Confused

[Joanna.K]

Hi all,

Been RAW for a while now and love it, do not intend to do anything else. However the past few weeks i had noticed my face becoming very red, tight and dry. It was sore and irritating; i have no idea why... There had been no changes to my usual RAW diet.
I have however just had a weekend where i let loose, it was a friends birthday so there was lots of alcohol followed by hangover food - breads, chips, dips, chocolates, biscuits, cakes etc. (Still vegan however). This morning im now back onto RAW obviously buuut, my skin is actually a lot better. No dryness or redness, isnt itchy and sore at all.

Does anybody understand this at all? Like i said, it was a one off weekend, love RAW and sticking to it. But i am very curious and do want to solve this sore skin issue.

My usual diet:
Morning till 6pm ish - Eating fresh fruits as and when im hungry. Bananas, pears, apples, kiwi, pineapple, grapes, plums etc

Evening meal is a large salad combination consisting of - carrots, red onions, tomatoes, celery, mushrooms, pepper, sweetcorn, cucumber, green beans, brocolli, spinach, kales, rocket, red chard etc. A big mix of whatevers in the fridge really. Plus some herbs and spices.

Bit more fruit if im hungry later on.

Lots of water and herbal teas throughout the day.

Thanks for any help guys! I really want to understand why RAW is having this effect on my face.

Jo

[sport]

I really want to understand why RAW is having this effect on my face.
Jo

It is probably not the raw that is doing it to you it is the cooked. I always have problems if I eat cooked food.

[DebB]

I wonder if it could be detox?

[Joanna.K]

It is probably not the raw that is doing it to you it is the cooked. I always have problems if I eat cooked food.

No, my point was i've been raw for a while now and a few weeks back my skin began to get very dry and sore. I then had a mad weekend just gone full of all things bad, but my skin suddenly improved.

I'm now back to raw and its already becoming dry and sore again. I have NO intentions to stop being raw what so ever, however i am curious what is causing this.

I am perhaps thinking ill cut down on the amount of leafy greens i eat and cut out pineapple and kiwis - my thinking is maybe they're too strong or acidic for me? Hmm...

[queenbee]

I don't think you need to cut out the greens or fruit. Instead I think you need to add in some healthy fats - coconut oil, nuts, avocado, flax seed, etc. My skin gets super dry if I don't have enough of those. The cooked stuff you ate was also probably higher in fat.

Hope that helps!

Here's an article about EFAs (essential fatty acids):
http://www.webmd.com/healthy-beauty/...re-skinny-fats

[Arky]

I definitely second queenbee's remarks about the importance, for skin health, of healthy raw fats.

I would also add that zinc is extremely important for good skin health (for many reasons).




If (and it's only 'if') there was, indeed, some causal relationship (rather than just a coincidence) between your weekend of alcohol + snack consumption and subsequent improvement in skin health, then what might that link possibly be?


These are only tentative suggestions, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, so here goes...


You stated your normal daily intake of raw foods, and whilst green veg does contain some omega 3, there doesn't seem, overall, to be a particularly high intake of essential fatty acids in your diet. You made no mention of nuts and seeds, for example.

The chocolate and cakes you snacked on may have contained a variety of possible fats (and possibly nuts/seeds, too), including palm oil, canola oil, sunflower oil etc. Each of these has different molecular composition and, in snack foods, is very unlikely to be raw, but still, we shouldn't overlook the possibility that they may have provided a fat lacking in your daily raw dietary intake. If any of the snacks contained pumpkin seeds or pecans, there would additionally have been a little zinc, too, and of course, chocolate is very rich in magnesium.

Another thing that occurred to me is that the alcohol may be relevant. In addition to being stressful to the liver, alcohol is a powerful diuretic. Therefore, your kidneys would have had a good flushing that weekend, and that might also be relevant where skin conditions are concerned. Yet another possibility is that there may have been a nutrient in the alcoholic drinks you were consuming, which you may have previously been deficient in. You didn't state what kind of alcoholic drinks you were consuming, but those that are fermented with yeast, such as beers, for example, may contain a good spectrum of B vitamins. Beer also contains choline, which is vital for healthy function of both the liver and the kidneys (e.g. severe choline deficiency may be associated with fatty liver and hemorrhagic kidney necrosis). Perhaps you weren't drinking beer that weekend, I don't know, but I just thought I'd mention these various nutrient possibilities.


One could speculate endlessly about this, but it's virtually impossible to know for sure. It's an interesting anecdote that you've shared, though, and something concrete that you can perhaps take away from the experience is to use it to seriously evaluate potential deficiencies in your diet.

Far too many people jump into a raw diet and presume that because they have left behind 'SAD', and because a raw diet involves consumption of raw and natural foods, it can't possibly be deficient, and/or that because it involves consumption of raw and natural foods, it can't involve excesses of certain nutrients or components. However, as common as it is, this is an extremely unwise presumption.

Too much fruit, too few minerals (zinc, magnesium, calcium, phosphorous etc.), no viable source of vitamin A, D, K2 etc. are all potential pitfalls. They are avoidable pitfalls, but only if one makes a specific effort to do some self-directed research rather than just presuming there's no issue. If you look at nutrient tables for foods, it can be quite surprising at how low the actual nutrient levels may be.




Incidentally, I partially discussed the relevance of EFAs for skin health in the following thread:

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthrea...978#post712978

There are many potential sources for EFAs, but one which you might consider, because it also contains a fair amount of zinc, is sprouted pumpkin seeds. I think you might find the effort to sprout and regularly consume pumpkin seeds well worthwhile for your skin (but, as always, everything in moderation, as they are also quite high in iron)


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[laughalways]

Thanks as alawys for your valuable contributions. You always make me think about my diet and health to re-evaluate.

[Arky]

Thanks.

It's all good. We're all on a never-ending path.

I never stop learning and re-evaluating, either.

It just requires an open-mindedness and willingness to do so - that's the tricky part, as we all like to hunker-down and take refuge in existing beliefs and assumptions rather than treating them as malleable, even (shock-horror!) potentially disposable!

When I first started high-raw, it taught me vastly more about human psychology than it did about diet, and given that it taught me a huge amount about diet, that's saying something. The Raw diet is a very, very, very compelling philosophical belief system, and it can really suck one in, unquestioningly, into a maelstrom of dogma and confusion. I learned so much from that experience. It was painful but extremely valuable and I wouldn't choose to remove it from my life experience even if I could. That's why you will so often see me cautioning people to do more research, to think for themselves, and to not presume too much - I'm still guilty of slipping into 'certainty of belief' on some topics, just as any humanbeing is, but I have at least learned the value of the advice to Always keep asking questions! ...and for that I am thankful.


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[Joanna.K]

Appreciate these replies, really helpful.

That's a very good point about the fats. Im trying very hard at the moment to loose about 16lbs so im refining my foods and increasing exercise a lot. This includes cutting out all nuts and seeds and definitely all oils. I'll try to introduce some nuts and seeds after doing some careful research.

I used to sprout a lot but basically i've become lazy in that department... I still have some sprouting mixes left, ill crack on and get going with them again though.

I'll be sure to update this thread if there's any chances with regards to my skin after the inclusion of nuts, seeds and some sprouts.

Thanks again!

[Arky]

.... Im trying very hard at the moment to loose about 16lbs so im refining my foods and increasing exercise a lot. This includes cutting out all nuts and seeds and definitely all oils. I'll try to introduce some nuts and seeds after doing some careful research.

Cutting out fats and oils as a way to lose weight is misguided (absolutely no offence intended). The whole notion of 'reduce fat in the diet to reduce fat in the body' is outmoded dogma, promoted for decades by the food industry (and the dieting industry) for their own ends. They make billions of dollars from promoting the falsehood that low fat is the best way to attain ideal body weight. The grain cartels, for example, make money from producing certain seed oils, yes, I don't dispute that, but this is a fraction of what they make from products they incessantly promote as 'low fat', such as high-fructose corn syrup, breakfast cereals, breads, granola bars, etc. etc., and even many of the oil products they produce aren't immediately obvious to the consumer (i.e. hidden, as a 'minor ingredient', in fast or processed foods). Then you have the so-called 'functional foods' industry (which is exploding in popularity and profitability in recent years) which promotes products to 'increase metabolism' or 'lower cholesterol' (another falsehood - cholesterol is an entirely natural and essential component of human physiological function). And, more often than not, the very foods which are actively promoted as 'low fat' contain huge amounts of high-fructose corn syrup or sugar in order to still please the skewed appetites of a public addicted to a non-natural diet. These very same 'low-fat', yet high-sugar products actually INCREASE weight-gain in the customers who have been brain-washed into believing they will lose weight if only they reduce fat consumption. It's a deliberate and highly-orchestrated vicious circle. Unscrupulous corporations on all sides gain from the perpetuated lie that "fat intake = weight gain". Unfortunately, this false dogma about low fat foods has so integrated itself into the public consciousness that it even spills over into the natural / whole foods sector.

Avoiding fats/oils also means one needs to derive the missing calories from elsewhere:

1) If one deliberately avoids these 'missing calories' altogether, due to a desire to lose weight quickly, the body may lose weight initially, but will simply respond by taking measures to avoid starvation. These measures will eventually scupper further attempts at weightloss, and may also result in 'rebound' weight gain thereafter.

2) Negligible EFA intake may actually harm the body due to the brain and cell lipid membranes very much requiring EFAs in one's diet, in order to properly perform their vital functions. Since hundreds of millions of cells are destroyed and replaced each day, the body requires a continual supply of fresh lipids to build these millions of healthy cells. In this sense, essential fatty acids are every bit as essential for healthy physiological functioning as H2O is. Furthermore, many of the benefits one experiences by moving from a SAD diet to a high-raw wholefoods diet are due to the cessation of consuming damaged heated fats, and this allows the body to dismantle hundreds of millions of cells with poorly-performing lipid membranes, and (provided one instead consumes undamaged raw fats/oils instead of heat-damaged fats/oils) build new ones which are able to perform their metabolic functions with vastly-improved efficiency. This efficiency means not only improvements in inherent functioning, but also improvements in detoxification. Deliberately avoiding consumption of healthy raw fats/oils (regardless of the intended reason) robs the body of the opportunity to properly repair and maintain it's trillions of cells.

3) Depriving the body of essential fatty acids is one of the fastest ways to disrupt the function of the endocrine system, thus increasing the risk of hormonal imbalances (incidentally, use of statin drugs to artificially lower cholesterol levels can also have a hugely negative impact upon the levels of certain hormones, such as testosterone).

4) If one attempts to replace the missing fat/oil calories with carbohydrates, then the insulin system takes a major hit, with frequent fluctuations in blood sugar levels, which, again, are counter-productive, not only for overall health (and dental health) but also for longterm weightloss goals. It disrupts proper levels of the extremely important hormones, insulin and leptin, but also, on a more basic level, leaves one feeling hungry more frequently, so one may be more likely to binge-eat, thus perpetuating the counter-productive weight loss/gain cycle.



And if you're thinking this doesn't apply to fruit, because fruit is 'natural', then think again. Fruit undoubtedly is healthy, even cleansing, but only in moderation. This isn't my 'opinion', it's physiological fact.

Please don't just take my word for it - learn about insulin and leptin and you'll understand why.

You can begin here, for example:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...rrelevant.aspx



If one is attempting to lose weight, much of the undesired bodily weight will be in the form of stored fat cells (adipose tissue). Therefore, supplying the body with healthy fresh, raw EFAs will encourage the aforementioned turnover of fat cells and of their lipid components. Cells with lipid membranes functioning correctly will be able to properly perform their metabolic functions, as nature intended. It's win-win, but only if one supplies the body with the EFAs it legitimately requires, as per human evolution.



(from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adipose...Epicardial_fat ):

"There is a constant flux of FFA (Free Fatty Acids) entering and leaving adipose tissue. The net direction of this flux is controlled by insulin and leptin - if insulin is elevated there is a net inward flux of FFA and only when insulin is low can FFA leave adipose tissue. Insulin secretion is stimulated by high blood sugar which results from consuming carbohydrates."

I wish you all the best in your quest to achieve a more comfortable body weight, but please don't short-change yourself on Essential Fatty Acids in a misguided attempt to accomplish this. Doing so is not only counter to human physiology, but they're called Essential Fatty Acids for a good reason. Don't fall for the B$ the food, and weightloss, industries have been promoting, for their own ends, for the past several decades. Learn about leptin and how it operates in the human body, and be free of all that nonsense :-)

I used to sprout a lot but basically i've become lazy in that department... I still have some sprouting mixes left, ill crack on and get going with them again though.

I'm not saying you necessarily need to get into sprouting foods, per se (I know it can be a real drag), just that pumpkin seeds specifically would promote good skin health, and sprouting them is preferable. But sprouting them is not essential. At the very least, simply soak them overnight and you'll derive plenty of skin-friendly nutrition from them.




__________________________________________________ ___________________________



...and, as I briefly touched upon, earlier, this discussion of EFAs is also very relevant on the detoxification side of things, too. Avoidance of fats/oils may, perhaps, lead to faster detoxification of extra-cellular wastes, as the body attempts to autolyse tissues and/or stored substances it doesn't require - this is witnessed in cardiovascular patients on prolonged (medically-supervised) water fasts*, for example. However, in order to most-effectively mobilise toxins from intra-cellular locations, one must promote efficient replacement of lipids in cell membranes. Just as one example, the Hubbard detoxification protocol requires that patients consume fresh raw oil each day (iirc, it's walnut oil), for this very reason. Many toxins (e.g. PCBs, dioxins etc.) are either fat-soluble or are sequestered in fat cells. Removing them requires the supply of healthy fresh lipids to ensure good cell turnover, replenishment, and metabolic function (of which, detoxification is one facet).




* If medically-supervised water-fasting for cardiological healing is of interest to anyone, further reading should be directed towards the relevant writings of Joel Fuhrman, a NYC cardiologist.


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[Arky]

.... If you look at nutrient tables for foods, it can be quite surprising at how low the actual nutrient levels may be

http://nutritiondata.self.com/

http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list