When I was going through the worst of my adult acne, I was afraid to eat most things from fear of a breakout. After I healed my gut and nervous system, practically nothing could break me out.
Acne sufferers often think that a reaction to eating certain foods is the root cause to their acne. I have found that more often than not, it is just a symptom of the below 3 root causes:
1. UNDIGESTED FOOD
If your body is struggling to digest food properly, it may lead to pathogenic overgrowth and prolonged nutrient deficiency. Our detox flush is designed to help your body reset internally, whilst you work on your bile secretion, gut microbiome and cook and eat foods properly.
The solution to digesting foods more effectively is to secrete the digestive fluids that are going to fully break down that meal. Increasing hydrochloric acid, bile to break down fats, digestive enzymes, etc, is going to be far more beneficial to your long term health as an initial first step.
2. FOOD SENSITIVITIES (NOT ALLERGIES)
Food sensitivities often develop in acne sufferers over time due to undigested proteins in their body.
Food protein can only be broken down by stomach acid. Food proteins themselves are amino acids, and need a stronger acid to break them down.
The reason why food allergies are exploding in children and adults at the moment because the large particle size of undigested proteins cause the body to mount an immune response against those foods e.g. wheat has wheat protein, soy has soy protein.
When leaky gut is also present (usually caused by problem 1 above), the body starts to freak out when those undigested proteins cross into the blood. It is a learned response due to incomplete digestion.
This is where diet is your best friend - eating more bitter flavours will help stimulate HCL so that you can fully break the proteins down and digest them properly. It is also why we have bitters in the Radiance Powder, and why we suggest drinking it on an empty stomach before food.
However if you already have food sensitivities, you may need a complete reset for your body to flush out any toxic and pathogenic build up and start digesting food properly from scratch.
For example, my acne really flared up when eating certain foods, and eventually I learnt it was because my body was really hospitable to bugs and parasites (that developed due to weak digestion and immunity), because my immunity and defences were completely lacking. I basically had no defense mechanism and my digestive fluids were low. If you’re secreting HCL, bile (which is really antimicrobial) these bad bugs are constantly being eaten away at. PROPER DIGESTIVE FUILDS = PROPER STOMACH PH which will naturally eat away at these invaders.
The problem we have is that we have cultivated our fruits to be sweet instead of bitter. Our ancestors were constantly consuming bitter wild berries, barks, roots, they were getting digestive stimulation naturally through diet. We have the modern luxury of only eating sweet and savory foods. We literally avoid bitters.
So the best solution is to start with a pathogenic flush and reset your elimination pathways. Then build up from there with bitters in your diet, a heightened immune system and the proper building blocks to fight off bad bacteria and grow healthy bacteria instead.
3. WE ARE STRESSED AND STUCK IN FIGHT OR FLIGHT MODE
Finally the biggest culprit and symptom I see in acne sufferers is stress. We are often stuck in chronic stress mode. That branch of the nervous system is the anthesis of digestion. We are working all day, eating lunch at our desks, rushing through meals, on our phones, watching tv, eating whilst working. When does the body get the signal ‘I’m safe, relaxed and present to eat my food and digest properly?’
We as a society are not spending enough time in the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system. If you eat whilst you are in sympathetic dominant, chances are you’re not breaking down that meal effectively. That is what leads and contributes to food allergies, what leaves you with undigested food, and what feeds bad microbial overgrowth.
THE SOLUTION
We want to flip the nervous system on the basic level and get into REST AND DIGEST MODE. This alone can change all of the above 3 root causes and allow your body to start to heal.
Additionally digestive bitters stimulate your vagus nerve. Bitters are the quickest & easiest way to get into parasympathetic via vagus nerve stimulation.
Vagus nerve stimulation and parasympathetic mode encourages your body to secrete your own digestive fluids exactly how nature designed it.
This is especially important at night. If you eat dinner and you’re still in sympathetic mode, still stressed from the day, then you lay down to sleep but your gut is inflamed due to undigested food, the cycle begins again.
Our recommendation would be to start with a complete detox to flush out any bad bacteria and follow up with the changes implemented above to secrete more bile, stress less, tighten your immune system and naturally feed the good bacteria in your gut so it helps heal you from the inside, out.
Image: Fruit and Flowers by Jan van Huysym 1722
