Ravishing & Flourishing: The Beautiful Benefits of Healthy Fats
You’ve tried everything to clear your acne. You have done the restrictive diet, cut out the common acne triggers like gluten, dairy, and sugar, and piled on the products until all you’re left with is frustration and disappointing results. What went wrong?
Chances are that chronic acne isn’t caused or triggered by just one thing. It’s more likely to be a combination of such factors as diet, sleep, stress, toxin exposure, pore-clogging skincare, and internal imbalances, which is likely why specific food eliminations might not be producing the results you hoped for. Chronic acne is typically multi-faceted, making a holistic approach that includes healthy diet and lifestyle choices the best way to promote healing.
The other problem with eliminating this or that food is that we often overlook all the skin-boosting foods we can—and should—include in our diets. Flipping the strategy on its head—from restriction to addition—can make a significant difference!
The skinny on fats
One surprising skin superfood that we can add into our diets for glowing skin is fat. In Western culture, fat has long been considered the enemy, but more and more research is showing that we’ve read fat all wrong. While you should steer clear of refined oils and limit saturated fats, high-quality healthy fats like avocado, olive oil, grass-fed butter and ghee, wild-caught fish, and nuts and seeds are essential to a well-balanced diet, especially for those struggling with acne.
Consuming adequate omega-3 fatty acids decreases inflammation, may improve inflammatory skin conditions, and may even help to eliminate stubborn acne. These fats are especially abundant in cold water fatty fish such as sardines, salmon, mackerel, tuna, anchovies, and black cod. Additionally, avoiding processed seed oils that are rich in omega-6 fatty acids can also help to reduce inflammatory skin conditions.1
Fabulous, functional fat/Fat-tastic and Functional
Blood sugar in balance Including healthy fats in your meals doesn’t just make them more satisfying: healthy fats keep blood sugar and insulin levels balanced, which is foundational to decreasing inflammation and healing the skin naturally. Blood sugar truly runs the show when it comes to hormone and skin health, and when blood sugar levels are balanced, mood is stabilized, sugar cravings are kept at bay, hormones can be balanced, and inflammation will decrease.
Hormone helper Fat and cholesterol are also important for skin health as they are the building blocks for the hormones estrogen and progesterone,2 both of which play a large role in calm and happy skin. Progesterone is not just an essential element in achieving and maintaining pregnancy. Think of progesterone as your calm friend that helps keeps everything balanced. It reduces inflammation, promotes sleep, calms the nervous system, and makes it easier to cope with stress,2 all of which can be directly linked to our skin. When you include healthy fats in your diet, you are providing more raw materials to build, repair, and balance hormones within the body.
Gut repair The health of the gut can also be behind the state of our skin. If you are struggling with any type of digestive issues, making sure to include healthy fats can go a long way in helping to repair damage to the gut. Intestinal permeability—microscopic tears in the lining of your gut that allow bacteria, toxins, and food proteins to enter the body, causing overstimulation of the immune system resulting in inflammatory cytokines3—can be significantly prevented by included vitamin and nutrient-dense healthy fats that help reduce inflammation. With a decrease in inflammation the gut can repair itself, can better handle stress, and your skin reaps the benefits!
Get excited about healthy fat:
Add melted butter and ghee to smoothies
Add MCT oil and collagen to coffee
Eat fish 2–3 times per week (especially cold-water fatty fish)
Add avocado, nuts, and seeds to salads
Make nut butters your go-to dippers
Roast veggies in avocado oil or ghee
Chew on this: How does fat make you feel?
It can be hard to get our minds around embracing fat when many of us grew up believing all fats were undesirable. If you’re having trouble making the transition to a whole foods diet that includes healthy fats, ask yourself the following questions to get to the root of your worries:
How do I feel about my current eating habits?
Have I added healthy fat to my meals and snacks today? How did I feel after I ate?
Am I fearful that a certain food will trigger my breakouts? Has cutting out this food, in fact, ever made me feel better or decreased my breakouts?
Which days do I feel my best? What, how, and what am I eating those days?
What nourishing foods can I focus on to support my body and skin?
Healing chronic acne is rarely about one solution: with a holistic approach that includes healthy fats, you can bring your skin and hormones back into balance and achieve the happiest skin of your life. Checking in with your healthcare provider to rule out other underlying issues is also a great starting point. Remember, healing is not always rapid or linear—it may take a while to notice progress. Be gentle with yourself, add in a few dollops of healthy fat each day, and watch the changes take place. Clear, calm, happy skin is just one of the great results of a whole-body protocol that includes healthy fats!
Big love,
Caralyn
Want more nutrition support? Join the Acne Reset: 10 weeks to reset your skin with Caralyn, Acne Expert.
