Acne
My acne is still present although less severe than a month ago. I’m still dairy-free and believe that has helped. I’m taking zinc and pantothenic acid, as well as eating lots of oysters, some liver, juicing vegetables and herbs. I’m hoping to get lots of nutrients to help with hormone regulation and acne.

Nightshades
I have decided the next step in changing up my diet will be removing nightshades. This may sound simple for someone on SCD since it’s just tomatoes, peppers and paprika (we don’t eat potatoes) but I tend to eat a lot of these foods, almost daily. Over the past few weeks I have cut down considerably the frequency of having them and this past week I started a complete elimination of them. I plan on giving it about 6 weeks before reintroducing to be able to see if they are causing any problems. As someone with a history of acne and joint pain, this is something I just have to test out.
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I’ve mentioned a couple times in my updates that I’m giving dairy-free SCD a try. The decision has been a long time in the making. Last October my Naturopath suggested it and I lasted a few weeks. This time I plan on trying it for over a month.

Dairy-Free in the Past
Before starting SCD I had already been dairy-free for over 2 years. No butter, no cheese, no milk, no yogurt for over 2 years. It was a miserable time I have to say! I was pretty much terrified of dairy because of the many scientific studies and natural health sites saying that it caused digestive problems, cancer and heart disease (along with red meat and fat in general). The first month on SCD without yogurt I was probably lacking in calories. I did end up eating nut butter baked goods earlier than I should have simply because I was always hungry. I was still scared of meat too so really the first month was just a lot of light meals and I lost a few pounds that I really didn’t want to lose.

The SCDiet places quite an emphasis on the homemade 24-hour yogurt and I was both underweight and not responding to probiotic capsules. So I decided to try it and did well with it. I used only organic, hormone-free milk and also tried goat milk thinking that I did better with it. Off and on for the next 2 years I used high fat cow’s milk or goat’s milk to make my yogurt, and ate some SCD-legal raw milk cheeses.

Last November I decided to finally get off the Birth Control pill and work on addressing some hormone and menstrual problems naturally. My naturopath told me how dairy, even organic, can affect hormones and is implicated in endometriosis and that it might be worthwhile to go dairy-free at least to start with. I was also having signs of my liver not doing a good job of detoxing and stopping dairy could help. I did but only for a few weeks. Once my cycle returned and was completely pain-free (yay SCD!) I added the dairy back in. With going off the pill, my acne became worse and has persisted.

Acne History
I first got mild acne in my early teen years that cleared up completely when I started on the Birth Control pill. My late teen years I saw it come back and seemed more difficult to manage. I have never had cystic acne so I always thought I had a mild case of acne, but really it has been quite severe at times with spots all over my face (even though each spot is small). So I started trying all the commercial things like different soaps and cleansers (Nutrogena, SpectroGel, Clearasil etc etc) and even Proactiv which chemically burned my face upon first application (I stopped using it right away). I used spot treatments that worked but didn’t prevent breakouts. My doctor prescribed Retin-A which irritated my skin and made it flake off.

When I started learning more about natural health I tried quite a few natural remedies, usually one at a time. Apple cider vinegar, tea tree oil, natural cleansers, selenium, zinc, magnesium, drinking lots of water, taking fish oil, vitamin D, getting sun on my face, avoiding sun, exercising/sweating each day, steaming, probiotics, oatmeal mask, honey mask, yogurt mask, egg mask, avocado mask, coconut oil, and finally a short trial with the oil cleansing method. Nothing worked. Some made it worse.

The more I read, the more I realize acne starts from within and will never ‘go away’ until the real problem is addressed. I’m sure some people can manage their acne with strict cleansing routines using gentle products but it hasn’t worked for me. So, I finally decided I’m going to focus on addressing it through nutrition starting with giving up dairy. Here’s a ‘before’ picture during the two weeks I was trying the oil cleansing method. It actually got a bit worse after this, but has evened out back to this state with the first week of being dairy-free. I also have a bit of ‘bacne’ (acne on my shoulders) which I have never bothered trying to address with cleaning techniques.

My Plan
I was trying to be patient and let hormones balance out themselves while following full SCD but it seems like I need to try something different again. Since going off the pill, my cycle has not been regular and my acne out of control. The fact that these two problems are occurring and both can be related to eating dairy makes that a good place to start with tweaking my diet. I realize there is an expected period of time after stopping the pill for things to return to normal, but I want to try what I can to speed up that process. I have also gotten a lot of advice on what else to try for acne, and will keep those things in mind for later.

I stopped eating all dairy over a week ago (July 26th to be exact) including butter. After one week of that I realized I don’t do well AT ALL without a good dose of saturated fats. I was feeling cold all the time and cranky. Butter has always been the easy fat to use in cooking, baking and just eating on its own so I was having lots of it. I decided to make clarified butter, called ghee, and include that as my one dairy food. No butter, no cheese, no yogurt for all of August now.

I plan on posting an update halfway through August. I’ll also try to post some examples of what I am eating for a day doing SCD without dairy. I only eat nuts in small quantities and not every day too. Hopefully I’ll see some changes in my skin and I’ll also make note of any changes in my digestion. In September I will reassess if I want to try adding dairy back or if I want to give it a bit longer. If I do start back on it, I will try butter first for 2 weeks, then yogurt for a month, then raw milk cheese, then raw fluid milk (not SCD-legal) and try not to overindulge in anything.

So far I have been feeling pretty motivated. It helps that on Twitter right now, over two dozen people have joined in an “August Primal Challenge” about following a diet very similar to SCD, eating cleanly, exercising, and supporting each other. Also with the upcoming cooking class on meat & seafood, I’m hoping I’ll be busy creating delicious meals and won’t even notice that I’m missing the dairy.

So I had said I would do a no-honey challenge for the month of April. That meant no honey in my yogurt, no honey for sweets etc. I started off great, eating yogurt with fruit and making my SCD Truffles with dates (I think I prefer them this way now!). Then one day I just forgot and put some honey in my yogurt. I swear I didn’t mean to, it was just such an automatic step for me to grab the honey and add some. I decided to see if I can just limit myself to a small spoonful of honey (about 2 tsp) in my yogurt once a day. It seems I can somewhat control how much honey I eat and have been quite satisfied with that amount each day. So, the jar of yogurt that was about 2/3 full was almost empty 2 weeks later. That was also shared with my boyfriend who uses it in oatmeal and sometimes yogurt as well. While this wasn’t a total success in trying to go without sweeteners, I think it’s still a pretty good change. Maybe I have kicked the sweet-tooth a little bit? The rest of the month I pretty much had the same amount, just a bit of honey in my yogurt. I did make chocolate fudge for one night, but that was a special treat, not something I’m eating every day. I think I’ve bought honey once this month, about 500g worth, so that is a big improvement.

Now unfortunately the no-honey thing did nothing for my skin. My face was still breaking out like crazy. I turned to the BTVC-SCD Yahoo group and everyone who answered there kept saying they used oils on their face for acne. People had commented on my blog as well saying that. Some people were saying they rubbed the oil into their skin. That had me thinking, I’ve been putting oil on my skin very lightly. I never actually tried rubbing it in and then wiping the excess off.

I tried with coconut oil to start with. I rubbed a good chunk of it into my skin. I then showered and let the steam loosen up the oil a bit, wiped off the excess with a facecloth and then patted it dry with a towel. I’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks and it’s somewhat working. I think putting a thin coating of coconut oil was doing more harm than good, trapping dirt and bacteria in the pores. Rubbing the coconut oil in seems to moisturize it better and cleans a bit deeper. To help even more, I bought some tea tree oil and dab that on top of the coconut oil, let is sit for a while and then wipe off.  It’s not perfect yet but I’m having a lot less breakouts daily. I have also been taking cod liver oil a bit more regularly and some extra vitamin D, which others have said helped their acne. I have some red spots still that have to fade from having acne there and I think once that clears up my skin will look much better.

I know I mentioned going to China a while ago. I am still going, leaving in about 1 week! Very excited and not so nervous any more. I did fine eating rice for a short period and even had some soy sauce without problems. I did cut down on the rice because I was having joint problems that really seemed to get worse around the same time as the increase in rice/carbs consumption. I have heard from many other people that low carb helps with arthritis so it kinda makes sense. I had thought I might do ok with higher carb because I have a better balance of Omega6/3 fats and lots of anti-inflammatory foods in my diet. When I get back from China I’m going to look more into joint problems and how to deal them. Don’t think I have blogged about it before, but I have had joint problems off and on (knees, wrists, now hands) so I think it’s worth looking into. I’m also working on some info pages about good fats, Omega 6 and 3′s, nuts and how it all affects us on the SCDiet. (Hint – we eat way too many nuts on this diet)

So thankful to everyone for sharing their experiences with acne, hope I can get rid of this for good soon!

I’m joining in a Refined-Sweetener-Free Challenge for the month of April. Cara over at Health, Home, & Happiness has done GAPS before and since going off it has been noticing she’s eating too much sugar. I haven’t gone off SCD, but find I’m doing the same thing with honey. I have done low-carb SCD before for short periods of time if symptoms have flared up. Now that I’m feeling much better, I seem to handle dried fruits and honey quite well. I have even added in cocoa to my diet. Why would I give them up if I feel good? Well, I know that I don’t do well with sugar. I know that it makes me not sleep as well, makes my face break out, makes me anxious, etc. All of these things have been problems lately, so even though digestion is good, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I should be eating sugar. So, I will be doing without ANY honey for 1 month. That is the only sweetener I use, so I will be sweetener-free. I will not be going low carb as I don’t think it’s necessary at this point in my healing. I will be getting plenty of good carbs from squashes, carrots, fruits, dried fruits and sweet potato (not SCD legal). Yes I’m keeping in some dried fruit, mainly because I use dried cranberries in my liver recipe, and eating liver is important!

I’m really hoping this helps clear up my skin. For most of being on SCD my skin was doing fairly well (ok, besides all the rash episodes) but since going off the pill it has been constant outbreak. Every morning I wake up with 5 or 6 new spots and they seem to be taking forever to go away. It’s not so much how it looks that is bothering me, but the uncomfortable itchiness that comes along with it. I realize sugar may not be the only culprit, but maybe if I have less sugar I’ll be replacing those calories with something more nutritious. I plan to try and get more minerals in my diet, especially zinc which is known to be helpful for acne. I recently had cooked oysters and really liked them. Oysters are a great source of iron, zinc and selenium so these will definitely be making a regular appearance in my dinners!

I know I’m doing this right after starting cocoa and that might seem a little odd. I can finally have chocolate but oh wait, nope I’ll stop having it because of sugar! Honestly I think I can go without too much cocoa for 1 month. I am not eating it every day anyways. I plan to make my SCD Truffles as a nice dessert, ‘sweetened’ with dates and coated with cocoa. So I’ll have a hint of cocoa in my life still. I will have honey again after this month is over. Hopefully I won’t overindulge in it. I plan to start eating honey again when the local farmer’s markets are open and I can get some really good quality stuff. That will be motivation enough to hold off until then!

I’m also motivated to figure out different snack ideas. Gotta think outside the box on this one…

PS – I just Googled oysters and zinc. It seems *raw* oysters are the best source of zinc. Might have to work on that one…

PPS – That photo up top? I’ve been going through almost a 1kg jar of honey per week. Yeah, that’s a bit much!

**This post is part of a Kitchen Stewardship’s Spring Cleaning Carnival: Get the Refined Sugar Out, this week hosted by Donielle at Naturally Knocked Up