85% of teenagers living in westernized civilizations suffer from acne – be it a few pimples – through to full blown acne.
Those of us living in westernized countries – this includes all nations affected by westernized food – including Asia and Africa, accept acne as part of being a teenager – but interestingly – for me as a teenager on a clean diet thanks to a mother a tad obsessed with health – myself nor my three siblings ever had acne. Neither did any of my friends who had health-conscious parents – but those of my friends who allowed their children to eat foods which were banned by my mother did.
My daughter had clear skin until she insisted that buying lunch from the school canteen was “cool” so I gave in – and within a very short period of time – she had acne – which worsened as she went through uni – but ‘miraculously’ disappeared when she grew up and started eating a clean food diet when she started full time work and taking better care of herself.
Researchers have found no signs of acne in non-Westernized populations still living under Palaeolithic dietary conditions consuming minimal if no hyperglycaemic carbohydrates, milk, and dairy products.
Adolescent Kitavan islanders of Papua New Guinea and Aché hunter-gatherers of Paraguay in the age range of 15 to 25 years never suffer from acne.
Neither did the Eskimos – but within a decade, the fast transition of the Eskimo population of Canada moving from the status of a hunter/gatherer society to that of a town-based “civilized society” has seen an onset of acne in their youth.
An increase in acne prevalence also occurred in Okinawans and Chinese after leaving their traditional dietary habits. I see it with Chinese students in Australia – they arrive slim, healthy with clear skin which within 6 months is covered in acne, and their body weight has doubled if not quadrupled.
In urban areas of Brazil (96%), there is a high incidence of acne, but in rural areas, such as the tropical Purus Valley, they have a very low prevalence of acne (2.7%).
The approach to treating acne is treat it from outside mainly with chemicals such as glycolic acid and salicylic acid or antibiotic drugs – all in chemical bases – which increase the toxic load on the already struggling system.
Or the worst approach – yet most popular approach is to pop acne sufferers on Roaccutane – which is so toxic to the body and thins the skin out so much that it has long tern side effects.
The frustrating part is that in a French study NutriNet-Santé study, with over 24,000 participants – researchers assessed a dozen food groups – milk, dark chocolate, refined cereals, vegetables, meat, sugary beverages and processed food – and they found that the food groups – milk, sugar, fatty foods and processed foods which are all major components of a Western Diet – were the main culprits for causing acne – once these foods were removed – participants skin’s cleared up.
Yet – we keep on trying to deny that food is the main culprit to bad skin.
If you can honestly say that you eat a clean diet – but you still eat bread which isn’t sour dough bread – or you eat sour dough – and you don’t drink milk or you drink real milk – raw or minimally processed and you still suffer from acne – you may be intolerant to the glyphosate (otherwise known as round up) sprayed on grains which doesn’t disappear by the bread being made into sour dough bread.
If you have been on large amounts of antibiotics throughout your life – you could potentially have no gut bacteria left which could be the cause of your break outs.
If you are under huge amounts of stress, this could also be the cause of your break outs – but also be honest here – what are you eating/drinking to deal with your stress?
You can also turn a skin with a few pimples into full blown acne by using aggressive products -or too many products.
If you live in a smoggy dirty city – and you do not clean and exfoliate your skin so that the acid mantle (the protective layer) stays intact – this can cause congestion – which many people confuse with acne.
Women suffer more from acne then men – men largely have worse outbreaks than women – but women overall suffer from more breakouts – and for longer thoughout their lives – this is because women’s hormones are varying constantly in a monthly cycle.
With this varying cycle – comes varying degrees of sugar consumption – often the best diets are broken by the unexplainable urge to eat sugar or kill someone!
Gut flora is affected by hormones, and even the healthiest gut gets thrown when large quantities of sugar, dairy, processed food and starchy gluten is dumped on it for a week every month.
In the Amazon region they eat huge amounts of raw honey but what counteracts this honey consumption – it that they eat huge amounts of fibrous yams.
Raw honey (it says it is raw on the jar) is actually good for the gut – so when needing a sugar hit – try raw honey instead – and ensure that you eat lots of healthy veggies at the same time!
A 90 year old woman told me the other day that she was going to the supermarket to walk down the supermarket isles to look at packets of poison posing as food – to try to find food in amongst these packets.
She unfortunately is right – most so called food is not food.
Book a glowing skin and wellness consultation if you would like one on one help to work out what is causing your acne breakouts and to help you achieve a healthy glowing skin!
Yvette xx
Thank you for reading my blog!
Hi!
I am Yvette van Schie, I am a holistic beauty therapist, skin nutritionist, skincare developer and makeup artist. I am passionate about sharing real beauty advice with a whack of reality.
For over 38 years I have worked with the best in the beauty and health industry as a trainer, educator and product formulator and I still do – so my knowledge is diverse – I am not blinkered when sharing my information with you because everyone I speak to shares what they know, and I turn it into easy to digest information because I want my readers to feel empowered to make their own decisions and to feel that they are fully in control of their beauty and well being.
