A couple of years ago I had my first ever naturopath appointment because I was feeling a bit out of balance, my skin was really dry, I was tired a lot and I kept feeling like I was about to get a cold or flu. The naturopath asked me what I was eating and when I gave him the rundown he said my diet was ‘poor’. I was shocked! I knew my diet wasn’t that great, but poor! I went straight from the appointment to the supermarket and loaded up my trolley with fruit and vegetables. His comments were enough motivation to completely change my diet, which led to a keen interest in nutritional medicine.
I combined my new diet with exercise and I felt fantastic! My symptoms went away, I was no longer tired all the time, my skin was looking great and without even thinking about it or trying to, I dropped an entire dress size.
Good nutrition is really easy
It’s not rocket science, eating well is actually really basic. These are my healthy eating guidelines (and what I did after my visit to the naturopath):
- Keep it as natural as possible and preferably organic. Have as much fresh fruit and vegetables as you want.
- Avoid all processed foods – everything in a packet is processed.
- Limit the amount of alcohol you drink. I stopped drinking during the week. I was never a big drinker anyway so the most I ended up having was a couple of beers or a glass of wine on weekends.
- Buy some vegetarian cookbooks. The good thing about eating vegetarian foods is you eat more vegetables. I loved the vegetarian food I was cooking so much that I stopped buying meat, much to my then boyfriend’s disgust. I still never buy red meat or chicken to cook at home, the meat I have when I eat out is enough for me.
- Variety is really important, don’t eat too much of the one food. I eat too much bread in my diet so I try to eat rice for lunch if I had toast for breakfast or cereal for breakfast if I’m having bread for lunch. I’ll also mix my grains up, I like to buy rye or spelt bread so I’m not eating so much wheat.
- Avoid refined flours and sugars. There’s a whole new blog post in this one so I won’t go into too much detail just yet. To quickly sum it up, refined flours and sugars have very little nutritional value and can make you feel tired and put on weight. Next time you’re buying a loaf of bread or cereal check the ingredients. What you need to look for is whole grains.
- Drink less dairy or try dairy alternatives. Read my ‘Cow’s milk is for calves’ blog post, I drink rice milk now.
Really all I did was cut refined flour out of my diet. I ate a lot less sugar, red meat, chicken, dairy and alcohol, and as much fruit and vegetables as I wanted. I also try to avoid everything processed or in a packet. When I go food shopping now it’s almost a game, I suss out everyone else’s trolley to see if I’m the healthiest one there. Sounds crazy but it’s kind of fun. Give it a go!
Frances Kerr
Fran Kerr is the founding editor of High on Health. To cure your acne, sign up to Fran's FREE acne cure mini-course or download her latest how to guide, Eat Away Your Acne.
3 responses ↓
I would love it if you would test out one of the blue light therapy at home hand held devices for skin and especially acne and give it a review. Im thinking about buying one….
There are a few on the market to choose from, rangin from $150 up. Hope to hear about it! liz
What kind of sugar free desserts can an acne sufferer have?
Vivian, all that information is in my diet and acne guide - http://www.eatawayyouracne.com
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