I eat instead of diary and wheat and stuff? where can I look into diet more? Because I am really serious about this but a lot of what I eat has diary and wheat in it so I need to substitute it for something

[Leo Gura]

You need to eliminate dairy and wheat entirely. Do that for a few weeks and see if any new pimples appear.

[Yoremo]

@Leo Gura are other grains as bad as wheat or is wheat the one to look out for? And do I need to look out for any other fats than the fats in diary? Like are there bad fats or is fats pretty good overrall?

[slicketygiggedy]

@Yoremo There are lots of dairy alternatives that you can get like milk, cheese, butter alternatives and it would be best to avoid all grains also because of the gluten in them. Fats shouldn't really be your concern, it's the dairy and grains mainly, then maybe the sugar. 

But, like we've said, avoid the processed stuff because that will have rancid seed oils in them which are the bad fats. Good fats for cooking would be beef tallow, suet, or olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil.

[Yoremo]

@slicketygiggedy What do I eat instead then? I usually eat oatmeal porridge as a quick "healthy" meal. But what do I eat? meat and vegetables?

[slicketygiggedy]

Sure, just experiment and see how you react after certain foods. Try and keep it simple and keep a note of what you eat. It's likely some veg will agree with you, and some veg won't. Just trial and error your meals until it works.

When you increase the protein content of your meals you'll actually eat less frequently, so you probably won't need any 'quick healthy meals' anymore. 

[Yoremo]

@slicketygiggedyHow do I do with dinner? I can probably resonate forth something with my parents. Just some kind of meat or some other vegetarian protein source, but then what? what do I eat besides the protein stuff? Because I can obviously not eat pasta and not white rice or any of that shit either. Do I need carbs? if so from where? Would quinoa, potatoes be a good choise?

How do I do with vegetables? I would appreciate advice to what veggies to start with and how to cook them since I haven´t really had much veggies to my dinners. Steaming? boiling? 

[slicketygiggedy]

It's hard to say exactly because im no dietitian and you'll need to find what works for you.

But, aside from protein the best carbs are fruit and honey. Sometimes white rice can work or potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash.

In terms of veg, what veg do you have now? Just experiment with the usual veggies, whether it's broccoli, carrots, cauliflower etc  and you can steam them or boil them it doesn't make a huge difference.

[Yoremo]

1 hour ago, slicketygiggedy said:

Sure a reverse approach could work. I'd say first try to cut out all the processed stuff, then if your acne is still there you could try cutting out carbs.

@slicketygiggedy what´s wrong with carbs?

[Yoremo]

additional question: my parents own a farm and therefore I have loads of lamb meat which is basically free. But is lamb meat good for you?

edit: it might be called mutton in english when I think about it

Edited February 15, 2022 by Yoremo

[slicketygiggedy]

Nothing's 'wrong' with carbs exactly. In fact you need them for intense exercise and energy.

Carbs just happen to spike insulin more than fat or protein, and if you're wanting to get rid of your acne, and it's still there after removing all the processed crap, as well as dairy and grains from your diet, then cutting back on carbs could help.

Lamb/mutton is perfect actually, especially if it's free haha.