The Food Connection to Acne

Transcript:

CAROLYN: Well, welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition, brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. And thank you all for joining us today. We really appreciate you tuning in. Our topic today is “The Food Connection to Acne”. If you're a first time listener, thank you very much for joining us. But if you've been with us listening for the past 18 years, boy, we really thank you. Every week we focus our discussion on how food affects a variety of health conditions.

Today we're going to share some information about how food impacts teenage acne and also how food affects adult acne. Rosacea, you know, commonly affects middle-aged women, kind of with fair skin, and it often causes these very small puff-filled bumps. Technically, it's not really acne, but it really looks like acne. And often women are told it's just a hormonal problem. But as dietitians and nutritionists, we believe there is more to that story than just fluctuating hormones.

So I want to dig a little bit deeper and ask some real heavy questions. So, what do you think the source of hormone production is? The answer really may surprise some of you, but as a long time dietitian, the real source doesn't surprise me at all. The source of hormone production is, guess what? It's the food we eat. To put it in simple terms, real food like meat and vegetables and healthy natural fats support healthy hormone production.

Beneficial fats support our health in many ways

On the other hand, fast foods, packaged foods, processed foods, those are the ones that interfere with good hormone production. So what foods do you think are the most important to have good hormone production? You know, many of our hormones are made from cholesterol. So for good hormone production, we need those beneficial fats. Almost every week on Dishing Up Nutrition, we mention beneficial fats. It's kind of, I feel like kind of a broken record sometimes, right?

Sometimes we feel we're just fighting that uphill battle because for decades, we, especially as women, what have we been told? Eat low fat or even no fat. So joining me today in studio is Monica Hoss. Monica, let's go over a few of the beneficial fats, one at a time to help educate our listeners about the importance of eating natural fats, not only for our skin, but also our hair, our nails, and it even helps with weight loss.

So let's start with butter. Everybody loves butter, right? A serving of butter is about one tablespoon. And if you sauté your vegetables in butter, it makes them taste really good. And that fat in the butter helps deliver those vitamins and minerals into our cells because all of those fat soluble vitamins, the A, D, E, you know, they need fat to help them get absorbed into the cell structure. Right, Monica?

MONICA: Yes. That's such an important thing for people to realize that adding butter not only is delicious, but it's really going to make our bodies be able to absorb those vitamins so much more. And we recommend butter and not margarine. You know, many years ago, I'm sure a lot of people remember margarine was recommended as a preventative measure against heart disease. And guess what?

CAROLYN: It didn't work.

MONICA: It didn't work. No. And the problem with margarine is it's often made from soybean oil or corn oil, and in the processing it becomes refined and damaged. And this really affects the arteries and all the tissues in our body. So we really recommend avoiding all types of fake butter and just use real butter. It tastes so much better.

CAROLYN: Mm-Hmm.

MONICA: So much better. And margarine can interfere with good skin health and hormone production, and it can create inflammation, which we know causes our skin to break out.

CAROLYN: Yes, exactly. And we're going to go into a little more detail on that a little later, but we really recommend using olive oil. And I suggest, and personally, I always buy organic olive oil. And a good way to think about that is if it's in a clear bottle, that means it's been refined and it's not sensitive to light, right? Because a clear bottle is going to have light. But the dark bottles; you want to look for oils in the dark bottles. That means that it hasn't been processed quite as much and maybe hardly at all. And so it can't, it, it is sensitive to light, so that's why it's in a dark bottle. So I always tell people, look for those dark, dark bottles, just move away from those plastic clear bottles.

MONICA: That's such a good tip.

CAROLYN: Yeah. Again, you know, a serving is very similar to the butter. It's about one tablespoon of olive oil and just maybe mix it with a little vinegar or lemon juice. That makes a great salad dressing. My favorite: balsamic aged balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I don't even have to put anything else in it.

MONICA: Yeah.

CAROLYN: That's just like my favorite.

MONICA: So easy. I, I'll just add it to the salad. I won't mix it ahead of time. And it really is pretty simple to make your own dressing, especially if you're using a quality extra virgin olive oil that tastes really amazing. Like you said, you don't need to add a lot more to really give your salad great flavor. Just make sure when you're making your dressing that it is olive oil. We don't want to substitute with soybean oil, canola oil, sunflower oil; those what we call refined fats that have been damaged and they're going to damage your skin. And we'll talk a little bit more about that.

Cooking temperatures with different fats matters

CAROLYN: Mm-Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So an oil that is safe to cook with, you know, because temperature can destroy an oil, can damage an oil, but avocado oil is very, is is much more stable at a higher heat. You know, higher temperature cooking is safe, but you know, you got to use the right oil. And so avocado would be it. But we still suggest that to avoid damaging any of these very sensitive fats is to cook at, at a lower temperature just for a longer period of time. Actually slow cooking or cooking at a lower temperature catches more of that flavor. So you won't lose the flavor. It might take you a little bit longer, but not to worry. It's going to be really good for you.

MONICA: Yes. And I, I use avocado oil for the oven.

CAROLYN: Yes.

Why should we avoid refined oils?

MONICA: Yeah. That's, that's my go to. And then I'll use olive oil more for after the cooking process to add flavor that way. But let's dig a little bit deeper into why we encourage you to avoid those refined oils. So again, vegetable oil, soybean, corn oil. Why do we want to stay away from those? And those are the ones that we find a lot at restaurants and a lot of processed foods.

CAROLYN: Oh yeah. Restaurants don't use good quality, for the most part they don't use the good quality olive oil or avocado oil.

MONICA: Because it's cheap.

CAROLYN: Yes, yes. Soybean oil, corn oil; all those are much cheaper.

MONICA: Yes. So let's talk a little bit about why. So in commercial oil manufacturing, there are 10 steps to make these oils.

CAROLYN: I don't think people realize that. Right?

MONICA: Right. Think about it. It's not natural.

CAROLYN: No.

MONICA: So one of those steps can include adding a solvent like gasoline, heating it to a very high temperature. And at the same time, they're going to be bleaching, degumming and deodorizing.

CAROLYN: All those require some kind of chemical. Right, Monica?

MONICA: Right. And imagine how it smells if they have to deodorize it. And so in that process, you're losing vitamins, minerals that might be present, present in those oils, and now it's refined and damaged. And it's damaging to our health.

CAROLYN: I just have to share a little story on this one, but during my training and I did my training in Canada, so some of it was a little bit different, but we went to, we, we went to all of the manufacturing places. We went to, you know we went to a, a place where they were deodorizing and you know, making the oils.

And I remember thinking, oh, this doesn't smell very good and we're going to eat this. I don't know about this. So that was a long time ago. That was like in the, in the seventies. So I've been kind of always questioning that in my head. So when I came to Nutritional Weight and Wellness and we were talking about that, I went, all right, yay. Finally, someone's really talking about all that stuff.

MONICA: Well if I can add really quick, you know, think about an olive.

CAROLYN: Yes.

MONICA: That you can squeeze it and get oil out of it. That's the natural fat. You don't have to go through the 10 steps.

CAROLYN: Right. Right. So it's already time for our first break. You are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition, brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. I'm Carolyn Hudson, a registered and licensed dietitian, nutritionist. And I've been working in the field of nutrition since the 1980s. Joining me today as our cohost, as a cohost, is registered and licensed dietitian, Monica Hoss. She is bilingual and has worked many years providing community nutritional education. Currently Monica counsels and teaches clients in person in our Woodbury office and virtually through Zoom anywhere at and at all of our locations. And we'll be right back.

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MONICA: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Starting the week of October 17th, we are offering our new series of Support and Education classes. We have developed 24 new classes to help you make the changes in your nutrition to achieve your personal health goals. You will be meeting with us once a week in small groups to learn more and to put into practice what you already know. There is still time to sign up. Call us at (651) 699-3438 and we will help you find the time and location that is best for you.

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So Monica, before we left for break, we were talking about the processed oils and how they're not necessarily very good for you because they're highly refined and we don't know where all those chemicals that they use to draw the oil out and to degum it and deodorize all that other stuff. We don't know what really happens to those. So that's possible that well, we know, know they're damaging.

MONICA: Yeah.

CAROLYN: They're damaging to our cell structure and if they're damaging to our cell structure, they're going to be damaging to our skin and a lot of other things. Right?

MONICA: Totally.

Coconut oil is a healing fat

CAROLYN: So, another healing fat that we certainly want to recommend is coconut oil. And there are just lists and lists of healing qualities of coconut oil and pages and pages of research data explaining the benefits of coconut oil. So if you want to really learn more about the benefits of coconut oil, I highly recommend Dr. Mary Newport because she's written several books explaining how she used coconut oil to slow the progression of her husband's early stage Alzheimer's disease.

Dr. Newport actually shared her story on a previous Dishing Up Nutrition show. That was from November 23rd, 2013. And that was titled “Alzheimer's: A Family Affair”. And this is really important and, and maybe you know, our listeners don't know that our brain is made up of 60% fat.

MONICA: Wow.

CAROLYN: So what does that say to you? Fat is important. And it can't just be any fat. Right? So you have to be feeding your body with healthy fats and then your brain is going to be able to function better. Isn't, doesn't that seem logical? So all you have to know is your brain is 60% fat. Let's feed it with good fat.

MONICA: Yes.

CAROLYN: You know? So this November, actually, Dr. Newport has a new book coming out called Clearly Keto, and we're hoping we're going to be able to get Mary Newport back on Dishing Up Nutrition to discuss that coconut oil and her new book.

MONICA: Yeah, that'd be great.

CAROLYN: Yeah. She's really a great guest.

MONICA: Yes. And you know, like you said, coconut oil is a very healing fat. I like to use it a lot. I will use it in the oven sometimes, maybe if I'm stir frying, but I like to use it a lot in baking. And it's funny because it kind of looks like Crisco.

CAROLYN: Yes.

MONICA: Shortening. Yeah. But it's not the same. Crisco is a very refined damaged fat. So instead of using Crisco in your Thanksgiving pie crust, switch to butter is going to be a healing fat.

CAROLYN: Or what else? Lard.

MONICA: Lard. Yeah.

CAROLYN: You know, and you, I've found that you have to ask for it. I and some of the co-ops and health food stores have it.

MONICA: Okay.

CAROLYN: But you know, grandma or great grandma used to use lard. That is actually a healthy fat for you. So don't be afraid to use that. That's very, it's not refined. Right?

MONICA: Right. We were told for a long time not, you know, to stay away from that.

CAROLYN: Oh yeah. Yeah. Just like we were told to stay away from butter too. So many of you have really requested more information about what fats and oils to use and the ones to avoid. And there's just so much misinformation about fats and oils. So we hope this information today has helped clear up some of those misconceptions.

What are some good quality salad dressings?

MONICA: Definitely. And you know, Carolyn, one of the questions I hear a lot from clients in the classes, social media is really about salad dressing. Everyone wants to know what is a good salad dressing brand? Because it's really hard to find a bottled salad dressing that has good oils. I was there the other day, and 90% of them: soybean oil, canola oil. Again, these are really highly refined and not things that we want to be putting right into our body.

CAROLYN: Right.

MONICA: So again, make your own dressing.

CAROLYN: Yeah.

MONICA: There are some good brands out there, but olive oil.

CAROLYN: It's so easy.

MONICA: Yes. A little lemon juice or balsamic.

CAROLYN: Yes. And we have a bunch of recipes on our website and are our cookbooks. So make sure you take advantage of some of those. That's that's great. And they're much less expensive. Right? And fresh. Because I don't know about you, but in years past I have been known, you know, to skimp a little bit or whatever and, you know, give into my kids. Yeah.

And before you know it, you had this bottled dressing and it's like, whoa, way past, way past that date on there. So, so now let's take a minute here and finally introduce ourselves. I know it's been kind of a long time here, but anyway, I'm Carolyn Hudson and I've been a registered dietitian for over 40 years. And my very first job as a dietitian was working in Canada and I was in remote villages a lot.

Today I'm semi-retired. Woohoo. Not really working with individual clients, but I still love to teach. I love to do this radio show and you know, and teach some classes at the corporate level and, and maybe some of those new classes that are coming up. So joining me today as a cohost, you've already heard her, it's Monica Hoss. She has been with Nutritional Weight and Wellness for the past year. Monica, tell us a little bit more about yourself and don't forget to mention the bilingual stuff.

MONICA: Yes. Well, good morning again. It's great to be here. So I started working actually on the front desk about a year ago in Woodbury.

CAROLYN: Oh, cool.

MONICA: So even though I am a dietitian, I took some time off when my kids were young to stay home with them. And when my youngest started kindergarten, I knew I wanted to get back into the field and do meaningful work again. So I started working at the front desk, thought it'd be a great way to kind of transition back. It was super fun. And then right around the time when I think you decided to retire from counseling, I got a call and they said, “Do you want to move into a dietitian role?”

And of course I was excited, but a little nervous too because I really admire Nutritional Weight and Wellness and all the information that, you know, we've been putting out. So it was a little bit scary to feel like I now I was going to be, you know, stepping…

CAROLYN: So, but you had been a dietitian before that.

MONICA: Yes. Right before you took time off.

MONICA: Right. Exactly.

CAROLYN: Yeah. Cause we have a lot of training. We have internships. Oh my goodness.

MONICA: Yes. Definitely lots of training, you know. But yeah, I was a little, had to tune up my skills a little bit, but it's been so fun. I love working here. Great team and clients. And yes, I speak Spanish. I'm bilingual. And so if there's any Spanish speaking clients or even if you speak English, but you're more comfortable with Spanish, please give us a call. I'd love to work with you.

CAROLYN: So you are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. Even before the pandemic shut us down, many of you requested additional support. And so we often hear, “I know what to do. I just don't do it.” We designed these support and education classes to help you just do it. We understand that changing your diet in the past took on a message like, Oh, you need to restrict. You need to be hungry in order to lose weight. But our plan is very different.

We teach clients to actually eat more to feel full and satisfied, eat and, and feed your body and brain. And I'd like you to read more about our approach in our plan at weightandwellness.com, all spelled out and or call us and we can just talk: 651-699-3438. And don't go away. We'll be right back.

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MONICA: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. We are just two weeks from Halloween, and I want to mention that we are running a free Halloween 30 day no candy challenge for those who want a little accountability and extra support when Halloween candy seems to be everywhere. It's running now through November 10th. And to join us, no registration is required. Just pop over to our Dishing Up Nutrition Facebook page to participate.

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CAROLYN: Oh, that sounds like a whole lot of fun, Monica. I hope we get a lot of people taking us up on that offer. So now let's get back to our topic, “The Food Connection to Acne”. You know, another way to think about this topic is can the right diet or I like to say the right foods actually get rid of acne? So if you're a parent of a teenager or grandparent of a teen who has a face covered with acne, this might be the perfect incentive for them to change their habits.

If they know they might be able to clear up their skin, they are going to be more likely to want to follow or change something in, in their in their food selections to be able to help with that. And also, at the same time, mental health can be much improved by eating the right foods. Remember that brain of yours is made up of 60% fat. So we really need those good, healthy fats for your skin and your mental health.

MONICA: Absolutely. And we all know teenagers, especially if you have one around maybe a preteen, what does their diet consist of a lot?

CAROLYN: Oh boy.

MONICA: Yeah; a lot of high carbohydrate foods: cereal, chips, French fries, sandwiches, high sugar coffee drinks, right?

CAROLYN: Mm-Hmm.

High sugar foods increase acne risk

MONICA: All of these foods are called high glycemic foods, which means that they are affect, they affect our blood sugar really quickly. So they're the foods that are really going to spike our blood sugar. And many research studies have found that it's these high sugar, high glycemic foods that can increase the risk of acne.

CAROLYN: Mm-Hmm.

MONICA: So those high sugar foods, they spike it, but then our blood sugar always drops. So we call that the blood sugar roller coaster, right? That is not good for inflammation in your body. You need to keep your blood sugars stable. Right?

MONICA: Oh yeah.

CAROLYN: So vegetables and most fruits are really considered to be low glycemic or low sugar, and they're going to reduce the amount of acne a teen or even an adult may have. Several studies have been conducted in several different countries about the importance of diet and acne. In the U.S., 2,258 patients were placed on a low sugar diet with and low glycemic eating plan. And this was for weight loss. And this eating plan not only helped those teens lose weight, but they also noted that it reduced their acne by about 87%. That's a lot.

MONICA: That's incredible.

CAROLYN: Yeah. So why not try this? You know, we've, we've got a double whammy good thing going on, right?

MONICA: Right. And I think anyone that struggles with acne or skin conditions, like if you're going to give them something that's going to change your skin that much, I mean take it.

CAROLYN: Why not?

MONICA: Give it a try.

CAROLYN: Let's give it a try.

How can high sugar eating lead to acne?

MONICA: The researcher from this study believed that a low sugar eating plan helped to reduce acne because like we mentioned, it was reducing the spikes in blood sugar, keeping our blood sugar more steady, which we know results in less inflammation. They found that spikes in blood sugar causes our body to make more sebum, an oily substance in our skin. It is both the extra inflammation and the excess sebum that lead to acne.

CAROLYN: So let me expand on that just a little bit here, Monica. Inflammation actually causes the acne because it irritates the glands and then that causes more sebum to be produced. That's that sticky oil, right? And that oil then clogs the pores and the glands and what happens? We're going to get a breakout.

So it all starts with that inflammation. And again, that comes from too much sugar; too high, too many high glycemic foods. And an easy way to think about sebum is sebum is oil. So if you drink a bunch of soda or have some donuts or whatever, you're basically adding sebum or oil to your face. So I want you to think sugar equals sebum. So more sugar the more sebum you have. So we want to try to limit that. So how are you going to get that teen to reduce the amount of high sugar? You know, as a parent and a grandmother, you know, I find that teens probably aren't going to listen to their parents and possibly not their grandparents either, Right?

MONICA: Right.

CAROLYN: But they will often listen to professionals first. So making several appointments with, you know, one of our dietitians or nutritionists, that may be a really good solution. You could also make a suggestion that maybe they need to make a change from their soda drinking to something else: mineral water. Maybe instead of having that bag of popcorn or whatever, having a couple deviled eggs and a cup of berries. Find, find what your teen likes, obviously. You know and, and you know, but the deviled eggs and some berries would be a much better thing than the bowl of cereal. So small easy changes for big results. Yeah. Find out what they're willing to give up or change or have a little bit less of so that they, their skin clears up. Right?

MONICA: Yeah. Let them feel like they have power in their choices.

CAROLYN: Power. Exactly.

Tips for modifying high sugar coffee drinks

MONICA: You know, I know the fancy coffee drinks are really popular with preteens and teens. The Starbucks that I go to is across from our high school. And in the mornings and after school, it is always so busy with high schoolers getting their I think like the pink drinks, the refreshers, like those are more the things right now than like…

CAROLYN: I see that too near, near the high school where I drive by. They just brought in a Starbucks like four or five years ago or something like that. Now, every time I drive by, that's like this huge long lineup and it almost seemed like it doesn't matter what time I drive by.

MONICA: Right. Right. And, you know, I, I enjoy Starbucks. I love it, but what I do is I just kind of stick to the coffee, like this morning, just coffee and cream or maybe a cold brew. But you know, even with a teenager, if they can ask for the drinks unsweetened, even if they're going to add their own sugar…

CAROLYN: A little bit of sugar.

MONICA: Yes.

CAROLYN: I mean, much better.

MONICA: They can control the amount.

CAROLYN: Right.

MONICA: So that's the little tip. Tell your teen, like add your own sugar if you can.

Another possible acne trigger: cow’s milk

CAROLYN: Yeah. Okay, Monica. So now we know that those high sugar or high glycemic foods are triggers for acne. Another trigger for some people might be cow’s milk. And in fact, kind of any kind of cow’s milk, any level of fat, it could be whole low fat or skim have been linked to acne. In one study, they found that women who drank two or more glasses of skim milk daily were 44 times more likely to have acne. So, you know, milk might not be a trigger for everyone, but it should certainly be considered as a possibility. And it, we should kind of do a trial and error. Right? We should test it, you know?

MONICA: Yeah. And see if it helps.

CAROLYN: Right. Exactly.

MONICA: In another U.S. study, boys ages nine to 15, almost 4,400 young boys were in the study, found that those who drank skim milk were more likely to have acne. However, if those young boys ate cheese or yogurt, there wasn't an increase in acne.

CAROLYN: Well, that's really interesting. So in other words, it probably isn't the protein component in the dairy, in the, in the milk, it's something else.

MONICA: Right.

CAROLYN: Yeah. So at this point in time, researchers are really not sure why drinking cow’s milk increases the risk for acne. While products like the milk, made from milk, like cheese or yogurt, don't seem to really increase the risk. You know, so kind of the, the jury's a little bit out on, on the actual component in the milk that is causing that. So…

MONICA: Right. Interesting.

CAROLYN: Yeah.

MONICA: In the past teens with acne were told that there was no connection to diet in acne. I remember hearing that.

CAROLYN: Oh yeah, me too.

Reduce or eliminate high sugar foods to minimize acne

MONICA: But in February, 2021, a review study was published in the International Journal of Dermatology that found the, that data really supports the evidence that diet plays a role in the treatment of acne. This was a review research from 11 clinical studies and 42 observational studies. So if you struggle with acne, again, the first step is to change your diet. Eliminate the dairy, reduce sugar and those high sugar foods, eliminate soda in the sweet drinks. And that's a good place to start for many.

CAROLYN: Yeah, yeah. Whatever, whatever your teen, or if it's you as an adult that is suffering from acne, think about what you're willing to do to get that clear skin. So, but if you are a teen with acne or maybe you're a woman in perimenopause or menopause, the first recommendation made by the researchers and us at Nutritional Weight and Wellness is to reduce those high sugar, high glycemic foods. So again, if you're drinking soda or high sugar coffee drinks or sweet tea, we recommend switching to like a filtered water, a mineral water, unsweetened tea, coffee with just a little bit of heavy cream. Those are all good solutions.

MONICA: Yeah. And we have found that when clients eat the Nutritional Weight and Wellness way of three to four ounces of animal protein three to four times a day, plus a lot of vegetables, and then one to two tablespoons of natural fats three to four times a day, this is going to keep our blood sugar steady. So control those blood spikes and really reduce inflammation.

CAROLYN: So it's time for our third break already. You are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. If you have taken a Weight and Wellness cooking class from Marianne, you already know how she inspires all of us to get into the kitchen and enjoy the art of cooking. On November or on October, sorry, October 26^th, Marianne is back in her kitchen and she's going to be coming directly to you through Zoom to learn how to use spices to enhance the flavors in your meal.

And guess what? If you can't make it to that class live, we offer a recording of the class to everyone that registers, and you'll be able to receive, you'll get a live link to the recording via email and the following day. And you're going to have up to three days to view that class before that link expires. So even if you can't make it that night, you've got that, you've got that link that you can look at. So these classes are only $25 and you will learn techniques that you will use over and over. So just call 651-699-3438 to save your space. Don't go away. We'll be right back after this break.

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BREAK

MONICA: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. According to many research surveys, about 85% of teens have acne, which makes them feel uncomfortable, embarrassed and self-conscious. I personally like working with teens to help them look better, but really to feel better about themselves. I work out of the Woodbury and St. Paul office. Kristi, who is also a dietitian and has teens of her own; she understands the struggles teens experience, she works out of the Maple Grove office. Kelly, another one of our awesome dietitians, has a 20 year old or has 20 year old twin girls and understands their struggles. Kelly is in our North Oaks office, and of course, Leah, Teresa, Melanie, and Alyssa all can help with teen struggles. Set up three to six appointments and let them help your teen feel better and look better. Call 651-699-3438.

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Eating to reduce inflammation

CAROLYN: So Monica, before we went to break, you were talking about what types of things you should eat to reduce that inflammation. Do you want to like kind of finish that thought?

MONICA: Yeah. You know, we understand that following a low sugar diet is not easy. It's hard. We're going against, you know.

CAROLYN: Yeah. Everybody's telling you to have sugar, sugar or go to that fast food or you know, Starbucks or whatever.

MONICA: Most people need support in education. But really for those that who can commit and follow a plan that keeps the blood sugar balanced, lowers inflammation, they can find a huge reduction in acne.

CAROLYN: Mm-Hmm. Yeah. So we also suggest for those who are sensitive to milk, of course avoid milk. And really especially, you know, skim or those low fat milks and the flavored milks, cause the flavored milks often have added sugar in them. So it's, it's very important that we look at that again, that sugar content and giving up totally fast food and pizza for your teen. Hmm. I'm, you know, that's going to reduce their breakouts, but you know, it's really hard for them. They want to still fit in and that's what their peers are doing. So it's a really tall order. So maybe we need to kind of figure out how to negotiate a little bit better.

MONICA: Yeah.

CAROLYN: So, you know, would they be willing to give up some things for 30 or 60 days and see the results? Would they be willing to cut back, you know, whatever they're willing to do I think is really important and you know, just let's see what happens.

MONICA: Right.

CAROLYN: Let's find out.

MONICA: And starting with that dairy can be…

CAROLYN: I yeah, it can be a place, but I know personally when one of my sons had to cut out dairy, oh my gosh, that was really hard. So, I mean, I’m a dietitian and I knew how to do it, but it was still really hard. He was not happy.

MONICA: Yeah. Oh my gosh. I know that's hard for a lot of clients. Well, you know, I can share a little bit about a personal story that just happened. Last month, I was in Italy for two weeks and you know, lots of dairy, but especially I was drinking one or two cappuccinos every morning. So with the whole milk, which is…

CAROLYN: Right, with the milk.

MONICA: Right. But I don't drink milk in my normal, you know, day to day life. And then of course eating the pizza, the pasta, desserts.

CAROLYN: Well, you're in Italy.

MONICA: Right.

CAROLYN: What are you going to do?

MONICA: But really towards the end of the trip and now I've been dealing with my skin is not happy. I've been dealing with breakouts for the last couple weeks.

CAROLYN: Mm-hmm.

MONICA: So that is a huge clear message to me.

CAROLYN: Yeah. Oops.

MONICA: That eating out of the norm caused that inflammation on my skin.

CAROLYN: Mm-Hmm.

The importance of adding vegetables and some ideas on incorporating them

MONICA: So then switching back to what we can do, of course we're going to recommend eating more vegetables. Right?

CAROLYN: Right.

MONICA: Low glycemic, low sugar foods. And as a parent, I have two young kids, I'm always trying to figure out ways to get them to eat vegetables.

CAROLYN: Of course.

MONICA: And I'm going to be honest, I have a very picky son that won't really touch any vegetables, but my daughter, I can actually get her, she loves baby carrots with ranch dressing.

CAROLYN: Mm-Hmm.

MONICA: You know, our website has great dips for that that you can find, mini bell peppers with cream cheese, and she loves green beans. And I use grass-fed butter on there and it's delicious. So just find vegetables, try different ways for preparing them.

CAROLYN: Yeah. You know, as an adult, how do you add more vegetables to your meals? So for me, some of my favorites, I of course sauté my veggies in butter or I'll roast them with maybe some seasonings or some just some balsamic vinegar and, and avocado oil in the oven. I love that. I personally add frozen chopped broccoli or spinach or kale to my smoothies and I pretty much have a smoothie almost every day. I absolutely cannot tell that that's in there. The other thing I do is I use our Key Greens.

MONICA: Yeah. Those are great.

CAROLYN: And you know, if you put one scoop of that, that's like having 20 servings of fruits and vegetables and, you know, you were talking about kids. When my kids were younger they had a garden. And I let them pick whatever vegetables they wanted to grow. One of my sons picked beets. Well, he had never had beets. And he decided that he wanted to grow beets. And from that point on, when he dug those out of the ground, he was, he loves them now.

MONICA: That's awesome.

CAROLYN: So, yeah, so that's an I mean, if you've got the room or even just a container or pot or whatever, you know, that can be a way to inspire your kids to, to eat more vegetables.

MONICA: Definitely getting them involved makes a huge difference.

CAROLYN: Mm-Hmm.

MONICA: We started out this show talking about the importance of eating natural fats, those real fats that are going to keep our skin healthy and hydrated. Acne is the most common skin condition in the U.S. affecting up to 50 million Americans.

CAROLYN: 50 million!

MONICA: And not just teens.

CAROLYN: No, that's true.

MONICA: Almost 85% of people age 12 to 24 experience some level of acne.

Research links processed foods to higher acne prevalence

CAROLYN: So I remember research published way back 2002 by Dr. Loren Cordain stating that acne is a disease of western civilization. Hmm. Interesting. Right?

MONICA: Yeah, really.

CAROLYN: At that time, 79 to 95% of the adolescent population suffered from acne. So I started my new nutrition career in remote villages in Canada. And through experience I observed the Inuit or the Eskimo people had no acne when they were actually eating and living their traditional way.

MONICA: Okay.

CAROLYN: However, when they started eating processed foods, acne started to appear.

MONICA: Wow.

CAROLYN: Wow. It's really interesting. And I had both types of villages. I had very, very remote villages that were still eating, you know, maybe not quite as traditional, but mostly traditional. Cause they, they were like on an island in the middle of Hudson Bay that, so they weren't getting a lot of the fresh foods, but they were hunting and they were fishing and, you know, doing all of that.

So researchers also supported this conclusion that I had, that I had observed personally. And Dr. Loren Cordain is the author of The Paleo Diet and he recommends eating grass fed meat, organic vegetables, natural fats for weight loss and skin health. So he observed personally the diets and health from traditional cultures and he concluded that processed food, the Western diet, that's what was causing our obesity, our heart disease, and our mental health issues and certainly acne.

Okay. Well it's time to go here people. Our goal at Nutritional Weight and Wellness is to help each and every person experience better health through eating real food. It's a simple yet powerful message. Eating real food is life changing. And thank you for joining us today.

MONICA: Yes, thank you.

CAROLYN: Bye-Bye.