SweetJade1

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I'm not a doctor either nor do I plan on being one. I'm a Biology student that plans to go into Nutrition and/or Naturopathic Medicine. Whenever I visited my endocrinologist (took 3 tries before I got a great one), he was always impressed with my knowledge and the questions that I had for him. He told me that it was better for me to chose the salad over the sandwich or the slice of pizza, but I figured that since I was already underwieght, i didn't NEED to. Truthfully, I didn't need to do this, but I HAD to do this, in order to make a DIFFERENCE in not just my skin, but other areas as well. When I came back after only 3 months on my new diet (Low Grain/Gluten Free & eventual avoidance of specific inflammatory foods) he was very surprised. He said that my skin looked really good and he never said that while I was on Avandia for a year prior! =)

I'm no longer on Avandia and I take Spiro very sporadically. I still have mild hirsutism, but the majority of it is now gone. This Diet also broke my Breakout Cycle and ELIMINATED my horrible crying on the floor menstrual pains. It's been 15 months or so since and I'm 99% clear. The first 3 months I was already at 95% and what helped get rid of the other 4% was finding the foods that triggered additional inflammatory responses (the most stubborn cysts) in me. You will be pleased to know that Dairy (organic milk) isnt' one of them...however lately, I've noticed that i'm more sensitive to certain types of dairy products (have seen breakouts yet). I rarely consume much dairy now because I don't eat cereal, or bread products, etc. this may be why. The one thing on these diets is that IF you are Intolerant (mean you can't properly break something down due to lack of an enzyme) to a food item, then when you consume it after having a break form it, you will experience a reactionary breakout. Suxs, but hey it really helps to keep you on target so that you don't cheat. If you plan on cheating, dealing with a few cysts that last 2 weeks will be enough punishment for most people..if not there's always the mark that it left behind to make you think twice... =(

Seriously though, I have NO regrets. I NEVER thought it would make such a HUGE impact, but it did. Since Insulin Resistance is the precursor to Type 2 Diabetes, Type I Diabetes (sometimes), High Cholesterol, High Blood Pressure, Obesity, PCOS, Hirsutism, and Acne....in the end it made a LOT of sense to do this. If you visit those resources on PCOS you will find women that lost wieght, improved thier skin (less androgens, DHT), decreased their hirsutism (less androgens, DHT) regulated their menstrual cycles, and/ OR CONCIEVED, by choosing a low carbohydrate diet! To know that you can control your hormones, and most importantly your male hormones, particularly DHT, through an Insulin Balancing Diet, instead of medication (if it fails you), Doesn't that sound exciting?

Of course you have your own concerns and you should take those concerns and implement them in any changes you choose to make. Personally, I gave up diary and it didn't make a difference, but I also gave up chocolate and soda (both for 10 years) and they didn't work either. The other trick to this diet is that sometimes you MUST eliminate some of the culprits before you can figure out what other culprits you might have. As a result, I learned that while I can eat chocolate, I can't eat soda (never liked the carbonation), bananas (Loved banana bread), Cherries (my FAvorite), Peanuts and possibly cashews.

Otherwise I eat whatever. I eat quite a bit of carbs actually and I still eat fast foods (fries and salad, chicken wings,etc). While I don't follow the Atkins Diet, in the beggining it is only temporarily on the LOWW carbing (30-40g) and then you raise that level. I eat lots of high glycemic foods daily and I am actually in the normal range for carbohdrate intake (200g). I've cut out more than 50% of my carbohydrate intake by just eliminating most Grains, and I'm still consuming a diet that's 200g - 300g of carbs!!! However, that is considered low carbing when you think of the fact that the average person on the western diet consumes 200g - 800g DAILY! Factor in 3 -4x as many grains as you must eat of fruits and vegetables and throw in the sugar products like cake, candy, soda soda soda, not to mention alchohol and you will see how those numbers can rise. Wow...Isn't that nuts?

Indeed our brains require sugar and we would DIE without GLUCOSE, but we don't THAT much glucose. While you don't have to increase your protein intake, your body does convert everything you eat into Glucose, including protein. In fact I think that because of all the processed food I HAD to drop (wheat is in 90% of prepared foods), I've actually decreased my protein intake a wee bit also. While there are good fats, I'm not pigging out on them. Heck on don't even take supplements. The only supplement that I would be concerned about consuming would be a calcium supplement. If you have problems maintaining iron in your diet then you may want to think about changing your diet even more so, because grains can act as enzyme inhibitors and one of them MAY be the cause of your iron defiency.

Ok, now this part is theory, but there's was no real explanation (I checked against Insulin pathways) as to why my menstrual pain stopped when I canged my diet because I certainly wasnt' consuming anything to increase my good prostaglandins (fish oils EFAs). Yet because I dropped foods that can inhibit enzymes my body needs to run properly, that MAY have been why. Theory being that this allowed my body to convert good prostaglandins from the foods that I am still eating. Something else I noticed was that when I was younger I would eat candy more often during my cycle. Now that I dont get pains, I noticed that If I do eat candy (not chocolate) my abdominal muscles will start to act up and spasm very slightly. So sugar may play a role somehow...maybe it in itself is an enzyme inhibitor (I must check that), but there's Definately a HUGE correlation for me and other women. In fact, I had read that in terms of idopathic cramps a Gluten Free diet solves the problem... so if this is something you experience, you may want to think about changing your diet.

I absolutely feel that you should do what is best for you. Research this and you will see that theres a big connection. You will also see that you don't have to give up every possible food that could cause/aggrevate acne ;-) Aye, sometimes I don't understand why it's either black or white with some people...we really live in quite a nice amount of grey. I eat Rice, Potatos, Corn DAILY. With the exception of the above items, I eat all other fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, seeds, dairy products, poultry, pork, beef, seafood, and certain kinds of "junk" food. I intend to eat all the turkey, ham (not too fond of), potatos, corn, green beans, and pumpkin w/whipped cream (don't eat crust) that I can stand ;-)

Oh but in terms of sweets, as I got older (I'm 23 had acne for 16 years) I craved sweet foods less and less and this diet really helped kick most of what was left. As a result while I can drink 100% fruit juice, I don't because it's too sweet, LOL I drink mainly water, I crave water now....NEVER would have happened before, but even when I don't drink 6-8 glasses a day, my skin looks good. I can breakout on my face, scalp, ears, eyebrows, neck, chest, back, upper arms, and other areas and usually most of those areas are clear...unless I cheat. 1 peanut gives me cysts on my forehead. a Bowl of refined gluten free cereal (corn pops, corn flakes) gives me tiny cysts in and around my earlobes. It takes 3 - 5 days for these breakouts to surfaces, which further suggestions an Intolerant reaction.

On the other hand, when I'm at my absolute best, and of course this requires good and "Healthy "food in the house, my skin is much less oily, my pores are much smaller, and there are no pimples or cysts on my face or body. I'm a working college student and my meals are far from balanced, they weren't before though, and my skin still survived what I throw it (even it is much more behaved diet now). I'm guessing that my last teeny bit is due to either consuming Corn or Rice (90% of my new grain consumption) or because my diet is fully balanced (in terms of vegetables), but I'm hardly suffering. I'm much happier, my energy levels have never suffered, I've finally gained more lean muscle, and I don't stress at all about food. I know what to avoid and I do so, or not (and suffer the consequence), but I KNOW. Therefore I don't and never stressed over it. I've had 22 years of fun with all of the foods that were bad for me and I would have given them up when I was 13 if I knew the truth then. What can I say except that it's just like someone taking a neccessary medicine or that's deathly allergic to something, I just do what I have to do.

Just something to think about. Best of luck