Michael has tried everything.
Several courses of Accutane, all OTC treatments you can name, master cleanse many times. He eats healthy. Still his skin looks horrible.
Then he goes to Puerto Rico for 2 months, smokes like a chimney and eats greasy food. Yet his skin never looked better.
What’s going on here? Doesn’t this prove diet has no effect on his skin?
In case you are wondering. Michael is a member at Clear Skin Space, where we had this discussion.
Michael’s case is interesting because it shows that getting clear doesn’t always make sense… or does it? So what can we learn from this? If you are in a similar situation should you throw salad to the wind and eat whatever you want?
No. Not if you want permanently clear skin, anyway.
Food affects your skin in two ways. Some foods trigger a breakout soon after you eat them; often within a day or two. I call these ‘trigger foods’. This is often because you are sensitive to that particular food, or the food is otherwise inflammatory.
These foods are easy to spot, and their relationship to your skin is easy to understand.
However food also affects acne indirectly. This is where people get confused.
Foods can either contribute to your or they can take away from your health. If your health suffers from your diet and lifestyle choices it always means more inflammation in your body. And more inflammation means more acne – to those who are prone to it.
Let’s get back to Michael.
We can conclude that the foods he ate in Puerto Rico didn’t trigger acne. But it would be quite foolish to say foods have no effect on his health. And because foods he eat affect his health, they also affect the health of his skin – even if the effect is indirect and shows only after a long time.
But this doesn’t make any sense. Why did his skin get better in Puerto Rico?
Who knows. We can rarely reduce these things to one or two factors. Perhaps his body needed sunlight and fresh air more than anything. Or perhaps in that tropical paradise he was happier and less stressed. Perhaps the foods he ate back home contained some ingredient he was sensitive to, and this ingredient was not present in the foods he ate in Puerto Rico.
This brings us to the next concept many acne victims struggle with.
Your health is only as strong as its weakest link.
Unfortunately 90% of all the questions I get have something to do with diet. Is this food good? Will this make me breakout? Is this food safe to eat?
Diet is the only thing many acne victims can wrap their heads around. They have overblown the importance of diet in getting clear.
Sure it’s important to watch what you eat, but diet is just one of the elements of health. You have to make sure you exercise, sleep well, get some sunlight and fresh air, and remain positive.
Diet is no more important than the other elements.
Let me finish this by telling you the BIG SECRET to clear skin.
I get a certain amount of hate mail. For whatever reason some people feel compelled to tell me I’m a greedy and evil bastard for withholding the secret to clear skin. I should go and yell it off the mountaintop, they say.
Since there are no mountaintops nearby, and it can get a bit cold in those altitudes, I’m just going to yell it off here.
So here it is. The ‘secret’ three-step formula for clear skin.
- Put all the elements of health in place. This means finding a diet that works for YOU, and making sure all the elements of health are balanced.
- Avoid trigger foods and substances you are sensitive to or that in some other way trigger a breakout.
- Sit tight and allow the healing process to unfold.
There you have it. That is, honest to God, the big NON-secret to clear skin. There is nothing more to it.
Now just go do it.
And while you are at it, go grab a copy of Clear for Life to make me happy 
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Clear for Life – The lifestyle for health, happiness and clear skin
You are about to learn the simple NON-Secrets about getting clear most acne victims never understand
using these simple techniques anyone can get permanently clear skin - no matter how bad your acne is, how old you are or even if you've tried everything...
- Discover the secrets to permanently clear skin
- How to easily identify foods that cause acne for you
- How to take control of your life so that your life and emotions are NO longer ruled by acne
Subscribe to my Clear Skin Tips Newsletter and also receive "The 5 Deadly Mistakes That Keep You From Getting Clear" special report"- for FREE.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Thanks for all these tips you’ve been giving. In my case I eat heathily and I went on a regime you suggested and that was the vegetable juice in the mornings. I enjoyed them; it was easy to maintain, however my skin actually looked worse after 3 months. I’ve been reading much on intestinal flora, so I substituted the juice for yogurt (which I make a home) and 3 months later my skin is looking good. As you said, ‘who knows’, what is triggering or helping in the food department. Keep up the good work.
John
August 7th, 2009 at 10:55 am
John,
Glad to hear your skin is looking better.
I don’t actually recommend any juices. Perhaps you mean green smoothies?
While dairy generally is not good for the skin, homemade yogurt can help to balance the intestinal flora, which is very important for the overall health.
The breakouts you mentioned can also be due to detox/healing process. It’s VERY COMMON to breakout during the detox and healing process. People react to it differently. Some see big improvements on their skin very quickly, some have to wait for months for anything to happen on their skin. This is even when they do everything correct.
Getting clear simply can take time and patience as your body has to reverse the damage done over the years.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
hello! I got all the little lessons from you thanks a lot by the way! But in a way I feel like michael I mean I’m still the same and for I have no clue well I know sometimes it’s stress but other I honestly don’t know, I do have a positive attitude about and when I go out I feel acne free but once I look in a mirror. . . Now I have a question what can I expect on your book because I need like to what I should eat and what to avoid see I’m not so good with health
and my acne varies a lot there are days where I actually see advantages but others oh my! And is your new edition of the book out already? Thanks for taking the time read this and hope to be helped!!! Please! Thanks again
August 7th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Abdiel,
It’s hard for me to give you any advice since I don’t know your situation. Still, I wouldn’t go into despair. In my experience most people are stuck because they don’t understand health well enough. The mainstream health education and information is not really up to par. And unless you’ve done a fair bit of reading on your own it’s hard to figure out what’s good for you and what’s bad.
Not saying this to purely promote Clear for Life. It’s just something I’ve noticed in many of my customers and people who come to me for advice.
Clear for Life is like an ABC of health. It’s something that we all should have learned at elementary school.
As far as diet is concerned CFL doesn’t give you one diet to follow. Instead I teach you how to build a diet that works for you. I go through all the ‘building blocks’ of a healthy diet. What you need to have in your diet, how much and what you should avoid. Then from those blocks it’s very simple to build a diet that works for you.
After reading CFL what to eat should be fairly clear to you. And if not, you can always email me and get your questions answered.
That’s as far as diet is concerned.
Then I cover the other 5 elements of health. I explain how they affect your health and skin and how to improve each. Then there’s a little exercise that helps you to identify your weak links; that is areas where you get the most benefit for least amount of effort.
I should mention that the updated version, which is already out, has a lot about stress, emotions and mental attitude. There’s an action plan on how to get rid of stress and negative emotions from your life so that you can live a happy and peaceful life. I’m not saying that’s easy to do or that it will happen quickly, but I’ll show you what you need to do to get there.
Then there’s a chapter on detoxing. What it is and how to detox correctly.
Finally, and I believe this is one of the most important things; I talk about how to see acne in a positive light. How to use it as a constructive force in your life. If you see acne as something constructive, which it can be, in your life it doesn’t bother you nearly that much and your chances of getting over it go through the roof.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
hi Seppo,
i m a 26 year old Indian girl n had acne prone skin thru teenage…but never had acne as i have now. i have always avoided junk n packaged food, beverages n all the food tht is bad for health.i got married 3 months ago n had these ugly lookin acne, zits on my face..to be honest i did increase junk food n packaged food in my diet as i moved to the US, but soon stopped having it..n now i m on fruits n homemade food which includes vegetables..but my i have 2 to 3 new zits on my face everyday which r painful too..i need help as i know i m going thru hormonal changes after marriage..but dont know wht to do..plz help me, if u know wht wud be best for me..i ‘ll be grateful to u..
thank u
pooja
August 7th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Pooja,
Without knowing your situation any better I can’t really be of much help. But in my experience the biggest diet culprit are:
- Gluten (in wheat and rye)
- Soy, excluding traditionally prepared soy foods in Asia.
- Dairy
- Heated or otherwise damaged fats
I lived few years in India so I know what the food is like. Often Indians use oil in frying and cooking. Try to avoid this as much as possible. Those cooking oils have been damaged by processing and will get further damaged by the heat. I can’t begin to emphasize how dangerous heated oils are for humans. I recommend you check out a book called Fats that Heal Fats that Kill by Dr. Udo Erasmus.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
ok thanks a lot! Now the updated version of the is that one on this website or is this the older one?
That’s great that you teach everything but sometime I feel that I might need an example does it give you like tips? And I already detox with apple fast diet I’m avoiding dairy fat I’m Mexican live in mexico so it’s hard with the oils but I try to avoid them as much as I can and my green smoothies in the morning what need though is exercise more but I try to go running at least 2-3 times a week although haven’t been able to these last weeks but as soon as I can I’ll order the book is it a hard copy or download? I’ll like the hard one better LOL oh and also something that I think you should know is I’ve been with acne since I was like 13 an now I’m 19 and I think it’s worse and it might also be genetic I have an uncle with horrible acne :-s
August 7th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Ciao Seppo,
I wrote to you the other day and never got a reply as to how I can acquire your book here in Italy, since at the moment I do not have a credit card, Well is it possible for me to get this book here in Italy, and am based in Milan. Pls advise soonest.
Nicolina
August 8th, 2009 at 4:17 am
Clear for Life in an ebook so it’s instantly available anywhere on the world.
Abdiel, you’ll get the new version when you buy. The old is no longer available.
Many people ask for hard copy so I’ll what I can do about it. CFL is now under proofreading and once that is done I’ll see to the possibilities of getting it printed as a physical book.
August 19th, 2009 at 6:41 am
hey! so I have a qestion b4 I buy. is the book going to come ou in a physical form soon because I would prefer that. But if it is going to take a while then I will just get it as it is. thank you so much!
maximiliano
August 19th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Maximiliano, honestly speaking I can’t say when I get the physical version out. I’m waiting to get it proofread at the moment. Once that is done I’ll look into getting it printed as a physical book. Since I’ve never done anything like that I can’t say how long the process takes.