I'm considering trying a grain-free diet, mostly with the hopes that it will help my cystic acne. I'm pretty certain that corn triggers acne for me (which probably means it triggers inflammation in my body, which is probably bad ...regardless of the acne)...

so....first I thought of going corn-free, but I kind of feel like being extreme for at least a couple months and cutting out all grains completely. I guess it would be kind of like a paleo diet, but I don't really eat much meat, so it would be more like a fruit, veggie, olive oil, coconut oil, bean, lentil, egg, seed, nut and a little bit of chicken diet.

Has anyone done anything like this? What was your reasoning? Was it helpful? Is it something you stick to consistently? Just wondering what people's thoughts are...

I've done it. It's actually pretty good! I am eating grains in small amounts now but still use almond meal by choice as my flour because it is much moister than rice flour. I suggest you read up on the specific carbohydrate diet and then modify it to suit your needs (this is what I have done and feel great). I did not feel deprived and loved learning to cook new recipes. And, now packaged food tastes dead to me so I remain happily cooking/baking from scratch.

Thanks for the response. I think I'll give it a try, with the goal of keeping it up for a couple weeks, just to see how it goes. I do really like almond meal as flour. What kind of almond meal do you use, or do you make it yourself?

Mango,

I was actually grain free for quite a while. I also wasn't eating fruit either (I did have lemons and pure non-sweetened cranberry juice), so basically my diet consisted of lots of veggies and protein (chicken, turkey, and beef). My skin cleared up.

I am eating grains now and my skin is still clear. Interestingly enough it's when I eat fruit that I break out and have other problems, so for me I think it was the fruit.

Whatever you decide good luck with it!

Have you considered following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet? http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/

Michelle

I'm following The Paleo Diet and find it is easy and enjoyable. Have you ever given up dairy? I've been reading a lot about dairy and acne in the science news blogs.

The reasoning behind the Paleo diet is to eat foods we have evolved to eat, not ones recently introduced into the human diet. Both dairy and grains are recent introductions.

Dr. Cordain has a new book out about the dietary acne cure and I think he wrote about it some in his newsletter
http://thepaleodiet.com/newsletter/back_issues.shtml


Trader Joe's has almond meal. It is very inexpensive too.

Hi Julie That's interesting about the fruit. Is it like a sugar/insulin thing maybe? I think I definitely need to experiment with some different options.

I guess this is bad timing with the holidays coming up . Maybe I'll try to be an extremist about it for a short time...sort of a detox type thing...then I'll slowly add stuff back in.

I think the scd is a good idea. I'll consider it, thanks.



Thanks for the info! Yeah, I've been strictly dairy-free for about 12 years. I'm soy-free as well. Soy triggers my acne (really severely), but I've never found anything that completely clears it up. I'll check out that book and the newsletter.

I'm not sure what it is, I was thinking fructose maybe upsets my intestinal balance and causes acne for me. I don't break out with other sugars (go figure).


It's challenging to make changes around the holidays, but at least you have a couple weeks to work with and eliminate some possible offenders.

I started the specific carbohydrate diet 5 or 6 weeks ago. The acne on my face and upper arms has cleared up considerably. I was having terribly smelly gas and constipation prior to this and now the smelly gas is gone and I am having 2 normal bowel movements most days. It has been incredible. I think that I have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, so this makes sense. Since starting the diet it has also been MUCH easier to find out what foods were bothering me. I cannot eat eggs or onions. I started the diet with no dairy and now I can tolerate a small amount of allowed cheese. I think that this diet makes sense to heal your intestines. I don't plan on eating this way forever, but I think for it to work you really have to be dedicated.

The author of the book "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" states that if the diet doesn't help within one month, then it's probably not for you.

I do know that there have been a large number of people advocating to reduce the grains in your diet for health reasons. I think I am just healthier not eating processed foods.

Kim

Good points. I think that kind of summarizes the jist of it.

Well, I was excited to experience my first grain-free day today. I ate an apple and some raw walnuts for breakfast, and I packed broccoli slaw (raw broccoli and carrots) with avocado and pistachios for lunch, and some veggie soup. Well...it turns out the veggie soup had corn in it (I'm sure the corn-free ppl would be like yeah, duh ). Hmph...I guess I'm just going to do my best to transition to this. Hopefully I will experience my first grain-free day tomorrow

I currently live in a house full of gluten-free junk food junkies (think every pre-packaged gluten-free, dairy-free treat that's ever been made...all stuffed into one little pantry lol), but I'm excited to detox a little and to be healthier (again). We'll see how it goes....

So I finally managed a grain-free day . I don't know how realistic this is going to be since I really despise eating meat. Maybe I'll try to add more fish?

Is it a bad idea to add in more potatoes?....I've heard of scary things happening to people who completely cut out starch. I also eat mass quantities of garbanzo beans, but...I dont' think that's ever going to change.

Has anyone actually read the dietary acne cure book? Is it worth buying?

Mango,

I did not do well cutting out all starches, and I ate that way for quite a long time. While it helped with a lot of things, it really caused a lot of problems for me too, and most importantly it wasn't anything I could stick with as a lifestyle change.

But on the other side of the coin, I have heard of people doing well eating starch free or starch light.

I guess you just have to weigh everything carefully and decide what is best for you and your body.

Sorry, I guess this really doesn't answer your question

Actually, those are really good points. I could never stick with this as a lifestyle change either (I can barely do it for two days lol). I think in the end it will be a matter of majorly limiting corn (ie not eating entire bags of corn chips at a time ), majorly limiting pre-packaged, processed foods and keeping grains and starches to a minimum.

I appreciate everyone's input and I'd love to hear more about people's experiences with this type of thing

If you can find it at the library, borrow before you buy it!

Michelle

Scary things? Like they get really healthy? Humans haven't evolved to eat the amount of starch, and sugar, that we're consuming everyday. That's why we're getting all these diseases like diabetes and heart disease. I've pretty much driven my autoimmune arthritis into remission by eliminating starches and sugars. Paleo and SCD are very similar except paleo eliminates dairy completely and isn't fussy about things like peeling and cooking fruit.

I've heard of people experiencing strange psychological symptoms from completely cutting out all carbs and all starch. Maybe that was inaccurate information that I read though. I do agree with that last sentence, but I think "amount" is the key word there. Are we really meant to cut it out completely? (I'm asking in the sense that I really don't know )

I think humans have not evolved to be able to eat large amounts of processed carbs, anyway. People in the world who eat a mostly plant-based diet (largely unprocessed carbs) rarely get heart disease or type 2 diabetes. Indeed, this sort of diet has been used successfully to treat both problems. (See Esselstyn & Ornish for the first; Barnard for the latest research on the latter.)

An interesting recent study about the human evolution and carbs is discussed here:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2007nl/oct/fav5.htm

The largest epidemiological study I know of (of multiple sites in China which allowed a comparison of a large spectrum of different diets; also people rarely moved, so they ate the same diets for years) found that the closest correlation to many diseases was with animal protein. (Campbell, The China Study, is the book written about this for the general public)

I think the psychological symptoms from elimination of all carbs would be because they are the preferred fuel of the brain. Here's one study I've seen:
http://grande.nal.usda.gov/ibids/index.php...mp;therow=42630
I know I tried such a diet once when I was young and I felt very weird after a couple weeks and then started vomiting.

I trust when people say they are cutting out sugars they are including high fructose corn syrup. Surely evolution hasn't prepared us for that one

My skin cleared up some when I eliminated dairy and went low fat; it completely cleared when I cut out soy. My reading indicates that reactions to soy are sometimes subtle and frequently show up as skin problems.

I'm so envious of people who have those results LOL. My diet is mostly plant based (I do eat occasional eggs and very occasional chicken or fish). I don't eat soy or dairy or gluten...and re-reading this thread, I'm making it sound like I stuff myself with processed foods, but I don't eat anything mainstream (and nothing ever with hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup)...but ideally I don't like to eat too much of anything that comes out of a package, and I have been eating corn chips and sunshine veggie burgers and Enjoy Life bars and such. Just thinking out loud, trying to come up with some answers..... <----could this be a thinking emoticon? LOL

On another note...I recently started slathering my face each night with organic raw apple cider vinegar. It's doing really great things to my skin so far (knock on wood!)

I'm 54; it's about time my face cleared up

I just thought of something else that helped somewhat. I switched from using a fluoride toothpaste. After finally diagnosing myself by looking at gross pictures of skin disorders, I figured out I had perioral dermititis. Reading up on that, I found that some people got results from changing their toothpaste. Others get relief from cutting out products with sodium lauryl sulfate (I think I'm remembering that one correctly -- it is something that is in a lot of skin products).

If it isn't something in your diet, it may be an allergic sort of reaction to an ingredient in a personal care product.

I didn't get a complete clearing until I stopped the soy though. It is interesting. I tried a new supplement a few months ago and my face started to break out. I called the company and, yep, it had some soy in it.

Good luck figuring things out!

I can't say I've got everything fixed myself. I'm still getting menopausal night sweats. I keep trying things. Eliminating all my food intolerances didn't help, so now I'm back to trying different herbs. I don't want to take out anything else. Having recently found out that yeast-free meant not having wine, I realized that I hadn't really done this. I can't see I've noticed a difference in anything, though. Not sure I want to see one ... I miss wine (she whined).

Hmmm...there is soy in my hair products, and I do cheat sometimes with soy lechithin, and I live in a house that uses lots of Earth Balance and soy flour. I don't use flouride toothpaste but I think there's flouride in the tap water? And...even though I gave up on being grain-free after two days ...those two days showed me my diet isn't as balanced and great as I'd like it to be...so it's probably diet and personal care stuff...and a really lovely genetic thing

Thanks for the ideas. I'll have to keep working on this.