Breakfast and Your Skin: Unlocking a Morning Meal's Power for Clear Skin with Dr. Stacey Shillington ND

Embark on a journey to radiant skin with me, Dr. Stacey Shillington, as I unravel the intimate link between your morning meal and the health of your skin. Through personal tales of struggle and triumph over acne, I'll guide you to a deeper appreciation of self-love and the empowering knowledge that true beauty begins from within. This week's focus is on the transformative power of a nourishing breakfast, debunking the myths of intermittent fasting for women, and addressing the critical role of balanced hormones and a diverse microbiome in achieving that sought-after glow.

As we continue the Clear Skin Challenge, discover why your go-to breakfast might be sabotaging your skin goals, and what delectable alternatives can lead you to clearer, healthier skin. Join me in exploring top breakfast picks, from oat-free granolas to protein-packed omelettes, and learn to craft a meal that steadies blood sugar and fortifies your skin barrier. A special gift awaits to support your journey—tune in for a recipe guide that will make your new morning ritual both delicious and skin-friendly. With each episode, we're not just transforming skin but nurturing a profound connection with our holistic wellbeing.

Click here to get my FREE Clear Skin Breakfast Recipe Guide.

Interested in my new Clear Skin Group Program? Click here to learn more!

Click here to watch my FREE Clear Skin Masterclass and learn more about the 4 pillars of clear skin and my top tips to heal acne for good.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to naturopathic beauty's clear skin sessions, where we heal your acne from the inside out. Hello everybody, and welcome to episode two of my clear skin sessions. I'm Dr Stacey Shillington. I'm a naturopathic doctor and I've been helping women clear their chronic acne for over 18 years. I'm so excited to launch this podcast because I am going to teach you how to clear your skin from the inside out, because I know what acne is like. I suffered with acne myself. It changed my personality, it shifted the direction of my entire life, and for that I will forever be grateful to acne. But in this podcast, I have a real treat for you. We're stepping into week two of our clear skin challenge. I'm going to give you some amazing tips as part of this week's challenge and a little gift as well. I want you to stay tuned until the end of the podcast, where I'm going to give you this gift, which is really going to help you out with this next week of our challenge.

Speaker 1: 1:07

This is a super exciting journey. We are listening to your body and this is a journey that is going to shift you forever as a human being, because you are going to learn about your body. But as you go on your clear skin journey, you're also going to learn how to cultivate self-love. This is such a big part of what I truly believe. The clear skin journey is all about learning how to love ourselves, no matter what the skin looks like. It is so easy to fall into the trap of feeling bad about ourselves, of not feeling beautiful, of feeling ugly, of feeling unlovable when our skin isn't what we want it to be. But learning how to really love ourselves in spite of that, it's a huge step in our own personal and spiritual growth. That's a big part of the clear skin journey. I just wanted to share that with you because I feel so strongly about it and as I watch and help and guide women clear their skin, I see this transformation that happens. I see them start to truly love themselves, because once you can really embody that, that's when your skin clears effortlessly. But of course, there's a lot of other things that we can do physically to really help clear the body and heal acne, and that is what we are doing with our eight week clear skin challenge.

Speaker 1: 2:27

My first podcast episode was dedicated to the first week of the clear skin challenge and this is where we eliminated cow dairy from the diet. I'm wondering how you did with that. I'm wondering if you're already starting to experience a reduction of inflammation. Maybe you're starting to see a little bit of clearing in your skin and maybe you're feeling differently and other levels as well. Maybe you're starting to experience less congestion, maybe you're starting to experience less bloating. There's so many things that happen when you eliminate dairy if it's been inflaming your body and especially if you have acne. So I'm excited to hear how you guys are doing on week one.

Speaker 1: 3:07

And so why did? Why are we doing in this challenge? What is the point of it? Anyways, what we are doing is we are going through phase one of treating acne and that is reducing inflammation. So there are two phases and phase one, first we have to reduce inflammation and then phase two is deeply healing any imbalances in the body, whether it's poor detoxification, whether it's chronic gut infections, whether it's hormonal imbalances, whether it's insulin imbalances. But before we jump into that, reducing inflammation in the body is going to allow us to heal deeper and allow us to heal completely. So that's what we're doing.

Speaker 1: 3:48

I'm walking you through some key steps in phase one of my clear skin program and our first goal what we're doing is reducing the inflammation. When chronic acne is present, there's inflammation in the body because acne is inflammation, and often the root cause of inflammation is in the gut. When the gut is inflamed, certain foods are going to make inflammation worse, and when we cut these foods out, we're going to reduce immediate inflammation and we're going to start to be able to heal, and cutting dairy out is one of it was a really big step in reducing inflammation so we can start healing the gut. So let's get ready. It's time for week two of our clear skin challenge and just to review how we're doing this challenge each week, I am going to take you through one foundational step to help you get clear skin for good. I'm going to explain why we're taking this step and exactly what you need to do, and then you are going to spend a week putting it into action, and the next week I'm going to drop my next podcast episode with the next challenge.

Speaker 1: 4:55

So if you are breaking out at the end of this challenge, it is a sign that you most likely need to do some deeper work. We need to target chronic infections. We need to deeply heal the gut. We need to perhaps support detoxification. There's a number of things that we have to do. That this challenge is not going to address. But some people are going to be able to clear their acne by simply going through this challenge, and this is really exciting for me and I really want to walk with you as you go through this challenge. Here are how you're doing and how your skin is starting to improve. Now, you know, some of you are not going to be able to clear your acne as you go through this challenge, and if that's the case, and if you do need to do more work to balance your body and go through phase two, I'm going to give you some direction and I'm going to give you some support on how to do that as we continue on through this podcast. And you know, I do want to note that if you only address inflammation and you need to do deeper, deeper healing, your acne is going to come back. So we always have to do that phase two, deeper healing to keep acne at bay.

Speaker 1: 6:07

All right, so let's jump into the clear skin challenge week number two, and this week is all about loving your breakfast. So I know that intermittent fasting is a huge trend. You know, a lot of people really love not eating breakfast, and I can see why because it's so convenient not to eat breakfast. I mean I wish I didn't have to eat and, to be honest with you, you know, sometimes in my life I just wish I didn't have to eat at all, because it takes so much time and so much energy and so many resources. But you know that's not the case. We need to eat, we need to eat well and we need to eat breakfast. So once you start eating breakfast and not only just any breakfast, but a breakfast that is really going to help nourish your body, reduce inflammation and balance your insulin levels you're going to look amazing and your skin is going to reflect this change as well. So I'm excited to share with you why breakfast is so important for clear skin.

Speaker 1: 7:11

So when we wake up in the morning, our body has been fasting for hours and, as you know, our body requires food to function. If we do not eat in the morning, we over stimulate our HPA axis and this is our hypothalamic pituitary axis and this causes stress in the body, and this is especially seen in women, particularly. There's studies that back this up. So when we eat breakfast in the morning, we actually reduce our stress levels, and this is important because if we have elevated stress levels, that is going to lead to hormone imbalances and acne. So eating breakfast in the morning is going to reduce your stress. It's going to help lead to balanced hormones and a reduction in acne. So it also regulates insulin levels. So when you don't eat in the morning, this leads to dysregulated, regulated metabolism and high levels of insulin resistance. And of course, there's research that shows us that this is the case and this is especially true for women that already have high androgen levels, and women with acne tend to have high androgen levels. They did this study and they showed that when women skip breakfast, this actually increases androgen levels. So I love this study because it really explains why women with acne don't do well all the time with intermittent fasting, and I see this again and again and again. Women jump on the intermittent fasting bandwagon and it just doesn't work for them. Their acne does not improve, it often gets worse. Their hormonal imbalances get worse and I'm going to explain why that happens in a minute. But dysregulated insulin levels can actually lead to high androgen levels and an increase in acne, and dysregulated insulin is one of the biggest underlying causes of acne. So just eating breakfast in the morning is going to do so much to help regulate this. And if you have not been eating breakfast in the morning, if you have been intermittent fasting, I am so excited for you to implement breakfast into your schedule because I think after a while you are going to see such a huge change.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Okay, and of course, breakfast also delivers important nutrients. So breakfast is an important time to consume important nutrients to help balance the body and heal the skin. We have polyphenols. Polyphenols you find them in berries and greens and they reduce inflammation, they balance insulin levels and they also impact gene expression. Then we also can consume lean proteins and these deliver amino acids, and these amino acids are so important to repair the skin and also to continually build a really strong skin barrier. And then, of course, starches. We need starches to feed the microbiome and to reduce inflammation and acne. And healthy fats as well. They reduce inflammation and acne. And Eating breakfast also reduces inflammation and supports detoxification. So when we eat anti-inflammatory foods first thing in the morning, all inflammation in the body is lowered and this also supports detoxification. Conversely, an inflammatory breakfast can worsen inflammation and actually create stagnation in the body, and you know, I want you to remember that acne is Inflammation. And the fifth reason why we really want to eat breakfast in the morning is a good breakfast can actually heal the Microbiome. So when we eat a breakfast high in polyphenols, healthy starches and fibers and lean proteins, it's just going to strengthen and diversify the microbiome and this is going to lead to better overall health and clear skin. And remember, an imbalanced microbiome leads to get issues, inflammation and Acne. So there are so many reasons five really clear, scientifically backed reasons why you should be eating breakfast for clear skin.

Speaker 1: 11:25

And a lot of you may May be saying but intermittent fasting has so much research behind it. It's great to regulate metabolism and, yes, you're right, there's a lot of great research behind intermittent fasting. But the thing is, a lot of that research has been done on men and we have now put together a lot of research that shows us that. You know, prolonged intermittent fasting in women actually can lead to more hormonal imbalance, and the reason being is because women's bodies are designed for pregnancy and when we get consistent hunger signals every day, when we intermittent fast, the body interprets that as there's not enough food. I'm getting too many hunger signals. This is not a good time to reproduce. I'm just going to stop ovulation until things get a little safer. And that's what happens our bodies actually stop ovulating because of these hunger signals that we're constantly getting. So this research is actually showing that women that intermittent fast, their Ovulation stops and their hormones become imbalanced. So that is one huge reason why, you know, intermittent fasting is not great for women in general, and especially for women with acne.

Speaker 1: 12:39

So what makes a good clear skin breakfast? What are the components that you want to put into your breakfast each and every morning? So we already talked about lean protein to balance your insulin levels, and we want to consume 20 to 30 grams of protein. Every single morning, I make a clear skin smoothie. I'm going to talk about this a little bit because it's my favorite. It's my favorite meal of the day. Every single morning I get up, I look forward to my clear skin smoothie. I love my breakfast. Not only does it taste delicious, but it makes me feel Amazing, and I've now been having this smoothie for breakfast, I would say, for about 10 years straight. I don't like to deviate. I don't like to eat anything else for breakfast because it doesn't make me feel as good. I'm so energized, I feel so clean, I feel so clear when I eat it and it's so jam-packed with everything I'm going to talk about that you know, when you eat a breakfast like this, over time you feel the effects. You feel so good and it's so simple. So you know, I always put a protein powder in my clear skin smoothie. It's really simple. I do a beef broth protein powder. The one that I personally use is Designs for Health Paleo protein. It's great, it tastes fantastic, it's mixes in the smoothie really easily and it does deliver that 20 to 30 grams every single morning.

Speaker 1: 14:05

Eggs are another great source of protein for your morning breakfast and I find most people with acne can tolerate eggs very well. I find that if there's a history of eczema or psoriasis, we have to pay a little bit more attention to how the body's reacting to eggs. But in general, eggs are such a great source of protein, such a great source of B vitamins, that I'm like go for it. Seeds and nuts these are pretty good sources of protein as well, especially when we're doing hemp seeds. Hemp seeds are such a fantastic source of protein. Three tablespoons of hemp seeds gives you a really substantial amount of protein. And salmon. A lot of people eat savory breakfasts. They don't go for the sweet breakfast, and salmon is a really great protein to eat for your breakfast.

Speaker 1: 14:53

Okay, the other thing that makes up a good clear skin breakfast are fruits and vegetables high in polyphenols and a low glycemic index, such as berries and greens. I'm in love with berries. I eat blueberries, raspberries, strawberries every single morning. I put them in my clear skin smoothie. They're delicious and these high levels of polyphenols are so good for the microbiome. They really help to feed a lot of beneficial strains, especially acromancia, which is deficient in many people that have acne. So eating these berries is really great. Berries are also really great at regulating insulin levels. There's some research to show that as well. And then the third component fruits, vegetables and gluten-free fiber to nourish the microbiome and stimulate a bowel movement. So if you're eating a lot of berries, you're automatically eating a lot of great fiber, and that's the other thing that I really love about including berries in my breakfast. And I would say you know, my favorite source of fiber in the morning in my smoothie is blueberries.

Speaker 1: 15:57

So let's talk about breakfast that you should avoid if you have acne. So the number one breakfast I see so many people eating that I take them off of right away to clear their skin is oatmeal, and I know so many of you eat oatmeal every single morning and you're doing. You think you're doing something incredibly healthy for your body and many respects you are. But for acne specifically, this is not the ideal breakfast, for two reasons. Number one oatmeal has an elevated glycemic index. It spikes insulin. There's no protein in it. There's nothing to ground your blood sugar when you eat oatmeal, so I don't like oatmeal for that reason. But even more than that, oatmeal contains something called eventicides, and eventicides are a component in oat that can actually increase testosterone levels. So you know that saying you know that young people should sow their wild oats mean getting out there and really you know experiencing their sexuality oats. You know. It references oat because oats actually increase testosterone level. That's why oats are fed to animals before they mate, because it increases their, their ability to procreate. It increases testosterone levels and, as we know, in women, when testosterone levels and antigens get too high, that's when we experience acne.

Speaker 1: 17:18

So oatmeal for people that eat acne is not advised. The other breakfast that are not advised fruit on its own, because it just has a high glycemic index. It spikes blood sugar. Fruit is amazing, I mean I think we should all eat fruit in moderation, but on its own when you have acne, it's too much for your blood sugar to handle. Again, you want to take the fruit, maybe put it in a smoothie with a protein powder, eat it with some eggs, do something, add some protein and some fat so that you don't get that blood sugar spike Right. Another breakfast many people eat is yogurt, and this contains cow dairy. And we can go back to the clear skin challenge week number one, my last podcast, where I did a deep dive into dairy and I shared with you some research that really shows us beyond question that yogurt is going to lead to more acne.

Speaker 1: 18:14

Gluten-free cereals and pastries Again, when you're eating these foods, you don't have protein to ground your blood sugar and your insulin levels. You're not having a lot of the polyphenols and the really colorful fibers that are required to feed the microbiome. And then, of course, the other breakfast you want to avoid is nothing, and we already talked about that and how intermittent fasting is really going to disrupt your hormonal levels in the long run. So you may be asking me so what are the best breakfast for clear skin? What should I be eating? That's a really great question.

Speaker 1: 18:50

So I'm going to go through my top breakfast for clear skin and then in the show notes I'm going to include a recipe guide for you, because a lot of people ask me. They're like well, how much almond milk should I put in my clear skin smoothie? Or how much blueberries, how many? And to be really honest with you, I don't know, because I don't measure anything. I'm the type of cook where I go into the kitchen and I just add things until it seems good to me. You know, like I'm really fly by the seat of my pants type of person in the kitchen, so I don't measure. But what I've done is I've put together some recipes. I've actually measured things out, so you will have measurements. You are, you will have precision in this recipe book, which I know so many of you love, and I'm just too ADHD to really sit down and be precise. But I've done it. So that's attached in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 19:43

So number one my clear skin smoothie. That is my personal favorite breakfast for clear skin. So many of my patients do really really well taking this smoothie every morning. As I said, I've done this for 10 years, maybe even more. You can't stop me from eating my clear skin smoothie in the morning. Even in a morning that's minus 30 in Canada, I still have my clear skin smoothie, and I know that seems crazy, especially from a Chinese medical perspective. That's the last thing you want to do is eat something cold on a cold day.

Speaker 1: 20:18

But I have my tricks. Often I blend it. I blend it quite a while to take the chill out and then I'll follow it with a ginger tea or something really spicy just to warm me up. But it just feels so good in my body that when I have other breakfast I don't feel the same. So I include protein powder berries. I also put some avocado in there. I put some Chlorella and spirulina, because this is a great source of natural B vitamins. I do put collagen peptides in there because I am 50 years old, I do have to worry about my skin. Now, if you have histamine sensitivity, don't put collagen peptides in there, because collagen can aggravate histamine sensitivities. And then, of course, if I'm feeling like it, I'll put some nuts and seeds in there. My two favorite are hemp and chia. These are jam packed full of nutrients, so adding them to your smoothie in the morning can be really helpful.

Speaker 1: 21:14

The other thing that is really fun to assemble is an oak-free granola and I have a great recipe for that in the recipe collection and then adding some berries to it, adding some seeds, and then a dairy-free yogurt and you can use the coconut yogurt, almond cashew yogurt Be sure it's unsweetened and just layering all these different components and putting together a really beautiful parfait for yourself. Not only does it look great, but it tastes great, and if you're having people over to eat, you could always serve this, because people get excited when they see parfaits, and this one is especially delicious. You have to try my oak-free granola. I do love it. I do make it on the regular, and what I do is I'll take my clear-skinned smoothie, I'll put it in a bowl and put granola on top, so I make kind of like a smoothie bowl with it.

Speaker 1: 22:05

Okay, hot cereals. So if you are a person that loves your oatmeal so much as just such a great comfort food, you can still create something very similar to it, but instead of using oats, you can use quinoa or buckwheat flakes. These do not contain a venicides that are going to increase testosterone, so you're going to be fine with this, and then you can dress it up, put some berries on it. Put some seeds on it Actually chia and hemp seeds. Put a scoop of almond butter so that you are getting some protein, you are getting some fat, you are grounding the glycemic index, so you're not going to shoot your insulin levels way up.

Speaker 1: 22:43

And then another breakfast that I love is a seed cereal. So in my program I go more into seeds and how you can use them and why they are so amazing. But you can combine equal amounts of seeds with buckwheat growth, soak it in an unsweetened dairy-free milk overnight and then top with berries just before eating. This is an amazing breakfast. It's so simple and so delicious. And then, of course, classic vegetable omelette so you can use free range organic eggs, use a variety of vegetables, make yourself an omelette and again, I have a recipe in my collection for you and salmon and greens. Many people do this. A lot of cultures around the world eat dinner for breakfast and they are so much healthier than we are, you know, typically. So you know baked salmon, sauteed greens, and that's a classic breakfast that feels really good.

Speaker 1: 23:40

And chia seed pudding combining chia seeds with an unsweetened non-dairy milk overnight, topped with berries just before eating. This is fantastic to really get an adequate amount of fiber into your diet. So I always recommend 35 grams of fiber a day and you know that seems like a lot of fiber and when you start tracking you realize that's a lot of fiber. But when you add in something like a chia seed pudding, that's really going to help you reach your fiber goals. And avocado toast with eggs this is a really special breakfast. It's kind of a treat.

Speaker 1: 24:14

You take a slice of gluten-free bread. You have to be careful with gluten-free bread, because so many types of gluten-free bread are just packed with sugar and vegetable oils that we don't really want to ingest, so you have to be careful about the type that you're eating. Spread with mayonnaise, add an avocado and sliced hard-boiled eggs topped with chili flakes and olive oil. This is delicious. So again, this recipe is in the recipe book, but really you don't need a recipe for this. I think everybody can just slap this together in no time at all and just eyeball it and have it be completely delicious. So all my recipes are included in the show notes. Download it.

Speaker 1: 24:55

Start making your breakfast something that you totally loved. I can't emphasize that enough. I want you to wake up in the morning and truly look forward to your breakfast. Take the time to make it properly. If you're always really rushed in the morning, a lot of these recipes you can make the night before, so you just open the fridge, there it is, you eat it and you're off. You're having a day where you feel fantastic. You're energized, you're clear, you've reduced inflammation in the body, you're supporting your body on multiple different levels. The power of breakfast is huge. I cannot emphasize this enough. When we can nail our breakfast, we are taking huge steps to balancing our body and clearing our skin, and this is really exciting.

Speaker 1: 25:44

So keep me updated on your progress via Instagram. That is where I live most of the time. I'm gonna be posting daily stories to help keep you motivated, and I also wanna get your feedback. I wanna answer your questions. My Instagram handle is naturopathicbeauty, but show me your pictures, tag me. Tag me in your progress and ask any questions you have. I really want you to be successful during this Clear Skin Challenge and I wanna see your pictures. So if you can share them, that would be amazing. So I want you to stay tuned for week three, the Clear Skin Challenge, next week and if you wanna know more about the four pillars of Clear Skin and how I treat acne. Check out my free Clear Skin Masterclass. Link is in the show notes and if you wanna book a call with my team to learn more about my acne program and sign up to get started working with me right away, click the link in the show notes for that as well.

Speaker 1: 26:39

So I hope that you have enjoyed this episode of the Clear Skin Sessions and I hope that you are excited about putting together a breakfast that you love. I've given you all the information you need to know. There's great recipes included. You've got some great support. Just head on over to my Instagram and let's do this. Let's get your skin clear. So I will see you in the next podcast episode. Until then, have an amazing week, sending you hugs and kisses, and thank you so much for trusting me to guide you on your Clear Skin journey. Have a great day, guys. Bye au for full Rey soul. Bye you.