Raw Food and Acne - Timeline

Hey Guys,

I have a question for all of you semi-long term to long term HCRVs.

I know everyone is different and have led different lives and had different eating habits leading up to the raw food lifestyle. That being said, for those of you who struggled with acne, either pre-raw, detox phase, or post-detox, how long did it take you to clear all of the acne away? Since being 100% raw for 5 weeks now, My acne has gotten tremendously worse. I eat 3000+ calories a day, mostly bananas, but almost alway 80-10-10, if not 90-5-5, I get plenty of sleep and drink plenty of water. I also exercise 10-15 miles of running a week.

I'm just looking for peoples experiences with this, and any over all advice that could be given. With my acne getting SO bad since going raw, its very very discouraging, but I am still powering through with hope.

Thanks guys.

Charlie

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Permalink Reply by Adam on August 6, 2012 at 8:59am

Hey

Could be a sensitivity to bananas. If you are sensitive to tyramine, histamine or salicylates, these could all affect acne with bananas. It tends to be a dose dependent issue.

Try reducing your banana intake by getting more variety from other fruits.

Take care

Adam x

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Permalink Reply by Charlie on August 6, 2012 at 9:37am

Thanks Adam.

The reason I have to eat so many bananas is because it's really the only way I can afford to eat 100% raw. I'm in college. Do you think sensitivities to these things will go away over time? If this gets much worse I'm not sure I can keep going, although it would crush me, as being fully raw is of peak interest to me right now, and a huge goal of mine to stay on board for years to come.

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Permalink Reply by Adam on August 7, 2012 at 6:55am

Hey Charlie

Well, I don't know whether it will just go. Most senstivities tend to be aggravated my stress, so sometimes it is a case of 'the straw that breaks the camels back', but sometimes it can get worse.

I began to develop a tyramine sensitivity after years of eating bananas. I had no issues with them for the first few years eating raw, then after taking a break for a few months when there was a really good mango season, I reintroduced them and started getting some unusual symptoms. Initially it was just to do with high body temperature, hydration and urine concentration. I foudn that if I ate less of them than I used to, the symptoms would go away, so I would go for periods without eating them then reintroduce them again. As the intakes increased, I developed new symptoms, initially migraines with vomiting. Then after consistently ignoring that I let the intakes increase again and eventually it manifested last november in a huge burning inflamed rash on the skin of my back with acne. I had never had any acne on my back previously, and didn't have it anywhere else on my body for the whole time eating raw. Quite the opposite. Eventually the burning got so bad that I had to stop altogether. Within a couple of days switching to mangoes, the symptoms completely disappeared. It was amazing how quickly my body responded. I reintroduced the bananas, but smaller amounts and the symptoms returned, but only mildly, if I kept the intake lower. Eventually though, the migraines returned even with lower amounts and I just gave up bananas altogether. I haven't had any issues with migraines or skin issues since.

For me, the tyramine sensitivity may have been related to over-exposure (biogenic amine senstivities are completely dose dependent - they are not an allergy). I haven't been to a doctor for over 8 years, so it could have been some nutritional deficiency that was impairing liver detoxification, maybe. It could also have been stress - I had just found out that rather than getting a payrise and promotion, as I had been expecting, I got a demotion and a salary cut, and threatened with redundancy, due to significant financial losses at work. And I ended an 8 year relationship and had huge tuition fees to pay off imminently, as well as heaps of study to do - i was studying full-time and working full-time. The whole year previous had also been go-go-go without any stop, as well as 2 family bereavements. Stress does play a big role in most conditions, including sensitivities and it certainly seems so for me. But I cannot speak for you.

What I would say, is that if it doesn't improve, don't make yourself suffer. If your body is under stress and is manifesting that physically with symptoms like severe acne, especially if it isn't normal for you, then you really need to take that as a warning sign - your body is struggling to cope. Adding to that burden with more dietary stress isn't going to help. I felt immediately better as soon as I cut bananas out. A good test, will be to take them out for a week and see what happens - if your skin improves, you know why.

Take care

Adam x

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Permalink Reply by Charlie on August 7, 2012 at 2:15pm

Thanks again Adam. I'll try giving bananas a break, if I can afford to.

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Permalink Reply by mangolicious on August 7, 2012 at 8:44am

Hi Charlie,

This might not really be helpful to you, but thought I'd share anyways.

I broke out really bad within the first week of going raw, and now three months later my skin is slightly better but still not very good. After about a month I decided to stay away from tomatoes, because I read somewhere here that they might be irritating to the skin. As I said before, two months later it's better but not gone yet :/

I have to mention that I've not been 100% all the time, more like 90%. And probably had too much overt fats in the beginning. Now I'm much more careful of staying 80/10/10, and drinking loads of water.

For skincare I wash my face with water only, and steam with a warm damp washcloth twice a day. I reckon less is more in the case of acne.

For inspiration and motivation to push through it, I look at photos of long term HCRV and their beautiful, glowing skin daily :) Freelee, EasyToBeRaw, Tarah Shannon etc..

Best of luck to you!