Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
Clear skin and aging beautifully conversations, trainings and challenges by Dr. Stacey Shillington ND.
Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
The 8-Week Clear Skin Challenge: Week 2
Achieve the radiant skin you've been dreaming of with insights from Dr. Stacey Shillington in our transformative eight-week clear skin challenge. As a naturopathic doctor and former acne sufferer, I promise to guide you through the essential steps to nourish your body from the inside out, aiming to reduce inflammation and elevate your overall health. During this episode, learn how dietary shifts—like eliminating dairy and embracing nutrient-rich foods—play a crucial role in alleviating acne and balancing your internal health. Discover why common deficiencies such as B vitamins, zinc, and fat-soluble vitamins can be the hidden saboteurs of your skin, hair, and nails, and how addressing these can pave the way to clear, vibrant skin.
Dive into a treasure trove of skin-enhancing foods, including antioxidant-rich blueberries and hormone-balancing cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower. I'll reveal the secret power of sweet potatoes, seeds, walnuts, and almonds in delivering essential nutrients like vitamin A, zinc, and fatty acids, all vital for maintaining healthy skin. Plus, learn about the detoxifying magic of lemons and the skin-repairing prowess of red bell peppers. Hear why wild salmon and beef liver are nutritional powerhouses you shouldn't overlook. To cap it all off, I'll share practical tips to maximize nutrient absorption, ensuring you get the most out of each bite. Embark on this journey with me and unlock the secrets to achieving clear, glowing skin through mindful nourishment.
Check out my new FREE Training: Clear Skin Mastery, where I share the different types of acne and how to treat each one. Click here to watch it now.
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Welcome to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions, where we heal your acne from the inside out. Hello, beauties, and welcome to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions. I'm Dr Stacey Shillington. I'm a naturopathic doctor. For the last 20 years I've been helping women clear their acne. That is my mission. I'm a former acne sufferer, so I really understand the impact that acne has on your life. This podcast is for you. The whole purpose is to educate you on what you need to know on your clear skin journey, so you do not have to suffer with acne the way that I suffered with acne, so that we can clear your skin literally within a few months. So this is the second episode in my eight-week clear skin challenge. This is week two. So welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1:If you have not yet listened to week one, I really urge you to go back and listen to it, because I've created this eight-week clear skin challenge in a very methodical way. Each week, we're going to be doing one thing that's going to help you achieve ClearSkin, and so my goal is that, at the end of eight weeks, you will have established a number of critical habits that are going to help you maintain ClearSkin for the rest of your life. Now, as we go through this challenge. Some people will completely clear their acne, others may not. You may just notice an improvement. If that's the case, I'm going to talk about that in a little bit. But let's just talk about what you need to do to get clear skin. So there are four pillars of clear skin. I talk about this more in my clear skin mastery training. I'll tell you about that in a minute. But what we're talking about today has to do with nourishing the body. In step one, we talked about the foods that you need to eliminate to reduce inflammation in the body, because acne is inflammation, and this week I'm going to share my favorite foods that you can put into your diet to really help nourish your body and get clear skin as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1:So how did week one go? I would love to know. If you want to DM me on Instagram, send me a message. Let me know how your experience with removing inflammatory foods, and especially removing dairy, went. I know when I speak to many of my patients, they remove dairy Immediately. They experience less congestion so they can breathe better. Their sinus is clear. There's less bloating in their body. Sometimes you can even see it in the face. You can see a reduction in bloating and, of course, what we're all looking for is there's a reduction in the inflammatory state of acne. It may not completely clear your acne, but the inflammation will definitely go down. The acne will be less cystic, potentially less red, much calmer.
Speaker 1:I have to just apologize for my voice. I'm having a little bit of a cold right now, but I didn't want to miss recording this episode for you because I want to keep on track with the clear skin challenge and keep delivering these week by week. So I had a choice to either record this with my voice going a little crazy or wait a week. But I chose to do this because I don't want you to miss a week. I want to keep the momentum going and keep you implementing new things that are going to help you get clear skin. So excuse my cracky voice.
Speaker 1:So week two is all about nourishment. We can talk a lot about what you shouldn't eat if you have acne and usually those are inflammatory foods and I talked a lot about that last week but we also need to talk about what you should eat for clear skin, and that's what I'm going to tell you today. So I love this quote. This is one of my very favorite quotes Let food be thy medicine, and that is from Hippocrates. And nutrition is always the foundation of our health. Nutrition is our fuel. But here's the thing we can eat the very best diet in the world and still experience acne. That's because there's deeper root causes that need to be fixed. But if you're prone to acne, you're never going to clear your skin without embracing a healthy diet. We just need to have that healthy diet to provide the nutrients that are necessary to have optimal health and to have clear skin.
Speaker 1:So often our skin, our hair and our nails these are the way that our body communicates with us. These are the first signs that there's something going on that's imbalanced within the body. So often, with the skin, we can experience acne. We can experience red, shiny, swollen skin. Maybe there's hyperpigmentation, maybe there's dryness, maybe it's scaly, maybe there's infections or bumps. If there's something going on with your skin, there's something inside that needs to be addressed. And the same thing with the hair. If your hair is dry, it's brittle, it's lusterless. If it's falling again, there's something going on within that needs to be balanced. And same with the nails. Many people they look at their nails and there's white spots there or their nails are brittle and they're prone to breakage. When this is the case, there's something going on that needs to be bounced from within. So our skin, our hair and our nails, these are like the canary in the coal mine these are the parts of our body that are going to speak out first when there's an imbalance.
Speaker 1:So whenever the skin is involved, there are deficiencies that we commonly see. We commonly see deficiencies in B vitamins, in zinc, in fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin D, a, k and E, in vitamin C. Often there's mineral deficiencies, macro minerals such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and, of course, trace minerals as well iron, cobalt, manganese, zinc, iodine and selenium. So there's usually some type of deficiency going on, and, according to the CDC and the US Department of Agriculture, nine out of 10 Americans are deficient in potassium. That's a pretty significant percentage. Seven out of 10 are deficient in calcium, eight out of 10 are deficient in vitamin E and 50% of Americans are deficient in vitamin A, vitamin C and magnesium, and more than 50% of the general population is vitamin D deficient. So, as you can see, we're pretty much all deficient in major critical nutrients for optimizing our health and optimizing our skin health as well.
Speaker 1:And why are we deficient? We're deficient for a number of really important reasons. Number one poor diet. The foods that have been surrounding us for years are often adding to a burden of toxicity, they're depleting critical nutrients more than they're nourishing us. And poor gut health. So you can eat the very best diet in the world, but if your gut is not in great health, then you may have leaky gut and you may not even be absorbing the nutrients that you're eating. That's something that's so common. Depleted soil so the soil that our food is grown in is depleted. We need to rebuild our soil in order to get food that is going to nourish us. And high carbon dioxide means that plants grow faster, but they don't necessarily absorb as many nutrients from the soil as they grow. So, and more toxins in the environment equals more nutrients required, so we are going through antioxidants at a faster rate because we're dealing with more toxins in our environment and in our body. So all of these reasons together, this really explains why, as a nation, as a community, we're so deficient in critical nutrients.
Speaker 1:So what are some things that we can do to increase our nutrition? So I'm going to share my favorite foods with you in a moment. But even before just doubling down on healthy foods, there's certain things that you need to look at. Number one you need to stop eating processed foods. You need to stop eating foods that inflame your gut, and you need to stop eating foods that are. You need to stop eating foods that inflame your gut and you need to stop eating foods that are anti-nutrients, and these are foods that actually leach really important vitamins and minerals from our body. We're talking about spinach and kale, phytic acid, which steals calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, lectins these stick to carbohydrates and nightshades and omega-6 fatty acids. Instead, we want to eat more saturated fatty acids because they don't oxidize and they're stable, and we want to eat more omega-3 fatty acids because they're anti-inflammatory. So those are things you need to stop doing before you even consider what you're going to start eating.
Speaker 1:You also want to stop eating foods that are anti-nutrients for you, and you want to consider an elimination diet so that you can find out what these trigger foods are for you, and this is going to be a little bit different for everybody. For instance, some people are very sensitive to mycotoxins and mold, and we find a lot of those in grains, wine, beer, coffee, and you may notice when you eliminate those foods. All of the sudden, your symptoms improve because you're eliminating a toxin that's causing reaction in your body Glyphosate as well. This is a pesticide that's used to grow so many crops, but wheat especially, and glyphosate affects cell membranes directly. It's a neurotoxin. It disrupts gut bacteria.
Speaker 1:When we stop eating gluten, often we feel immediate relief. This can be because we're reducing our consumption of glyphosate and also artificial sweeteners such as sucralose. This disrupts the microbiome and it increases inflammation. So these are things that we want to be mindful of. We want to really consider eliminating from our diet, because what this is going to do this is going to decrease immune reactions. This is going to decrease inflammation. This is going to start to heal your gut, so that when you do eat foods that are full of nutrients that are going to decrease inflammation, this is going to start to heal your gut so that, when you do eat foods that are full of nutrients that are going to start to nourish you and help you heal your skin, those nutrients are actually going to be absorbed and they're going to be bioavailable so your body can utilize them properly. So how do we increase our nutrition?
Speaker 1:Number one heal your gut so you can absorb as many nutrients as you can and you can absorb them properly. This is a lot of what I do with my patients. We work on healing the gut and this is what takes the longest when we embark upon a healing journey, because there's several steps that need to be taken and it depends on what's going on in your gut. Of course, also, you want to support detoxification so you don't require an overabundance of nutrients. So if there's a lot of toxins in your body, you're going to be using a lot of the nutrients and antioxidants within your body to take care of those toxins. If we support detoxification, you're not going to need all those nutrients and antioxidants to counter the toxins. Instead, you're going to be able to use them to nourish the body and to age beautifully and to have beautiful skin.
Speaker 1:You want to eat organic as much as possible and you also want to supplement. A mineral supplement is a good idea. A whole food supplement is a good idea. Most of us need to supplement because our soil is so depleted. Our food is not delivering enough nutrients to us. So you know, as I mentioned earlier, optimizing nutrition can take time because often we have to heal the gut. This is so critical to optimizing nutrition. You can start eating a perfect diet today. You may not be absorbing the nutrients properly, you may have an elevated toxic load, so all your nutrients are being used before they even get to helping build your body back up.
Speaker 1:Also, the skin is usually the last part of the body to heal. The body always heals the most important organs first. So if there's deficiencies in a critical organ system, such as the heart or the lungs or the kidneys, those are going to be addressed before the skin. So we have to nourish those organs first. That's why sometimes we see a delay in healing the skin and most of my patients, you know, midway through their clear skin journey they'll say wow, so many of my symptoms have cleared up, my skin's still breaking out and I'm like just hold on, wait a little bit, because your skin is going to be the next organ system to heal. And of course, that's usually what happens.
Speaker 1:You also want to find a protocol that's sustainable for you, as re-nourishing the body takes time. So certain people are able to just jump onto really intense healing protocol and do all the things and they love it and they feel great. Other people need to ease into their clear skin journey. It can be a little overwhelming at times, so you need to find a pace and a protocol that's sustainable for you, because you do not want to get frustrated with the process. Healing takes time, so you have to do it at your own pace and your own comfort level so you don't get overwhelmed and then just give up at some point, which I have seen some people do, and it's a tragedy, because when you do have your health and when you do manage to heal your body, you just feel so amazing, you have so much energy, your skin's so clear, you feel so good that it is so worth it.
Speaker 1:Believe me, and as always, one of the most important things we need to do is we need to work on relaxing the nervous system. So the body cannot digest foods properly when the body is stressed. When we're in a state of survival, when we're in our sympathetic nervous system, we are not in a place where we're nourishing and healing the body. Instead, we need to be in our parasympathetic nervous system. We need to be in a state of relaxation so that our body starts to digest, our body starts to absorb nutrients. So if you're a very stressed out person, chances are you're just not able to digest your foods properly. You're just not able to absorb them properly. You need to work with me and my Beauty Bliss program so that you can shift your nervous system so that your body can actually start to heal, and that just goes for acne in general. If you're in a state of survival, if you're in your sympathetic nervous system, your skin is not going to heal as quickly as if you learn how to transition into a state of relaxation, and I have an entire program that I put my patients through to teach them how to do this, and at the end of the day, this is the program that really shifts everything for them.
Speaker 1:So let's move on to my top clear skin foods. So these are the foods that I really encourage you fill your diet with while you're on your clear skin journey. These are the foods that have so many amazing nutrients that are going to nourish your body and nourish your skin. Probably one of my favorite foods is berries. I love berries. They're delicious. They contain proanthocyanidins, which is a very potent antioxidant. They're also great at regulating blood sugar and if you work with me long enough, if you continue on this challenge, you will learn more about how insulin levels are so connected with acne, and berries actually help regulate insulin levels, blueberries specifically.
Speaker 1:The other group of vegetables that I really love are cruciferous vegetables. Not only do they contain glucosinolates and glucosinolates help detoxify the body but they also contain diindolymethane, which is DIM, and this can help detoxify estrogens. It can also act as an androgen blocker. So the cruciferous family is pretty big. It includes foods such as broccoli, cauliflower, arugula, brussels sprouts, cabbage the list goes on and on.
Speaker 1:Now some people, when they start their clear skin journey, they have a hard time tolerating cruciferous vegetables. This may be you, maybe. You eat broccoli and a minute later you're super bloated. This is a sign. Actually, this is something very interesting to note. It doesn't mean you're intolerant to broccoli, but what it does mean is that there's an overgrowth of bacteria in your gut, and cruciferous vegetables contain a lot of fermentable carbohydrates, and when the bacteria consume these fermentable carbohydrates, they produce a lot of gas. So my suggestion is to lay off the cruciferous vegetables for a period of weeks while you're healing the gut and clearing that infection. Then you should be able to reintroduce cruciferous vegetables.
Speaker 1:Another tip is to eat them cooked. Raw cruciferous vegetables can be far more aggravating than cooked. Another food I really like is sweet potato. Sweet potato is a starchy carbohydrate. It's one that many acne patients tolerate really really well, and it contains a ton of vitamin A. Vitamin A is a critical nutrient for skin health and to help keep the skin clear. I love sweet potato.
Speaker 1:And then there's the seeds there's hemp seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. I love seeds because they are packets full of really important nutrients. Now, for many seeds, especially sunflower and pumpkin, it's important to soak them before you consume them, because this removes phytic acid, and phytic acid is one of those anti-nutrients that will leach nutrients from the body. So if you soak these seeds, you are going to get an enormous amount of zinc from pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin seeds can also prevent parasites. Sunflower seeds they have a great protein profile, a great fatty acid profile, and, when it comes to hemp and chia, these are powerhouse seeds. Hemp seeds have 11 grams of complete protein and three tablespoons. This is fantastic. So for people that don't want to eat as much meat, hemp seeds can be a really great substitute, and chia seeds have a dream profile when it comes to fatty acids, and it's high in omega-3 to omega-6. So this is great. They're great to reduce inflammation.
Speaker 1:Another food I really love are walnuts. So walnuts are very high in fatty acids. They're high in an amino acid called L-arginine. They're high in melatonin and vitamin E. Walnuts can be very relaxing to the nervous system, along with pumpkin seeds as well. Pumpkin seeds are very relaxing. All right. Almonds contain a ton of vitamin E. They are one of these foods. Again, you want to soak them to reduce the phytic acid, but they are going to deliver smooth, clear, glowing skin if you eat them regularly and absorb the nutrients.
Speaker 1:Raw sauerkraut it has tons of beneficial bacteria and enzymes. I love lemon as well, because lemon stimulates bile production. When we get bile production, we aid in detoxification. We also stimulate a bowel movement, which is really important because if you have acne and you experience constipation, we need to resolve that in order to clear your skin. That is a critical step.
Speaker 1:Red bell peppers that is another food. It's very high in silica, which means it's going to help to repair the skin. Wild salmon is high in an antioxidant called astaxanthin. This converts into vitamin A and again, vitamin A is critical for skin health. And beef liver this is probably my favorite clear skin food. If you can't tolerate the taste, beef liver supplements are amazing. It is mother nature's super food. It contains so many critical vitamins and minerals. They're bioavailable. They're in exactly the right ratios. I've seen really incredible results from taking beef liver capsules for people with any skin condition, especially acne, so that is one of my very, very favorite.
Speaker 1:I'm really sorry, everybody, my voice is like breaking up like crazy. All right, so hopefully you have gotten that list. It's a really critical list of foods for clear skin. I've never seen it go wrong for anybody. These foods will only strengthen your body and strengthen your skin as long as you take the measures we talked about before to ensure that you are absorbing as many nutrients as possible. And, of course, then, once you do everything we've just talked about, you will watch the healing happen. Improving nutrition changes every system in your body, including your skin.
Speaker 1:Okay, so your homework this week. I know I've jammed a lot of information into this podcast, but that's because there's a lot of information I have to share with you and I want you to be well-equipped on your clear skin journey. I want you to know that it's not just about eating these healthy foods. It's about making sure that you are absorbing these foods at the same time. So, to start this week. Start incorporating these foods into your diet, but pay attention to the other things that we discussed. Take a look at your digestion. Is there bloating? Is there constipation? Is your digestion something that you need to take care of? For many of you, it's going to be a resounding yes, and at least you know that you're not going to be able to properly nourish your body until you heal your digestion. That's how critical your digestion is to achieving optimal health and achieving optimal nutrition. All right, so that's it for this podcast. I hope that I've created some aha moments for you.
Speaker 1:Again, I'm sorry about my voice, but there's some other ways that you can further your knowledge on how to heal your acne. You can watch my free training, which is called Clear Skin Mastery. I go into my method of how I heal acne. You have to watch this training. The link is in my show notes and if you've appreciated this podcast episode, if you think that the information that I've shared with you is important, I would love if you could leave a review of this podcast. This is the only way that we reach new people and if you do leave a review, I am going to give you free access to the first module of my Clear Skin Group program. The link is in the show notes. I thank you so much for being with me today and I thank you in advance for leaving a review, and I will see you next week for week three of the 8-Week Clear Skin Challenge.