5 “Healthy” Foods to Avoid for Clear and Acne-Free Skin.

Hi Guys!

Today I want to share with you a few foods that you may consider healthy but aren’t doing your skin any favors. In fact, eating these foods could be holding you back from healing and finally being clear.

Roasted Nuts

Roasted nuts are cooked in oils like soybean oil, cottonseed oil, corn oil, peanut oil, or canola oil. All these oils are heavily processed, and the fat is not stable. This causes damage to the body and inflammation. Fat is a critical part of healing and building up the body and when it uses “broken” materials like damaged fats, this will slowly lead to inflammation and other issues. Besides being damaged, these oils are made from GMO and pesticide crops which are another level of toxins that the body has to eliminate.

You can read more about healthy fats here and why they are so critical for the brain, skin, and overall performance. If you love nuts and want to eat them for the amazing benefits – I recommend enjoying raw nuts instead. Specific nuts like brazil nuts are great because they are packed full of selenium which supports the thyroid and overall immunity. Other nut options include pecans, almonds, cashews, pine nuts, etc. Keep in mind that too many nuts can slow down digestion and many are reactive to nuts so something to be aware of.

Flavored Yogurts

First, dairy is not ideal if you struggle with acne because it is mucous forming in the body. Many people struggle with digesting dairy which than affects your skin and hormones. Second, flavored yogurt can have as much sugar as a candy bar – 33 grams or more. That is crazy! Personally, I would rather eat a GF cookie than yogurt (which might even have less sugar)…so take your pick! If you struggle with allergies, acne, or sugar cravings, I don’t recommend ever eating fruit yogurt, because of the reasons listed above.  If you can tolerate dairy, I recommend plain yogurt with fresh fruit or to mix in for dressings/sauces. One brand, I do like is Siggi’s not only is the dairy high quality, but the flavors are much lower in sugar. (about 9 grams). And I recommend Kite Hills almond milk greek yogurt to use for sauces/dressings.

Bread

I know this might be painful to hear, but most bread doesn’t support clear skin. Here is an example of a label of Sara Lee 100% Whole Wheat bread. (Photo from foodbabe.com)

It contains a lot of processed sugar, soybean oil, (mentioned earlier) and other processed ingredients. Bread should only be like 4-5 ingredients, this is not bread because I see a lot more ingredients than necessary.

Next, bread is made from wheat which has gluten. From my own research and personal experience, I believe that gluten does not support the body’s health at all. Gluten damages the gut lining and is coated in pesticides which is one reason for leaky gut. Leaky gut than leads to gluten intolerance which could lead to celiac and another autoimmunity condition. Many people report being able to eat bread in Europe and feel fine…but not in the states. Hmmm…I believe it is the different pesticides and additives that aren’t allowed in Europe which allow our body to enjoy those foods again.

Nonetheless, if you struggle with acne and digestion issues, (or any chronic diseases or issues) I strongly recommend cutting out bread and all gluten. Even if you don’t believe gluten is “unhealthy”, SO many people have better digestion and skin when cutting it out from their diet. If it works, what do you have to lose? Personally, my digestion goes to crap if I eat gluten and I will be constipated. I don’t have an immediate reaction, that is super noticeable and it took me investing in myself to finally commit to 100% gluten-free. If you are skeptical, I get it, but I am here to support you!

Pre-Made Salad Dressings

Back to the processed oils!! Unfortunately, most salad dressings are made from unhealthy oils like soybean oil! Along with the oil, they contain other processed ingredients that damage the body and the skin. Look at this snapshot of an ingredient label from a bottle of Kraft Ranch. The first ingredient is soybean oil than food starch (likely made from GMO corn), gums, natural flavor, and other chemicals! We didn’t anything close to this 100 years ago…what makes us think our bodies can eat this today???

If you still want to buy dressings, I recommend a dressing made from avocado oil or olive oil stored in a dark glass bottle. Avocado and olive oil are both healthy fats and you want a dark bottle because any fat can become damaged from light. But if you want a cheaper and even healthier option, I suggest making your own dressings! They only take a few minutes to make and you will definitely save money!

Here are a few of my favorite dressings recipes:

Tahini Drizzle Dressing

1/2 cup of Tahini
1 juice of lemon
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
a dash of cayenne pepper
4 tbsp filtered water, more as desired
Mix all the ingredients by hand!

Quick Ranch Dressing

1/2 cup of Mayo (made from avocado oil, not soybean or sunflower)
1/2 tbsp Dill
1 lemon squeezed
salt as desired
Hand mix.

Cilantro Creamy Dressing

1 avocado
1 cup of cilantro (1 smaller bunch)
1/2 cup of almond greek yogurt
1/4 cup of water, more as needed
1 lime
1 dash of salt
1/2 jalapeno
Blend ingredients!!

Plant-Based Meat Products

The “plant-meat” might be wrecking your skin and digestion. Here is an example of the ingredients in the Beyond burgers “plant-based meat”. The ingredients start out with Pea Protein and 2 kinds of oil. So this is literally protein powder mixed in oil? lol Then we have yeast extract which is really MSG. (causes brain fog) Maltodextrin is another type of highly processed sugar. And then it continues with natural flavors, gums, and other processed chemicals that don’t support digestion or health. What is also interesting to me…is that every ingredient is processed in itself. Pea protein doesn’t exist in nature as is. Oils are all extracted and processed. And the list goes on…..this is a processed food made from processed foods!

I don’t believe in “fake” food like this so if you do want to eat veggie burgers, I recommend making your own black bean, broccoli, or whatever you want! Simple, real ingredients!

Final Thoughts

Last, I want to remind you that there is nothing bad about eating any of these foods on this list. Personally, I have eaten a few of these foods in the last year. My goal with this post is to help you understand that these foods may be holding you back from true healing and if you are struggling right now and want to uplevel your health – this would be a great place to start.

That’s all I have! I hope you learned something new today! Comment below and let me know what you learned. 🙂

xoxo

Chelsea J