11 replies to this topic

[Pineapple]

Hello,

This is my first post and I thought it should be about diet, although I have a lot of other stuff I could talk about.  I am a 20 year old female college student who has suffered from moderate to severe acne for 7-8 years. I recently purchased the Clear for Life e-book, and I have to say I am so glad it talks about the other parts to health because I was one of those people going diet crazy. I have tried the raw foods diet for months with no success, and even when I ate cooked food for a while I had given up grains and all sorts of things. Because dieting didn't seem to be helping me, I sadly went back to my old eating habits for the most part. I still bought a lot of organic food, but I was not trying nearly hard enough to eat well. In the middle of May I came across the Wai sample diet. This diet contains a lot of fruit (lots of sugar) and some healthy oils and animal foods such as raw egg yolks and raw fish. I did this diet for almost a month with a few mistakes in the first 2 weeks, but the second 2 weeks I was very strict. I broke out worse than I ever had in my life. After deciding that sugar was making my acne worse, I cut out all fruits and started eating more animal products. I'm living with my folks this summer so it has worked out rather nicely because they eat very healthy. All of our meat is organic and grass fed. We get the best organic free range eggs from a friend of ours (I helped out at that very same farm today and got to pick feathers off the fresh eggs, put them in cartons, and take them home!). We also eat raw fermented vegetables and I've been making yogurt and kefir from raw milk. We basically follow many of the principles found in an amazing book I just finished reading called Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone, acne or no acne.

Even though I firmly believe that this way of eating is very healthy, I wanted to post it on here in hopes that Seppo will read it and give me some feedback.

My break out from the wai diet has calmed down a lot. I know it will take a while for me to be completely clear because my skin issues have been pretty bad. I've never had cysts I don't think, but my problems cover most of my face and even other parts of my body. Reading Clear for Life really opened my eyes to see the other things that are hurting my health and contributing to this awful condition. I have a lot of stress and anxiety in my life, which I am trying to chip away at, and that has also probably been a big help. I have problems falling asleep sometimes and I don't know why, but I am working on that too. I have been spending more time outside in the sunshine trying to be more active. I'm not a big runner, but I love long walks and other forms of exercise. I don't have access to a gym this summer, but once school starts up again hopefully I will make time for that.

[Seppo]

Thanks for getting Clear for Life. I really appreciate your trust and business.

Glad to hear you've relaxed a bit with diet. Most people make waaay too much fuzz about diet and give themselves an eating disorder trying to get clear. You really don't have to have perfect diet to get clear. Or I should say most people don't need to have perfect diet.

Looks like you are going Paleo way with your diet. Low carb/paleo is pretty good at clearing the skin, but I still wouldn't recommend it. Low carb diets cause horrible insulin resistance and as a consequence you can't eat carbs without spiking your blood sugar levels. The whole low carb idea is based on mistaken theories of insulin resistance. They even go as far as to claim that low carb diet fixes insulin resistance, even though nearly all published research contradicts that.

I currently recommend a moderate approach with about 50% of your calories coming from carbs, 30% from fat and 20% from protein. And I should say those are guidelines rather than strict rules.

Carbs should be mostly complex carbs; foods like beans, brown rice, yams, quinoa and fruits and whole grains in moderation. For fats I recommend eating plenty of nuts and seeds, some olive oil and limited quantities of saturated fats (sat fats are just horrible for insulin resistance). Good that you already have some fermented foods in your diet. Also plenty of raw and fresh vegetables.

Other than that, it's better you focus on other areas of health. You'll probably get better returns on your efforts in areas other than diet

[Pineapple]

Thanks for the reply. I don't plan on giving up carbs forever. The reason I am doing it now is because I believe I have a candida overgrowth (eating sugar causes lots of tiny pimples all over). I am not too strict about it. For instance, many vegetables that I eat contain plenty of carbs and some sugar, and a few other things like milk products and kombucha contain some sugar. Its the high sugar fruits and grains I am avoiding for now. Later I will reintroduce them and see what happens!

I will probably make a post in the other sections of this forum at some point in the future. I am doing a lot better emotionally than I was before, simply from knowing that it is important and that alone gives me hope for some reason. However, given my history and the information given, I most likely can't fix my emotional problems so quickly and they will come back to haunt me if I don't do something more concrete about it. Who knows?

[Seppo]

Please know that Candida is bogus. The whole Candida overgrowth theory is bogus and has no validity or evidence to support it. Systemic Candida overgrowth is highly fatal and only occurs in people with severely compromised immune system, such as advanced cases of AIDS. If you get pimples after eating sugar then you are probably insulin resistant. You can deal with it two ways: either severely limit carbs so the glucose-insulin system doesn't get activated, or fix insulin resistance.

I mean seriously, please don't buy into the whole Candida thing. It's just going to cause you harm and get you nowhere.

[Pineapple]

I understand why some people might think Candida is a hoax, because there are a lot of people exploiting it and trying to make money, but I'm not ready to abandon the idea that an overgrowth (not a deadly one) may occur and show itself in different symptoms. Many people have white tongues (oral thrush), and my mother and I have cleared our tongues (not completely) with anti-candida dieting. Hers is more severe than mine, but I definitely notice a more pink and healthy looking tongue after eating this way.

I'm feeling very confused about the whole thing so I'm going to try and not stress about it. I would like to know how one and fix insulin resistance. Any suggestions for somebody like me?

Thanks

[Seppo]

The reason I say Candida is bogus is for two reasons. First, there's no evidence to support it. Second, it goes against what scientists and doctors currently know about the human body. Not that our knowledge of the body is perfect, but if something goes against to what we currently know we should have strong evidence to back it up before buying into the whole thing.

That's not to say that Candida at other places wouldn't exist. Candida infections in the mouth, colon and skin are fairly common and easily diagnosed. But they also have nothing to do with systemic Candida infection, where the yeast supposedly has spread to the blood.

For clearing insulin resistance the diet I outlined above works. Along with the rest of the things talked in CFL.

[Chris Rob]

Hey Seppo,

Is there anywhere trustworthy I can read more about how to combat insulin resistance with diet?  Thanks a mil!

[Seppo]

So far the most reliable source I have found is to go look at the studies yourself. The problem with many other sources is that they are biased towards promoting certain dietary approach. So that tends to skew how they look at studies and evidence. I'm sure there are reliable sources available online also, but I just got tired with trying to figure out who's real and who is not and went straight for the studies.

I can summarize for you what I currently understand about it.

• Total fat intake of around 30%
  
• Limit saturated fat intake
  
• Omega 6:3 balance, as too much omega 6  can cause insulin resistance
  
• MUFAs (mono unsaturated fats), such as olive oil are the best substitute for saturated fats
  
• Too many carbs also causes insulin resistance, especially high GI carbs, that's because the liver goes crazy converting all that sugar into fats
  
• Insulin resistance is linked to amount of triglycederides and free fatty acids in the blood
  
• Too much fructose can kills your insulin sensitivity

Note that this is more or less consistent with current dietary recommendations by medical authorities. Maybe they would recommend limiting fat intake even more, but that seems to be a relic from past and not really supported by evidence. Unfortunately treatment guidelines are slow to change.

I can give you the studies if you want to look at it yourself, but it's quite a bunch and you'll have to spend a few afternoons going through them.

[PCwizCube]

Seppo, on 20 June 2011 - 03:05 AM, said:

• Insulin resistance is linked to amount of triglycederides and free fatty acids in the blood

Hi Seppo,

First of all I love your e-book and website very much and I've learned so much on living a healthier lifestyle, and it has helped clear up my acne tremendously.  Thanks a lot!

Also I have been quietly looking on the forums and I can see that you are not completely sure about saturated fats and other fats being very bad for insulin resistance because you said there are a lot of conflicting studies.  I think, though one of the signs of insulin resistance you say is the amount of triglycerides and fatty acids in the blood (you've said they mask the carbohydrates so insulin has a harder time doing it's job.)

I was wondering, do you believe dietary fats play a large role in serum triglycerides?  I've been looking around at websites and I saw one website said that carbohydrates contribute FAR greater to serum triglicerides than dietary fats do.  I saw that information from this blog post on the Heart Scan Blog.  I'm wondering about your opinion on it and if you think it's valid based on what you've researched.

It's interesting because I've also been on the Primal Blueprint forums and a lot of people say they're triglycerides have lowered a lot when they switched from eating a lot of whole grains to more fat.  It kind of doesn't make sense from just glancing at it but I want to know what you think about it.

Thanks!
PCwizCube

[Seppo]

Health issues are usually very complex and when it comes to health and diet, certainty is the domain of the fools There are always confounding and mitigating circumstances.

As far as I understand triglycerides come from two sources.

• Dietary fat, and especially saturated fat
  
• Dietary carbohydrates via process known as de novo lipogenesis; that's when the liver converts glucose to TGs

So either too much fat or too many carbs in the diet can increase TG levels. When we talk about carbs simple, high GI carbs are much more problematic than low GI carbs are. Also certain carbs, like fructose, can really increase TG levels.

I read the blog post you referred to. It's yet another piece of carbophobia mongering. Furthermore it plainly contradicts with reality. Like 70% of the population on this planet eats lots of carbs (rice in Asia and corn in South America), and most of these people don't have high TG levels.

I'm sure that some people experience lower TG levels when they switch from high carb diet to eating more fat, and especially if those carbs aren't that great. There's also the effect of weight loss. I'm sure that when these people switched to paleo diet they lost weight, and probably started exercising more. All these things affect TG levels, and that's why we have to be a bit careful with anecdotal evidence like this.

From the studies I've seen I wouldn't recommend either extreme. Hence I recommend a balanced approach of 50/30/20, with the disclaimer that there's quite a bit of individual variability in this. Some people do better with more fat and some with more carbs.

Happy to hear your skin is better now!

[PCwizCube]

Thanks Seppo!  I really appreciate the time you take to help and and share your advice!

I also have another question if you don't mind.  I believe the main indicator of insulin resistance you talk about is the insulin having a difficult time "getting through" to lower the blood sugar levels because there's too much resistance (fats covering the sugar).  I've heard of another definition of insulin resistance as well - some people have said that your body produces so much insulin that your cells eventually become unresponsive to insulin (they say because insulin too, like blood sugar is toxic at high levels).  This would mean that insulin wouldn't be able to bring sugar into the cells because the cells aren't opening up and responding to insulin.

What do you think of this other definition of insulin resistance?  It ties more closely to what carbophobics say because by this definition of insulin resistance, it is caused by chronic high levels of insulin, which carbophobics say is caused by high chronic blood sugar levels.  Do you think this defintion is valid or just another thing carbophobics say (I got this definition from carbophobics).

It kind of makes sense though, when they refer this definition to why exercise helps you lower your insulin and lose weight.  They say that high intensity exercise (lifting weights, sprinting) will exaust your glycogen stores in your muscles so that they will want to refill their stores, and so they will start to become insulin sensitive (instead of resisting effects of insulin).  This would also cause insulin levels in the blood to go down because the muscles are "sucking up" insulin.  So if you refer this definition to how exercise lowers insulin, it kind of makes sense.  I would like to know your opinion on it though.  Thanks!

[Seppo]

I don't think either of those explanations is correct. The problem with many of these health guru websites is that they try to simplify complex issues too much and come up with explanations that make sense but are just plainly wrong.

I don't think anybody really understands how insulin resistance happens. Researchers have pretty good ideas, but nobody can explain it properly.

One thing I've read from studies is that when saturated fats are incorporated into cell membranes those membranes become more rigid, and this somehow impairs insulin action. I can't say anything more than that because I'm not a doctor and the more detailed explanations just fly over my head. And those saturated fats can also come from carbs as the liver converts them to TGs.

I'm nto sure if insulin as such would be toxic in high levels. Maybe it is. But I can see how excessive caloric intake (and hence also excessively high insulin levels) will cause insulin resistance.

As cells have enough energy they will down-regulate the proteins that transport glucose from blood to the cell. In this way they become less responsive to insulin, but it's not because insulin itself would be toxic.