HEALPSORIASIS

DERMATITS ECZEMA

NATURALLY WITH A CLEAR

PERSPECTIVE ON FOOD

If you're reading this document, odds are you have reached the realization that your skin disease is not simply just a skin issue, but rather an indication of your overall health. Congratulations on taking this first step of understanding. To coincide with your goal of learning to heal your skin and overall health, it is my ultimate goal to in time provide you with all of the information you need to rid yourself of eczema, dermatitis, and psoriasis through a better understanding nutrition and exercise.

You have likely visited one or several dermatologists in hopes of finding treatment that will relieve you from the torment of your skin breakouts. You've tried topical ointments and steroid creams, light therapy, homeopathic drugs, and maybe even biological medication. While some of these things may have provided you with temporary relief, you feel like you have no control over your disease.

INTRO

One of the problems with the medications and treatments that the industry of dermatology provides, is that they focus on treating symptoms rather than treating the root cause of the symptoms. This method of treatment inevitably proves itself to be ineffective because it ignores the one sacred fundamental truth of healing. In order to stop a reaction, you must suffocate the catalyst.

There never was and never will be any one treatment that will bring you the true skin health restoration that you are in search of. With that said, healing yourself of these annoying, embarrassing, and even painful conditions is VERY possible and much more simple than you may think.

When it comes to eczema, dermatitis, and psoriasis, the catalyst is toxic gut health. In order to heal your skin, you must heal your gut. This guide is meant to give you a basic understanding of what to eat and what not to eat to free yourself from the restraints of your skin.

To put it simply, clearing your skin comes down to three main factors. What you eat, what you don't eat, and exercise/movement. Just as you will never find one curative medical treatment, you are never going to find one food or one supplement that is going to heal your disease. This healing will sprout from a consistent combination of the aforementioned three main factors.

To coincide with these three factors, there are four specific practices that I swear to be the most medicinal things I’ve ever incorporated into my life. Their versatility, simplicity and digestibility make them irreplaceable. If you’re going to start anywhere, start by incorporating these things.

The Most Powerful Medicine1.WATER

2. JUICE

3.SMOOTHIES

4.EXERCISE

As everyone has heard at some point, us human beings are made up of 60% water. We need water more than we need anything else. People debate as to how much you should really be drinking, but there is no real number. Just drink a lot of it. A simple rule to follow is to drink at least eight eight ounce glasses a day. Squeeze a lemon or lime into your water for a refreshing and alkalizing addition. Here are a few notes taken from the infinite list of the benefits of drinking water:

• Increases brain function• Improves blood flow• Boosts immune system• Aids in detoxification• Promotes fat loss• Increases energy levels• Improves skin hydration• Eases anxiety• Aids in bodily waste functions

WATER

For those who are not familiar with juicing, a juicer and a blender are not the same thing. While blenders are great for smoothies and other culinary applications, juicers are different in that they actually extract the juice from the foods that are fed into them. They deposit the pulp from the ingredients into a separate compartment, leaving you with a glass of pure juice.

While consuming lots of raw vegetables on a daily basis is an amazing habit to add to your diet regimen, many people have a difficult time incorporating their recommended daily servings of vegetables into their diet. Juicing is a great way to concentrate a large dose of the vital micronutrients that vegetables contain into a delicious and easy to digest beverage.

Consuming vegetables in juice form gives your digestive system an opportunity to relax as it soaks in a wide variety of gut healing micronutrients. Rather than spending its energy on breaking down the fibers of the vegetables, your gut can focus all of its energy on absorbing these nutrients that will soothe and improve your compromised immune system.

JUICING

SMOOTHIESWhen I’m asked about juices and smoothies, one of the basic little quotes I tell people is: “Blend your fruits and juice your vegetables”. With that said, there are certainly exceptions and I do include some vegetables in my smoothies and some fruit in my juices. I love adding spinach or kale to my fruit smoothies, as well as adding a green apple to my green juice or an orange to a carrot juice.

Although smoothies are not quite as simple to digest as fresh juice, they are still remarkably easy-going on your gut. Smoothies are a great way to get a healthy dose of dietary fiber, which is essential in moving waste through your system. If you want to heal your skin, you are going to need to eliminate as many toxins from your body as possible. Fiber is your best friend when it comes to waste elimination.

One thing that I absolutely love about smoothies is that you can make a high calorie, versatile, fulfilling meal out of them. I make a big smoothie as one of my meals almost every day. While receiving large quantities of vitamins and nutrients from fruit is the most beneficial part of making smoothies in my opinion, adding things like walnuts, almonds, chia seeds, or hemp seeds can really round out your smoothie and make it a very calorie/nutrient dense meal.

EXERCISEWhile I believe that cleansing your body and eating a variety of nutritious plant based foods is the most important aspect of healing your skin, exercise is a close second. When healing your skin disease, or any disease for that matter, the key is to implement a holistic approach and take the necessary steps to heal your body and mind as a whole. Exercise is essential in making this possible.

We are naturally active beings. As our modern priorities are slowly pulling us away from this truth, more people than ever before are beginning to feel the repercussions of being inactive. Our bodies cannot operate at an efficient level without regular exercise.

While I do endorse a very active lifestyle and engaging in as much physical activity as you can, you do not need to become a gym rat to heal your skin. I do believe that the more active you are, the more you will be rewarded on both a skin and overall health level. But if you are not currently an active individual, start out by trying to get some sort of exercise for at least half an hour three days a week. Walking and/or running is a great place to start.

WHAT YOU SHOULD EAT

FRUITS AND VEGETBLESFruits and vegetables are the most important foods you can add to your diet to heal your skin. The vitamins and micronutrients that they contain are irreplaceable. If you don’t make fruits and vegetables a staple in your diet, your skin will not heal.

Although the ultimate goal is to get a wide range of nutritious foods, don't complicate things. Find out what fruits and vegetables you like and eat a lot of them. I could go all day listing all of the great fruits and vegetables that you can and should add to your diet, but here is a list of some items that have become constants on my weekly grocery list.

Spinach, kale, Swiss chard, celery, cucumbers, carrots, broccoli, asparagus, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, mangos, apples, oranges, grapes...

BEANS, TOFU, AND OTHER PLANT PROTEINOne of the first questions people ask when I tell them that I follow a plant-based diet is: Where do you get your protein? The answer: From plants.

One of the misconceptions that society has led us to believe is that we need to be consuming animal based products everyday to get enough protein in our diet. More and more people are beginning to understand that this is not true.

Some of my favorite sources of plant based protein are garbanzo beans, black beans, kidney beans, tofu, lentils, and some occasional plant-based protein powder.

Another thing to understand is that many of the other foods listed on other pages of this “What to Eat” section are also great protein sources. Things like quinoa, sprouted grain bread, oats, nuts and seeds, etc…

Nuts and seeds are another great addition to a healthy diet. The versatility of these nutrient dense foods make them a great option to keep in your kitchen pantry. I eat nuts and seeds everyday, but am quantity conscious when it comes to nuts as they’re not as easily digested as most other foods on this list. Just a handful a day is plenty.

Nuts and seeds are a great source of healthy fats, anti-oxidants, and plant-based protein. They are also generally pretty high in calories, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.The goal here is not to eat less calories, but to make sure that your calories are packed with an abundance of nutrients.

The nuts and seeds that I have in my grocery store rotation are walnuts, almonds, pecans, occasionally some organic almond or peanut butter, almond milk, hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, and pumpkin seeds.

As I mentioned earlier, nuts, nut milk, and seeds can make great additions to your smoothies.

NUTS AND SEEDS

HEALTHY STARCHESConsidering that starches go hand in hand with carbohydrates, many people in our society associate eating healthy with staying away from all starchy foods. This fear of carbs is unwarranted as it stems from a wide spread nutritional misunderstanding.

For one reason or another, it has become common for people to view carbs as a negative nutrient that will make them gain weight or become fat. Not only is this false information, but it is leading people toward unsustainable fad diets that leave them feeling hungry and frustrated.

This then leads these people to see eating healthy as a sort of chore or punishment. Eating healthy is not about restricting yourself, it's about consuming a wide variety of body nourishing nutrients. Skip the low carb fad diets and embrace this essential macronutrient.

There are certainly many simple carbohydrate foods out there that are suppressing your health. While things like white breads, cookies, sweets, and pop should be avoided, there is an abundance of complex carbohydrate foods that you could be eating every day.

My grocery list: Sweet potatoes, white potatoes, sprouted whole wheat bread and wraps, brown rice, oats, whole grain pasta…

HEALTHY FATSAnother word that gets a negative reputation in our society, is fat. As with carbs, it has become common for people to avoid all fats when making dietary changes in attempt to better their health. Although it is certainly a good idea to limit your intake of saturated fats that are found in many different animal products, getting a good amount of unsaturated fats into your diet is essential to your health.

My favorite sources of healthy fat include avocados, nuts and seeds, and from time to time I do eat some fish. Fish is not a staple in my diet, but if I am out to dinner I may order some cedar plank salmon or something of that sort. I would urge anyone who is trying to heal their skin and gut health to get their protein and healthy fats from plant based sources as much as possible.

WHAT YOU SHOULDN’T EAT

In this fast paced world that we live in, convenience has become a way of life. Why spend the time preparing food for yourself when you can go to the nearest fast food restaurant for lunch or stock up on two minute microwaveable meals? Why fuel your energy with natural sugars such as fruit when you can just grab a latte with two sugars on your way to work and drink a pop or energy drink to keep you going in the afternoon?

This way of thinking is exactly the sort of thing that disrupts your lymphatic system, leaving your body susceptible to disease. These processed forms of food have been genetically altered and tainted with preservatives and added sugars that have no business passing through your digestive system.

Stay away from fast food, processed meats, cheese, store bought brand name juices, candy/other pantry junk foods, white bread, sugary breakfast cereal etc... Not only does this "food" hold little to no nutritional value, but as I mentioned, it also cause blockages in your digestive and lymphatic systems as they labor to digest and eliminate artificial ingredients.

PROCESSED FOODS & REFINED SUGARS

From an early age we are told that drinking milk will make our bones strong and help us grow into big healthy adults. The truth is that there is no scientific evidence to support such claims. If you want to find some great sources of calcium to build strong bones, do a quick Google search. You will find a long list of foods including many that were previously mentioned in the "What You Should Eat” section of this guide.

Lactose intolerance is considered a very common condition in the United States as there are 3 million new cases per year. I'm not sure that this is so much a "condition" as it is our bodies rejecting the milk and by-products of a species that is vastly genetically different than us. A mother's milk is an incredibly nutrient rich food which is specifically intended for their babies to consume. We are not baby cows.

There are all sorts of tasty plant based milk products that you can find in your local grocery store including oat, soy, and nut milk. My favorite is almond milk. Give one of these a chance.

DAIRY

ALCOHOLDo I drink alcohol? Yes, occasionally. While I do enjoy having a drink at a party or spending a night out with my friends, my relationship with alcohol has certainly changed over these past few years and I have become more aware of where my priorities lie and how I want to spend my free time. If you subscribe to this healthier lifestyle approach that I am promoting, I believe that it will have the same effect on you.

If you already abstain from alcohol, that’s great. You are already a step ahead. But if you do enjoy to tip a few drinks from time to time, don't worry. You don't need to ditch out on weekend plans with your friends for the rest of your life. You just need to take a step back from that whole way of thinking in order to reevaluate your relationship with alcohol. Can you drink in moderation and still live a healthy life? Yes, but alcohol certainly doesn’t do your gut health any good.

When you’re in the beginning phases of healing your skin, you should do your best to completely stay away from drinking. Your gut will never heal if all of the great nutrition you consume during the week is being flushed over by a stream of alcohol every weekend. In order to heal, you need to create an environment inside of your body that will simply not allow your disease to survive inside of you.

MEAT & EGGSConsidering the prominence of such foods in our society, I realize that this is a touchy subject for many people. In this section I do not intend on shaming anyone for eating meat and eggs, but rather briefly share with you my experience with them and their effect on my skin and overall health.

When I first began my health journey years ago, meat and eggs were a staple in my diet and continued to be for about two years. In that time, I incorporated many of the great foods and habits mentioned earlier in this guide into my lifestyle, which resulted in a vast improvement in my skin and overall health.

With that said, I was never able to keep my skin completely clear for long. Although my disease was in a much better place, mild symptoms lingered. Then suddenly, after years of fairly clear skin, I experienced one of the worst breakouts I'd ever had after weeks of eating a little more meat and eggs than usual in an attempt to "bulk up".

This was the last straw for me and I decided to make the transition to a more plant-based diet. During my time eating meat and eggs, I had experimented on and off with eating a plant based diet, but didn't want to stop eating them for convenience purposes. Two months after I decided to go plant based, my skin had completely cleared and it has remained that way ever since.

The problem isn't so much with meat and eggs as it is with the corporations that are manufacturing and distributing these products. The animals that we are consuming are being pumped full of hormones and farmed in inhumane environments.These companies will do just about anything to improve their bottom line and our health as a society has paid for this negligence.

CONCLUSIONThe most important thing that you can take away from this guide, is an understanding of the benefits of adding a wide variety of nutrient dense whole foods to your diet. Although eliminating unhealthy foods from your diet is essential in the long run, it's what you are adding that is going to carry you toward a future free of skin disease and everything that comes with it.

If you are new to the idea of plant based eating, don't overwhelm yourself. Transitioning to a diet such as this one should not feel restrictive. Start by drinking lots of water and having one plant based meal a day and then expand on that as your knowledge of the subject grows. The last thing you want to do is become frustrated and give up on the only thing that is going to give you the results that you want.

Healing your skin is a long process that rides on the values of discipline, learning, and persistence. The change that you are in search of is not going to come to you overnight. You have to put forth the effort to learn and then have the discipline to become consistent in your practice. In time, you will find that living and eating this way takes no real effort at all. After you witness the effect it has on your skin and overall being, you will love what you've become and will have no temptations to return to your old habits. As you close the door on all of the foods that have beat you down, you open the door to an abundance of great foods that will lift you back up.