Sugar, Skin, And A Fresh Start

The sugar high feels harmless until your skin tells a different story. We open up about slipping into a holiday chocolate spiral and the exact reset that brought calm, clarity, and a brighter glow back—without relying on shaky willpower. If you’ve ever wondered why cravings feel relentless or why your skin flares after dessert, this conversation connects the dots between dopamine, inflammation, and breakouts in a way that’s simple and actionable.

You’ll hear why processed sugar hits hard on two fronts: insulin dysregulation that fuels acne and glycation that stiffens collagen and speeds wrinkles. We break down the surprising role of chocolate’s alkaloids in inflammation, how taste receptors get desensitized by constant sweetness, and the reason a cold turkey approach often works better than “cutting back.” Then we map out the plan: purge the pantry, switch to whole-food sweetness from fruit, and rebuild meals around protein, vegetables, and gluten-free complex carbs to stabilize energy and skin.

The real magic lives in the craving toolkit. Fermented foods like sauerkraut, pickles, and goat or sheep yogurt can stop a sugar urge in its tracks. L-glutamine offers fast support when your brain screams for a fix. Holy basil tea steadies stress so you don’t raid the cupboard at night. We also share simple state-change moves—walks, cold showers, music breaks—that help you ride out the first tough week. Expect quick wins like calmer pores, deeper sleep, and sharper focus, with a clear note that complex acne often needs deeper testing and a tailored protocol.

Ready to reset your glow and quiet the cravings? Subscribe for more clear-skin strategies, share this with a friend who needs a sugar break, and leave a quick review so we can gift you the first module of our seven-week Clear Skin Program.

Click here to book a FREE call to learn more about my 1:1 Clear Skin Program.

Click here to learn more about my 7-Week Clear Skin Program.

Leave a Review and Start my 7-Week Clear Skin Program for FREE:

To get immediate access to the first module of my 7-Week Clear Skin Program, leave a podcast review! Take a screen shot of your review and email it to customersupport@naturopathicbeauty.com and you will be sent your login information!

Here's a short video showing how to leave a podcast review:
https://vimeo.com/1050913528?share=copy#t=0

Chapters

• 0:00 New Year Intentions And A Sugar Spiral
• 1:03 Chocolate, Inflammation, And Acne Triggers
• 3:36 Holiday Baking And Falling Off Track
• 3:51 Why Sugar Worsens Acne And Aging
• 6:02 Sugar’s Addictive Grip Explained
• 6:52 The Cold Turkey Reset Plan
• 8:44 Tools To Kill Cravings Fast
• 10:07 Whole Foods That Support Recovery
• 11:07 Results, Realism, And Next Steps
• 12:42 Programs, Support, And Review Offer

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions, where we heal your acne from the inside out. Hello, beauties, and welcome to the Clear Skin Sessions. I'm Dr. Stacey Shillington, Naturopathic Doctor. I've been healing acne for over 20 years, and this podcast is for you. It is to help you on your clear skin journey. And today's topic is something that I think we can all relate to. And I'm going to share a little bit about my experience. And once you hear what it is, I'm sure you'll be like, oh my gosh, this happens to me too. So I always start out my new year with the very best of intentions. I put the very best protocols in place, not only because I'm doing it for my own health, but also I'm doing it for you. Because one thing that I really try to walk my talk 100% of the time, as much as possible, there's one part of my life that always seems to be a bit of a slippery slope. And I always have the best of intentions. I try my hardest. And then one morning I wake up and I realize that I am once again completely addicted to sugar. And this particular, this usually happens due to chocolate. Chocolate is my nemesis. And for many years, I did not eat chocolate because it inflamed my skin. And I know so many of you probably experience this. When you eat chocolate, your acne gets worse. That happened to me. And this is this happens to many, many people. It's because chocolate contains an alkaloid that creates inflammation in the body. And when your body is already inflamed, and if you have really persistent acne, your body is inflamed. Alkaloids can aggravate this inflammation. So this is what chocolate did to me. And then I healed my body and I got to a place where I could eat chocolate and my skin would not break out. And to me, this is probably one of the most amazing things about healing the body is that you can go back to healing to eating the foods that you once loved. But chocolate is like my gateway. I start eating chocolate and before I know it, I'm like back on the sugar train. I am. Like I start craving sweets and sometimes giving into them. And granted, I don't eat baked goods, I don't eat a lot of bad things, but when Christmas rolls around, I definitely, I definitely fall into the sugar trap. And this Christmas was especially bad because I was surrounded by teenage boys. The weekend before Christmas, I brought my younger son's friends up to our condo in northern Ontario and entertained them. The weekend after Christmas, I brought my older son's friends up to the condo and entertained them. And if anybody has teenage boys around Christmas, you know that they want to be fed. And often, obviously, you don't have to do this, but because it was Christmas, I felt that I needed to do some baking for them. I made them fudge, I made them peppermint bark, I made them all these really delicious things. And of course, I started eating them too. And it got to such a point that on December 31st, I took a look around and I was like, what am I doing? I was literally like snacking on peppermint bark and ginger cookies and fudge like daily. So this is this is not good for clear skin. This is not good for beautiful skin. Number one, if you have acne, sugar has got to go. It has got to go during the healing process because sugar does two really bad things. Number one, it exacerbates insulin imbalances in the body. And as we know, insulin dysregulation and acne, they are really strongly correlated. And the second thing that sugar does is it feeds infections, it feeds candida, it feeds bacteria, it feeds parasites, it makes infections worse. So if you have inflamed acne, cystic acne, any type of acne, eating sugar is absolutely going to make your acne worse. And in addition, if you're concerned about aging skin, and that's where I'm at, because I'm 52 years old and I'm starting to see the signs of aging. But when I eat sugar, when anybody eats sugar, it causes a process called glycation to happen. And this directly affects collagen in the dermal layer of our skin, and it sugar molecules are attached to proteins, and this leads directly to wrinkles. So there are three really good reasons for you to stop sugar. Number one, glycation and wrinkling of the skin, if you're where I'm at, and if you have acne, insulin dysregulation, and feeding infection. So stopping sugar, I would say, is probably one of the top things that you can do to clear your acne and to have beautiful skin. But as per my experience in December, and I'm sure as per your experience as well, sugar is tough. It is addictive. It is actually more addictive than cocaine. It binds to dopamine receptors, it binds to opioid receptors, and those are it's actually a very strong drug. Sugar is a strong drug, and that's why it's so difficult to quit. So, how do you get off sugar? If you currently are really enjoying sugar, you want to get off of it, I'm gonna give you some guidelines how I do it and what works for me. So, number one, you have to have a plan. You can't just stop sugar and struggle your way through it. You can't like white knuckle. You could, you could, but most people fail when they just try to white knuckle. So you have to think in advance about how you're going to do it. So, number one, it's best to do it cold turkey. Because it is such a strong drug, because it binds so strongly to those dopamine and opioid receptors, gradually weaning yourself off of sugar is is more difficult than stopping cold turkey with a plan that's going to work. So, my plan, I knew January 1st, I was stopping sugar. So, first thing I did is I got all the processed sugar out of my house. I like threw it out. I don't, in this point, I don't care about food waste. I care about my health and my family's health. So I'm like, this stuff is garbage. It's out. And it's not like I don't allow myself any sweet taste, sweet food at all. Fruit, absolutely fine. I love especially northern fruit, such as berries, apples, pears, some citrus. This is great. And then sometimes I will have some nuts and maybe a little bit of dried fruit if I'm really having a craving. But it's very, very limited what I do allow. And it's all natural whole foods when it comes to eating sweet foods. Because let's be honest, we have, as human beings, we love sweet. We love that taste. It's very nourishing for us. And a lot of complex carbohydrates are naturally sweet, and we crave these foods because they can be very nourishing for us. But it's when we eat these strong processed sugars that our taste buds get dysregulated, and we no longer actually detect natural sweet in our foods because we're our taste receptors are so sensitized. We can't actually do that. So we're actually resetting our taste receptors, our taste buds when we eliminate sugar. And this takes a period of time. You're gonna have strong sugar cravings and naturally sweet foods, such as maybe some rice or some grains, they're not gonna cut it for you. They're just not gonna, you're gonna be like, This, this is not sweet. What are you talking about? That's because your receptors are numb. They're basically numb. They've been like, I don't even know the right word for it, but they they've been damaged by processed sugar. Really, that's what's going on. So let's get back to our plan. Number one, we're gonna go off a sugar-cooled turkey. So get rid of the processed foods because if it's in your house, it's gonna be a temptation. You're likely going to sneak a few handfuls of X, Y, or Z. Number two, you have to have a plan for when those sugar cravings strike. Now, the sugar cravings are gonna be bad for a few days to a week. You have to wrap your head around this, you have to get prepared for it, and you have to have a few things in your cupboard ready to go for when the sugar cravings hit. So, fermented foods, this is kind of like a secret. So, if you want to get off the sugar, have some fermented foods around. So, maybe have some pickles, have some sauerkraut, have some goat or sheep yogurt lying around. So, this is really good. The other thing that you can do is glutamine. So, there is a supplement called glutamine. You can take a little bit of the powder, store it in some water, and swish it around in your mouth. So, fermented foods and glutamine, these can actually kill sugar cravings. This is gonna save you. So, have those things on hand. The other thing that I find really works for me is holy basil tea. So, I will have, I will brew a very strong cup of holy basil tea if I'm having a sugar craving. And the other thing you can do is have a plan. Go outside for a walk, have a cold shower, dance to your favorite song, have an activity that you can fall back on when you're having a sugar craving. And I know this sounds crazy, but if you're going to stop sugar successfully, you need to have a plan because we are talking about a very, very addictive drug here. So the first week of January, I put my plan into action, I cut chocolate out, I threw out all the bad foods, and I went back to a diet of whole foods. So really good quality, lean protein, a lot of vegetables, very like gluten-free, complex carbs, some really great fruit. I mean, the fruit that I love to eat, I love to eat berries, I love to eat pomegranate, I love to have a little bit of orange, I'm always doing lemon, apples, pears. I think pears are probably one of my very favorite winter fruits. So having those on hand, having a sliced pear with a little bit of almond butter, that really does it for me, or maybe a slice of goat's cheese if you're into more savory. These are these are some of the things that I have on hand uh when it comes to just re-establishing my diet. So now it is the third week of January and I've settled into my sugar-free routine, and I'm not having sugar cravings anymore. Happy to report, but I still have all my tools on hand in case one comes up. I feel so much better. Um, I feel like my skin is glowing brighter, um, less dark circles, my sleep is deeper. I know this because I track it with my aura ring. My brain is sharper. I just I feel overall better, much more energetic, much cleaner, much more present in my life. That's what happens when you cut out sugar. So if you are suffering from acne, if you have a lot of breakouts, do this, please. It is so important for you. Now, I also want to set realistic expectations. You're not gonna cut out sugar and have a complete clearing of your skin. Maybe, actually, maybe you will. Maybe you're gonna be lucky and that's gonna be it. But if you have more complex acne, it's going to relieve your acne, but it's not gonna clear it for good because usually there's underlying things going on. There's underlying infections that are going to be calmed by cutting out sugar, but not completely resolved. There's metabolic things going on, there's different imbalances that need to be addressed. But cutting out sugar usually makes a huge difference. So give it a try. Um, let me know what you think because this is one of the biggest shifts that happen when people make this change. So, so many things happen. So, you know, I'm gonna leave you with that. Let me know if there's any questions. You can send me a DM through Instagram. I always love to hear your questions because everybody that seems to listen to me is incredibly intelligent. You guys are so smart, you know so much already. So shoot me those questions. And if you're interested in learning more about working with me and my team to clear your acne, there are two options. Number one, my seven-week clear skin program. This is my online program that, you know, has helped thousands of women around the world clear their acne. It's based on my 20 years of experience clearing acne and reading thousands of functional medicine tests. And the second option is my one-on-one clear skin program. This is where we do the right tests for you. We figure out exactly what's going on in your body to clear your acne, and we put together an overall healing strategy for you. And we heal your body using my framework that I've developed over 20 years. So the links to both programs are in my show notes. If you've enjoyed this podcast episode, I would love a review. And in fact, if you do give me a review, I, in return, will gift you the first module of my seven-week clear skin program just so you can get an idea what it's all about. Anyways, I'm so grateful that you have joined me today for this podcast. I really hope it's helped you and I can't wait to hear your experience when you cut out that processed sugar because it is dragging you down, girl. You know, we have to break out of these things that are dragging us down and preventing us from living our best life. And honestly, sugar is one of them. So sending you lots of love. Have a beautiful day, and I'll see you in the next podcast. Bye.