Minisode: Nutrition for Acne

Vanessa is flying solo in this episode. Do you feel like you’ve tried everything, but still can’t get rid of your acne? Wondering if nutrition matters when it comes to your skin health? In this Minisode, Vanessa dives into nutrition and lifestyle tips to get the clear skin you’ve been dreaming of!


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Transcript

0:10

Hey there. My name is Vanessa and I'm one half of the wellness Smith's team. It feels really weird to be on here alone. Um, Emily is my cohost and my trusty sidekick. She's going to be really mad when she hears that I just called her my trusty sidekick, um, partner, my trusty partner, I should say. But anyway, I'm doing a solo episode today. I am also the face behind nutrition for gals, where I help women feel amazing by helping them get rid of painful periods, fatigue, acne, heavy periods, brain fog, burnout, and PMs. So today I wanted to talk to you all a little bit about acting. We had a really sweet listener, messaged us and ask if we could. The topic of acting. And I don't know why we haven't done this before. We have talked about having an aesthetician on, we probably still will in the future. But I did want to take some time and talk about nutrition for acne. Now this is something that I think so many people wonder about because there is a lot of controversy. Doesn't matter what you eat. A lot of times you'll go to the dermatologist and they'll tell you it doesn't matter what you eat. Um, I'm here to tell you. That is not completely true. Um, acne is one of those things that when you're a teenager, everyone tells you it's going to go away. It'll get better when you get older. And unfortunately, for some of us, we never grow out of it. Like we'd hope to, or sometimes it goes away and then it comes back. For some people it might come back. After they go off the birth control pill, for example. But having acne as an adult can feel really, really frustrating and can do a serious number on our self-confidence. And there's a lot of noise around acne. There's lots of pills and potions that are promising you. It can take your acne away. And there's all kinds of products out there to cover up your acne. So it can just be really, really confusing. So this podcast is for anyone that feels like they've done it all and tried it all in the acne just refuses to go away. You're sick of covering it up with makeup or trying to cover it up with makeup. And you just want to be able to leave the house without makeup on and not feel embarrassed of your skin. You want to feel really good in your skin. This is for you. So I'm going to start from the top, um, of my recommendations. I can kind of go down. We're going to go over kind of just some main points of where I want you focusing if you do have acne. So at the top of the acne healing chart, we have wait for it. Drum roll, please. Strap. So I want you to think about addressing your stress level. And I know you're probably thinking, Vanessa, you said this was going to be about food and nutrition and it is, but I want you to address the stress first. So although you might not be able to eliminate your stressors, you can improve you handle stressors and therefore feel it less than your body. And why is that such a big deal? So. Studies have shown us that there's a correlation between high stress levels and acne. They did a study in 2017 on female medical students and found a strong correlation between increased stress levels and acne severity. So when we're stressed out, what happens is our body releases more cortisol and this upregulation causes. To produce more which can lead to more breakouts. So that's the same reason we get acne if our androgens, so are male hormones, like testosterone are too high, same thing. Upregulates the amount of We make leads to more breakup. So, what do we do to help our bodies react better to stress? One thing you can do is activate, activate your vagus nerve. So the vagus nerve is the longest nerve in your body. And as part of the parasympathetic nervous system, so activating. Vegas nerve can help you recover more quickly from stress. You can activate it by humming singing, meditating, breath, work, massage, um, all those things, I guess, other than massage, unless you have someone that's gonna massage you for free. All of those other things are free. Okay. So. I want you to just start by when you're feeling stress or if you're at work, you're sitting at your desk, you're getting really stressed out. I want you to just take a moment. Some breaths. I know it sounds very elementary. And for some, it might seem kind of out there, like, what's that going to do? I'm too busy for that. And I have even had those feelings too. When you have a busy day, it feels like you need every single minute, but I promise you if you take the moment or couple moments just to calm your body down. You'll work so much better for the rest of the day. The other times I want you to be activating your vagus nerve is before you eat. So we want to make sure we're having good digestion and to do that. We want to make sure our body is in a good place before we start eating so that we're digesting our food well. So taking some nice deep breaths before your meeting. Humming while you're making your lunch, singing a little tune, maybe a little meditation. I always suggest things like the calm app. Um, but the calm app is something you have to pay for. And honestly, there's so much out there on YouTube. Even, uh, the 10% happier podcast, um, which I think is on all podcasts streaming platforms, they have free meditations on there. I don't think any of them are longer than 10 minutes. so doing some really quick, easy things like that to help. You can also help balance your cortisol with adaptogens like ashwagandha, and things like that. You can also think about your caffeine consumption, and maybe ramp that down a little bit. If you're noticing that drinking caffeine gives you some extra anxiety., I know a lot of times our suggestion is just not drinking caffeine

past 2: 6:45

00 PM is usually what us health professionals will see. But for some of us, even if you drink it in the morning, it can still make you feel kind of anxious. Another thing to help with your stress levels is eat in the morning, eat breakfast, eat a balanced breakfast, please. So. That actually kind of leads me in really nicely to talk about the next thing, um, for healing acne, which is balancing your blood sugar. So this can not be understated, balancing your blood sugar is so, so, so, so, so, so, so important. it's important for energy and mood, but it's also important for your. So when we're not balancing our blood sugar, it can lead to higher amounts of both glucose in insulin and our blood, which can increase the androgen testosterone. And like I mentioned before, excess androgens cause our skin to increase CPM production causing acne. So how do we make sure our blood sugar is balanced? So first of all, you want to make sure you're eating carbs with fat and protein. Making balanced meals that have all of your macronutrients. So you want carbs, protein, fat, every meal, carbs, protein, fat. So a good example that I like to use is in your morning meal. So I see a lot of people will have things like oatmeal and we'll add maybe some honey and berries and think, wow, this is a really nice morning. And it is, don't get me wrong. That meal has a great amount of vitamins. You have fiber there. Um, it is good, but it is missing some key players in those key players are protein and fat. So to make sure you balance. That morning meal. You can add some protein powder, hemp, seeds, not butter, some other nuts that you like, maybe throw some pecans in there. Um, I'm the kind of gal that likes kind of everything, but the kitchen sink in her old. But you don't have to be adding a million things to it. I find protein powder is a really nice way to sweeten it a little bit, add some protein, and then you don't necessarily have to add any extra sweetener. A couple other key things that you can do to balance your blood sugar is eating your food in the correct order. So this is something that's really, really interesting, and some newer science that's come out. So there is actually a correct way to eat your food, to balance your blood sugar. So studies have shown that when you eat non starchy veggies first, then protein and fat, and then your carbs, it decreases your glucose spike by 75%. Seventy-five percent. That's amazing. Um, just simply the order in which you eat your food can make a huge, huge impact. So building your meals with protein and fat, eating your non-starchy veggies, then your proteins and fat, then your carbs. And then the last thing I want you to think about is just movement. So like, Not all of your meals are going to be perfectly balanced. I get that. Not all of my meals are perfectly balanced. I'm human, too. Another great way. You can balance your blood sugar is going for a walk. So I always recommend, you know, movement after you eat. Um, it can be going for a 10 minute walk. It could be doing some chores around the house, but just get up and get moving. That is going to be really, really important. If you do, you know, eat a meal that is only carbs and you think, oh my gosh, my blood glucose is spiking. It's okay. It's okay. Just move your body. And that alone will help you. Okay. The next thing I want to talk about, um, when we're talking about skin health and acne is the. So it's really, really important that you are supporting your natural detox pathways. So I'm not telling you to do a detox. Your body does a really, really great job of detoxing you all day every day, but sometimes we need a little extra support in doing so, so a great way to support your liver is by eating better foods like dandelion greens, rugala and kale. You can incorporate these. You know, salads on top of green bulls, or maybe in a smoothie, you could do a jet dandelion greens tea, if you'd like that sort of thing. Um, also really important to make sure you're hydrated, um, which can be harder during the winter months. So make sure you're drinking enough water., something I like to do is I use a Mason jar, so it's 32 ounces and I use a straw. I keep that in my desk. I re. All day long. And, I don't have to keep getting up to get water, which maybe that's kind of lazy. Maybe I should be getting up more often throughout the day. Um, but it does make me drink more water since it is there. And the straw actually helps me drink a lot more water. Um, another great way of detoxing is sweating. So sweat it out. Sweat is amazing. I know a lot of people thinks what's kind of gross. Um, and it's kind of looked down upon. People are trying to sweat less. Listen. I want you to try to sweat more. So doing workouts, sitting in a sauna. Don't get embarrassed about sweat. It is healthy to sweat. It's natural to sweat, and you do not need to try to prevent it all the time., I definitely don't think we need antiperspirants or anything like that, but that's a whole, whole different podcast. The third thing I want you to think about when supporting the liver and clearing acne is endocrine disruptors. So these are chemicals like validates fragrances, BPA, that are found in household cleaners, candles, makeup, soap, shampoo, conditioner. Now don't get overwhelmed by this. Okay. There's a lot of things, um, in your household that may have these kinds of chemicals, um, and. It's okay. As you run out of one item, just replace it with a, , a better option or an option that has less chemicals, in it, there are some great apps out there, including the EWG app, um, or there's another app called think dirty. If you're unsure of products, you can scan them. It'll give you a score and tell you what kind of ingredients are in those things. But it's really, really important to think about your environment. When you think about this kind of stuff. I always tell clients to think about the big things, the things that are all over your body. So something important might be your body soap. That would be more important to have a natural product for your body soap rather than your eyeliner. Your eyeliner is touching a very, very small portion of your body. While your body soap is covering everything. The next major player in healthy skin is the gut. Um, so the gut is. Like you may know, involved in everything. You want to support healthy gut function and the gut love. Diversity. So that means the more the merrier when it comes to eating plants. And that's kind of a reason that I don't always love when people are meal planning and eating the same things every day, because we know that the gut loves diversity. The gut loves lots of different things all the time. Um, lots of different plants, more specifically all the time. And you want to aim for about 30 grams of fiber a day. You also want to make sure you're consuming both probiotics and prebiotics in your diet. And we actually did a whole episode on probiotics and prebiotics. So I won't get too much into that. So if you are curious about how to add more probiotics, you can go ahead and give that episode a listen. A lot of people question, if they should have dairy or not, As well, dairy is a big controversy. Does it cause acne or not? And I'm going to give you kind of a, sort of a annoying answer, which is, it depends. So for some people dairy causes more breakouts. We think. Because dairy has an insulin triggering a fact, and it also contains growth factors and hormones since it's obviously produced by an animal. So if you are struggling with acne, I do recommend cutting dairy out for a while, , at least a few weeks and seeing how you react. And then a couple more things that I want to make sure you're adding to your diet. So I talked about diversity of plants when we touched on the gut and you want to make sure you're getting at least eight servings of fruits and veggies every day. You want to focus on things that are high in vitamin a like sweet potatoes, carrots, apricots, oranges, um, omega threes are also something you want to make sure you're getting daily. You can find omega-threes and things like salmon, sardines, walnuts, flax. It might also be a good idea to consider a B6 supplement. So make sure you talk to your provider first., get a good high quality supplement. So those are my main recommendations for those of you who are struggling with acne. So start with stress. Support your liver and support your gut. Those are going to be the main three things that you want to focus on and then make sure you're adding lots of fruits and veggies vitamin a, or Mega's B six. So if you have acne and you feel like you've tried everything, please don't get discouraged. Um, so many times we see acne on the outside. And so we start doing lots of things on the outside and buying a bunch of topicals and creams. And sometimes that causes even more irritation on the skin. So I just want to remind everyone. Drive yourself crazy with that and buying all of these things on the market. Don't feel like you have to eat one specific type of food or not eat one specific type of food. I feel like people also go crazy. Trying to do elimination diets and cutting out all of these things to try to figure out what is causing damage to their skin. But you, you do not have to do all that. Like I said, focus on those things that I talked about today. If you feel like you would like some extra support, I actually. Do you testing, we can see from the testing, your specific root causes, and then, you know, make a customized plan for you. So if that is something you are interested in, please go over to nutrition for gals and let me know. So the answer is yes, nutrition can help with acne and skin health. So we are going to have an aesthetician on very soon to tell you about the things that you should be putting on your skin, but hopefully this helps with what you should be putting in your body. We will talk to you soon. Buh-bye.