Recently, someone asked about how to cure adult acne in the TCM subreddit and I was reminded of my own experience many years ago which taught me the importance of food choices!
I suffered from active acne during my schooling days. Even after I started working, my acne still won’t give up popping.
I remember seeing the GP and only saw improvement after taking the antibiotics that they prescribed. However, I became very concerned after I learned about the long term negative effects that antibiotics have on our body, so I started to seek alternative solutions.
It was at that time that I started to learn more about integrated health and realized that it was the inflammation in my body that caused the acne.
I immediately looked into my diet and eliminated all foods that cause inflammation. After much trial and error, I finally discovered that the main culprit for my acne (inflammation) is milk and cheese! The whole process is like an investigation!
Till today, if I were to drink milo (yes, I didn’t know that milo contains milk!) for three consecutive days, I would have breakouts and redness/soreness on different parts of my face. A similar case would happen if I were to eat cheese…
It wasn’t until I stopped drinking milk (by replacing with soy milk) and other dairy products that I saw lesser and lesser and eventually no acne outbreaks! I also started my intake of anti-inflammatory foods such as matcha, vitamin C and healthy fats.
Till recently (after attending the Chinese medicated dietitian course), I then realized that the herbs classified under 清热解毒 are there to help us reduce inflammation! (Sidenote: This is the reason why Honeysuckle 金银花 can also help in acne outbreaks.)
Knowing that we’re able to improve our quality of life through eating the right foods instead of relying on antibiotics (or other drugs) is such a huge relief!
We are our best doctors because we are the only ones who can investigate and find out what’s causing our existing health issues by taking a look at our diet. More often than not, many health issues are caused by the wrong foods that we eat.
If you consume foods that are not suitable for you, you may experience the following symptoms:
- Acne outbreak or any kind of inflammation that you can see (ulcer, etc)
- Phlegm after meals
- Itchy, tearing eyes
- Diarrhea (or stomach discomfort) after a meal – some foods tend to create more gas in your intestine than others – this also leads to a bloated stomach
If you notice the above signs quite frequently, do look into your diet and see if you can identify any food(s) that trigger these symptoms and eliminate them from your diet as far as possible.
Hope this post helps someone out there to be more aware and improve your quality of life through better food choices!