Category: Lifestyle

The Dangers Of Sugar

Ever since I started my blog and told people about the possible link between diet, particularly sugar and dairy, and acne, I have got a lot of push back. I have got comments like “People have been eating sugar for hundreds of years. How is it suddenly a problem?”. Then I have also got one sarcastic comment. It was that since I blame food for everything, I should just stop eating.

My blog is not about diet and not eating sugar or any other food. My blog is for people with acne and tips and ways to resolve it. If diet helps resolve acne, I am going to write about it. I am not forcing anyone to quit eating anything. All I am doing is helping people with acne who are desperate for a solution. All my information is available freely on my blog. People are free to read it or go elsewhere.

Even if someone has acne and does not agree with my advice, that is perfectly fine with me. No gun is being held to anyone’s head to listen to me and my ramblings.

I have been wanting to write about sugar in general. I have to come realise that it is bad for your health whether you have acne or not. Like it or not most of us love the sweet stuff. Given a chance I can sit and eat a whole cake one slice at a time. However, it is the fear of developing deep painful acne on my face, which keeps me from doing something like this. Trust me, if I got acne on my back only and not my face, it would have been a different story.

However, what about someone who does not have acne. What is their motivation for giving up on the sweet stuff?

First let us analyse the comment that “People have been eating sugar for hundreds of years.” No they haven’t. Sugar is not found in nature. It is a byproduct of sugarcane, which as you can see below, is very fibrous.

I doubt this is meant to be eaten by humans. It is almost impossible for the human jaw to eat this. At the most maybe you can chew off a small amount.

Today we have powerful machines which crush these tough, fibrous stems to extract the juice from them and convert it into sugar. Unfortunately for us, our bodies have not evolved to cope with the massive amounts of sugar we now put into it.

Check out the graph below to see how sugar consumption in the US has increased over the years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graph Source

This graph is for data in the US alone. However I am pretty sure the graph of other countries looks very similar. Imagine that.

In the year 1820 a person ate about 2.8 kilos of sugar per year. In the year 2000 that number has increased to 48 kilos of sugar per year.

The fact is the amount of sugar being consumed by one person in a whole year in 1820, was being consumed in about 3 weeks in 2000. Our bodies are struggling to cope with this huge change.

How Has This Increase Affected Us

Here are some of the diseases caused by sugar

Excessive Weight Gain

How exactly does excess sugar lead to weight gain? Now there is a hormone called leptin. This hormone tells you when you have enough food. It then signals your brain to tell you that you are full. When you consume excess sugar this hormone does not work as it should and you end up consuming more food than you need. This excess food leads to weight gain.

Higher Risk of Diabetes and Heart Disease

High sugar diets will put you at risk for developing diabetes and  heart disease.

Faster Skin Aging

High sugar foods increases the production of AGE’s ( Advanced Glycation End Products ) which make your skin age faster and damage the collagen which keeps your skin smooth and plump.

Fatty Liver

I always thought fatty liver was associated with a high intake of alcohol. Until my husband, someone I knew who never drank any alcohol was told he had it. Then I got to know that it was actually called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

It was a mystery to me until he quit eating loads of chocolate due to a dairy allergy and stopped drinking bottles of soft drinks. At his next physical he was told he did not have it.

So yeah, an increased intake of sugar, especially sugary drinks may lead to a fatty liver.

May Cause Acne

This is the place where I get the most push back. I can safely tell people that high sugar diets may put you at risk for diabetes and heart disease. But the minute I say that acne may also be caused by a high sugar diet I get some form of disbelief from people.

Excess sugar causes hormonal imbalances and  high inflammation both of which make it more likely that you will get acne.

PCOS ( Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome )

As a teen growing up in India I had never heard of PCOS. In my twenties almost every second person I knew had it. Most women I talked to at work had some issue with their menstrual cycle. Some were losing hair because of it. Some were gaining weight. Still others had excessive facial and body hair. These days I know a lot of women who have to have laser to get their facial hair removed.

What has changed in the last 10-15 years that suddenly an increased number of women have PCOS?

Insulin resistance is one of the root physiological imbalances in most, if not all, PCOS. This is where your pancreas needs to pump out more and more insulin in response to high blood sugar levels.

Insulin lowers the blood sugar by storing the glucose in cells. The cells become resistant to the constant insulin and need more to be signalled to lower the blood sugar. When this resistance goes on for a while, you have high insulin and high blood sugar.

It turns out that research shows many lifestyle changes can pull someone out of the metabolic chaos of PCOS, and decrease her chances of developing co-morbidities such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, anxiety, depression and infertility. 

Source

I asked a young girl, who I knew was struggling with PCOS, about the treatment she was getting from her doctor. She mentioned she was on birth control pills. I asked her if she was better taking them, she said no. Now the next piece of “medical advice” is something that can happen only in India. The doctor told her “It will all settle down after you get married.” There you have it. Getting married is the cure for PCOS!!!

Newsflash : She has been married for 5 years now and it has still not “settled down”.

Now this girl was in serious depression because of her condition. She had bald patches on her head and she was rapidly gaining weight. I used to ask her if her doctor had asked her to make any changes to her diet. She said no every time. I asked her if she considered giving up the chips and soft drink diet she lived on. She looked very sceptical.

All that you read above are just some of the really bad negative effects of sugar on the body. With acne you can see what is happening because of excess sugar consumption. It is right there on your face. It effects your self esteem. People are more likely to try and change their diet to cure it. Acne is not life threatening. Diseases like diabetes and heart disease certainly are. And the problem is they are silent as they happen within your body. Unlike acne, you do not get a clue as to what is going on within your body.

However, as with any disease the overall quality of your life goes down. Acne, which while certainly not life threatening, makes you feel bad about yourself and your skin. With diseases like diabetes, you have to take medication everyday to keep it under control.

I quit sugar in 2013 and have never felt better. It was certainly hard initially and I will admit, it still is hard when I see sweets and desserts I absolutely adore. I do allow myself a weekly treat of something I love. I can now eat a small quantity of sweets without breaking out. But I will never ever go back to eating desserts everyday.

You can read about my experience with sugar and acne here. I also wrote an article on quitting sugar here.

 

 

Does Chocolate Cause Acne Or Not?

Last week I published a guest post on my site. It was about “6 Foods For Clear Skin”. One of the foods was dark chocolate. Now I know that dark chocolate is full of antioxidants. These antioxidants come from the higher amount of cocoa in dark chocolate than milk chocolate. That mildly bitter taste you get from dark chocolate is because of the 70% ( or higher ) percent cocoa in it. Antioxidants are great for you and even better for your skin.

Continue reading “Does Chocolate Cause Acne Or Not?”

How To Clear Your Skin With Diet

I’ve been hard at work for the past few months working on my first product. Yay!! I’m very very excited about this. I started this blog in January 2016 to help women like me, who suffer from acne.

Since then I’ve had hundreds of people email me and I’m thrilled to say I’ve helped a lot of people. The reason I started with the intention it was only for women was because as a woman myself, I seriously thought my methods would work only for women. But I’ve had men as well who email me and who’ve got results from the tips I give them. So extra happy to have both men and women reading my blog and getting results.

I did get a lot of hateful comments from men who said I was being sexist. Please note that these men did not have acne. They just made the hateful comments. The men who had acne just emailed me and asked straight up for help.

Coming back to my book, a few months back I sent all the people on my email list an email asking which topic would be most helpful to them.

The list of topics I sent out was as follows

1. DIY Skin Care for Acne
2. DIY Face Masks for Acne
3. The Acne Healing Diet
4. What You Can do to get rid of your Acne Quickly

The response was overwhelming and the response was No. 3 which was “The Acne Healing Diet“.

So I got to work on my book and it’s almost done. It will be out in a few days time.

Here are a few things I’ve learned over the last few years about how to clear your skin with diet. I explain them in detail in my book. And here are some I thought I would share with you.

1. You Can Clear Your Skin With Diet Alone

You don’t need fancy skin care or even acne creams to clear your skin. It’s always a fear that if you don’t apply something to your acne, it will go out of control or you will get more acne.

However what I’ve come to realize is that, if tomorrow if you quit using all your skin care products and just change your diet, your skin will start healing on its own. Even a small diet change helps.

In fact it might be better to just leave your skin alone and your skin will benefit from it. The diet changes you make will start to work and your skin will start to clear up.

Acne is caused by conditions in the body which have been created by diet. Diet can also fix these conditions.

Diet causes acne and diet fixes it as well. Never forget this.

2. You Don’t Need Loads of Supplements To Get Clear Skin

Most diet books for acne will have you believe that you need bucket loads of supplements to get clear skin and that is the only way you can get rid of acne. However most people who have clear skin do not take supplements at all. Clear skin is not a result of supplements but rather a outcome of a healthy body.

When you have acne your body maybe deficient in antioxidants and some fatty acids. But this does not mean you have to pop supplements right, left and center. You may need to take a few supplements when trying to heal but you don’t need to take them forever.

I am generally not a fan of supplements and I feel it is always better to get what you need from your diet. However, I also know that sometimes that may not be possible and that supplements can be quicker.

However, you do not need to buy every possible supplement under the sun.

3. You Can Live in Any Country and Eat Any Diet and Still Clear Your Skin

When I bought my first book that promised a cure for my acne, the diet was mainly written to suit someone in the US. I lived in the UK at the time and finding what I needed was a little tough. I then bought another book which of course made it harder for me when I moved out of the UK.

Besides that most diets are mostly oriented and written for people living in Western countries .They don’t take into account the fact that diets and foods available may change from country to country and that people are used to eating different foods all over.

My readers come from all over the world and I need to take into account that they may eat different things depending on which country they come from or live in. I’m Indian and I eat rice. Well, let me rephrase that, I need to eat rice. Ask me to stop and you’re going to be getting dirty looks from me. A

4. Any Diet Can be Made Skin Friendly

No matter where you live and what you eat, you can always change your diet to be skin friendly. When I say change, it does not mean change completely. It just means you examine your diet, add certain things and take certain things out. Paleo diets are all well and good but not everyone can follow them. And not everyone wants to and they should not have to.

5. Local Diets are The Best

I always encourage people to eat what their ancestors ate or what the people of the region they live in eat. However simple those diets may seem, they are the best. I also encourage people to eat local. That means eat what you get around you. However that advice may be a bit outdated as these days you get everything, everywhere and at any time of the year.

6. You Don’t Need Organic Foods

As much as organic food is much better than what you get in the supermarket, not everyone can afford it. It may also not be available to most people. So while if you can it would be better to eat organic, don’t stress too much about it.

7. There Are Many Foods That can cause Acne

When I cured my acne by cutting out sugar, I thought “Great, now I can just tell all people who have acne to cut out sugar’. I was sitting on my high horse. I was brought down very quickly as I figured out that almost everyone’s acne is unique. What causes my acne may be completely different from yours.

While I get acne when I eat sugar, there are people who get acne when they eat any form of dairy. These people may eat sugar and have no complaints. Then there are other people who quit sugar, dairy and still have acne.

Acne is tricky and complicated. It is not only caused by eating certain foods but to make things complicated you can get acne because you do not eat certain foods. Are you confused yet?

I explain all these things in my book. If there is anything you want me to include or if you have any questions either comment below or email me at yourbeautychronicles@gmail.com.

The Best Foods That Clear Acne

When it comes to clearing acne, our skin needs all the help it can get. One of the best ways of helping it is through the food we eat.  Of course there are still people who say that diet and acne are not connected. My personal favorite (which annoys me of course ) is “There are no scientific studies that prove that acne and diet are connected”. If you’re out of your teens and still struggling with acne, let me tell you the quickest way to clear and acne free skin is through diet. Even if you do not have acne, adding the below foods to your diet can make your skin glow and look so much better. Do try it out and let me know. I can guarantee you will not be disappointed.

Continue reading “The Best Foods That Clear Acne”

Is Acne Genetic?

Most people who have fought with acne and continue to fight with it in adulthood eventually ask this question. Not that knowing the answer does much to help, but it does answer the question as to why you have acne. Where acne is concerned we do need answers as to why we in particular are affected. We need to know why we have acne while our friends don’t.

If your parents had acne, it is more than likely you will have acne. But before you despair let us think about it for a while. You will inherit your skin type from your parents. People with acne generally have overactive oil glands and skin that does not shed dead skin cells properly. You may inherit these conditions. Also you will probably eat the same or similar diet your parents had in their teens or adulthood. People generally tend to bring their childhood foods to the families they go on to have.

So is acne really genetic? Well, not really. While the tendency or likelihood to get acne is genetic, acne itself is not genetic. Just because either of your parents suffered does not mean you will suffer. But this also means that you can get acne regardless of whether anyone in your family had it.

The question if you have acne is, does it really matter if it’s genetic or not? There’s nothing you can do about genetics but there is a lot you can do about your diet, lifestyle and skincare. There are much worse genetic illnesses you can inherit. Some of these you can do nothing about. They may restrict the quality of your life and your ability to live life completely. If we’re being completely honest acne does none of these things. It may make you feel ugly or less confident but acne does not stop you from running or doing anything you feel like doing.

If you arrived here looking for the answer to this question, the best thing for you to do right now is to look forward and look for ways to cure your acne. It does not matter whether acne is genetic or not. There is nothing you can do if it is genetic or not. You are here now, with all the genes that make you unique. Focus on fixing your acne.

Click here to get started.