For a long, long time, I never thought that what I ate and my acne were connected. I continued with my not so great diet while taking antibiotics and using benzoyl peroxide ointment to try and heal my acne. The reality was I was deluding myself big time. My acne was not healing even with both antibiotics and BP. It never healed no matter what I did. In this post, I will explain what a clear skin diet is.
Now, I had acne for 20 years. To be honest this is a ridiculously long time to have acne. Besides affecting your skin, it also slowly, bit by bit, takes away your self-worth. You get comments and real bad comments. Acne becomes your identity and becomes your whole life. And this is exactly what happened to me.
When I finally decided to take a look and see my acne from a different angle than the one I had been looking at all those years, I finally saw how my acne was closely connected to diet. I can’t begin to tell you how frustrated I was. The cure to my acne had always been within my grasp and not in the office of any dermatologist.
I used to be sceptical about trying anything other than medical cures for my acne. I resisted a different approach for a long time, more out of a lack of knowledge. It took a while for me to find blogs on the internet where people had actually documented their results of diet and acne.
So is there any particular diet that can be called The Clear Skin Diet?
These days acne affects people of both sexes, all ages and I am pretty sure all countries in the world have people who suffer from acne. So I am quite certain there is no particular diet that can be called The Clear Skin Diet. So what do we do? We create our own diet. We modify our current diet we have been brought up eating, to make it a powerhouse of nutrients that are great for your skin. I firmly believe that what you put into your body will show up in your skin, your body and your hair.
So here are a few foods that can be added to your current diet or eaten on their own.
Green Leafy Vegetables
Green leafy vegetables are rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin C and zinc which are all essential in maintaining optimal skin health. Whether it’s spinach, fenugreek leaves (methi), kale or amaranth, all leafy vegetables are good for you. They can be added to dals (lentil soup), stir-fries and just eaten steamed, on the side.
Vitamin C Rich Foods
Vitamin C helps with healing acne and promotes healthy glowing skin. Whether it’s a fruit or vegetable I am sure you can find one you can get locally. Oranges, kiwis, papayas, peppers, guava, broccoli, strawberries, berries, Indian gooseberries (amla) are all rich in vitamin C. Make sure you eat these raw or cooked every day. If this is not possible an easier option is squeezing the juice of one lemon into a glass of water and drinking it. Green leafy vegetables are also rich in Vitamin C, so you can kill 2 birds with one stone with this one.
Coloured Fruits and Vegetables
Any brightly coloured fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants which are great for your skin. The brighter the colour the better it is for you. People with acne are known to have low antioxidant levels in their body. Adding antioxidants to your diet will help correct this imbalance.
Fish
Fish, especially oily fish, is high in omega-3 fatty acids which helps keep your skin smooth and wrinkle-free. There has not been much research into this but it has been found that taking an omega-3 fatty acid supplement can actually reduce your acne.
Our diets today are high in omega-6 fatty acids rather than omega-3. Omega-6 promotes inflammation. Inflammation causes acne. Omega-3 reduces inflammation.
Don’t eat fish? Don’t worry. You can get your omega-3 fatty acids from flax seeds, chia seeds, mustard oil, beans, cabbage, cauliflower and walnuts. Or you can just take a supplement.
Water
Make sure you drink at least 8-10 glasses of plain water every day to keep your skin hydrated and smooth. Drinking water by itself will do nothing for your acne if your diet is bad. Green tea and coconut water are great too.
Have trouble incorporating all these into your daily diet initially. Make this smoothie which contains all the above nutrients.
Ingredients
- A handful of leafy greens
- One lemon
- One teaspoon chia or flax seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder or 1/2 inch ginger
- One cup plain water or coconut water
Blend all and drink.
