Diet = Skin I How it all started

As a person with acne I was always on the lookout for new products and DIY remedies to try (if you have acne, you probably know what I mean), but I am a person that likes to look at the root cause of things, look deeper than the skin itself ( it's not easy to do that due to the media advertising all kinds of creams and potions).

But I never got to change my diet that much just because it's not easy to change habits and flavours we love, but that was until about 6 months ago, when I wanted to have more energy in the morning, and started to juice carrots for breakfast. And let me tell you, it made such a huge difference to my skin, just this one thing. I did that for about a month and my skin looked better than in a really long time, even on that special time of the month I didn't have any large breakouts. Then I stopped because juicing can be time consuming in the morning and after some time my skin was back to how it used to be.

Now, I'm not telling you to start juicing carrots every morning (though you can try that), the bottom line is that this change made me really think about the link between diet and how the skin looks. I've always noticed that I had a few new breakouts after sleepless nights, parties with drinking, but somehow people get used to it and not think too much about it.

Why I think the carrots worked:

• Vitamin A

Carrots contain a lot of beta carotene, which we partially convert to vitamin A, which is very important for the health of our skin. Just saying that retinol is used topically on skin and Accutane is a strong form of vitamin A. But as I've read more, for just vitamin A to make a huge difference, it would take a lot more than just a glass of carrot juice.

• Fiber

A while back I read on The Detox Diva blog that the fiber of a carrot is special in a way it binds used hormones (especially estrogen) so it effectively gets flushed out of our system. Inside I was like Aha! , since most of my big breakouts were around that time of the month. Now I know that juicing is supposed to get the fiber out of a carrot, but my juicer is old so it leaves some fiber in. Either way it worked!

What you can do:

Try drinking carrot juice, putting it in smoothies or raw soups (it has to be uncooked) or just snacking on it.  But you have to add a tiny bit of oil to your carrot juice, since vitamin A is fat soluble. 

Maybe it will work for you, as for me it made me realize the link between skin and diet inspiring me to try new things in my diet, but more on that later!