When dealing with skin imperfections (I don’t like to use the “A” word because I believe it sounds very negative and it provokes a lot of sad feelings) the worst approach you can choose it to focus primarily on a skin care regime, meaning beauty products. Obviously it is very important to use the right products to clean and moisturize the skin, and preferable you will choose natural and organic products over those traditional over the counter chemical and irritating treatments. But that is just scratching the surface.
You will never heal any disease by treating only the outer effects of a problem that comes from much deeper. Dealing with emotions and thought pasterns that are the real source of all health problems, is crucial for every healing process. I strongly believe that by finding the right emotional root of the sickness, we can resolve the problem once and for all instead of just quieting our body with conventional drugs everytime it tries to send us a message.
Today I would like to talk about diet, which is another major factor in dealing with skin imperfections. By now most people know that if you want to improve the health of your skin, you must follow a proper and healthy diet, even though many dermatologists still deny any connection between food and skin problems. But that is only so they can proscribe you the chemical products they are paid by big pharmaceutical companies to promote.
You can change lot of aspects of your current diet in order to clear your skin, but here is one key change that in my personal experience has produced major improvements. Limiting sugar consumption. Why? When we eat sugar in any form, including carbohydrates, the blood sugar levels increase. As a result, the pancreas releases insulin, a hormone that reduces blood sugar levels. This is a natural process, only the Western diet is so rich with sugary food, and especially refined sugar, that the amount of insulin our body has to produces is so high that it completely messes with our hormone balance, which is essential for clear skin. Also sugar increases inflammations so it is obvious how cutting, or limiting sugar in your diet can be beneficial for your skin. I recommend first saying goodbye forever to white sugar and all products containing it, including most chocolates, cookies, soda, cakes… I know it sounds difficult but it is doable. And your skin will be grateful.
Then you can work on finding good alternative sweeteners like stevia, substituting white bread with whole wheat and learning to enjoy fruit more whenever you get sugar cravings. For further information on sugar free diet please read this previous blog post on sugar-free diet.