On Wed, 30 Jul 1997, Walter Semerenko wrote:

> Since I have been eating more raw foods 3 months ago, my facial complexion
> has improved slightly.  I don't have a big acne problem; I just break out
> 1-3 pimples every 3-4 days. (I hate it when I get a big pimple)  My skin has
> been a lot smoother too, but I think the flaxseed oil that I take has to do
> something with it.  I don't eat a lot of raw foods.  I mostly get raw foods
> through juicing.  I was wondering if anybody got rid of their acne problems
> by eating raw foods?

> I'm 21 years old, and I don't really know if this has to do with my hormones
> or my diet. I don't eat meat except an occasional tuna, don't eat dairy
> products, avoid anything processed with hydrogenated oil and artificial
> flavors and colors.   I clean my face daily with tree tea oil, and try
> different things like doing a baking soda scrub, epsom salts.  I am willing
> to try a diet to find out what could be triggering this.  Could wheat gluten
> be a culprit here?  Any suggestion would be appreciated.

With the exception of my being a year older than you, all other things
have been happening to an almost identical extent to me as they have been
happening to you.

I started eating "more" raw foods about 3-4 months ago, and have been
eating all-raw for a little over a month.

To make a long story (list of minor health problems) short, I think my
good health from 10-15 years ago has been returned to me, and all signs of
disease or malfunction within my body have disappeared almost completely.
This of course includes acne (usually an indication of toxic material
within your body, which may and usually does result from incorrect
digestion and absorption; this in turn could mean bad food-combining
techniques but these I don't think should be of much concern to a rawist).

You are most definitely on the right track when you try to include more
raw foods.  It's very likely that the more you increase that quantity,
the better your health will be.  However, making the "switch" was
somewhat of a painful experience for me (weightloss, weakness, etc); you
have to give it some time and remember that 20 years of not paying
attention to what goes into your body could take months to correct.

Since I've experienced both cooked and raw foods, I can safely say now
that not much can go wrong with you and your body if you minimize your
consumption of the former and increase foods in the latter category. There
is simply no way (even the word "genetics" takes on a whole new meaning
here, IMO) your body will not perform well on the proper combination of
raw foods.  But you need to give time to go through the transition phase.