2009-10-16

Alkaline Diet and Rosacea


Due to its cleansing nature, many people have turned to the alkaline diet as a way to combat Rosacea. The alkaline diet consists almost entirely of cleansing vegetables, low sugar fruits, pure water, soups and juices, salads, omega oils etc and as such it provides the skin with all of the nutrition it needs to remain healthy.

It has been widely recognised that Rosacea is in the large part a vascular problem whereby Rosacea blood vessels change in terms of their function and their structure.

As ever, when assessing the potential for an alkaline diet to lessen the problem it just so happens, once again, that acids such as sugar, coffee, tea, alcohol, trans (and other bad) fats and cigarettes are predominantly the cause of vascular dilation/flushing. For instance it has been noted that fizzy drinks and junk drinks containing aspartame and or artificial sweeteners cause excessive redness in approximately 30% of rosacea sufferers and should be cut out entirely.

Stimulants such as coffee, tea, alcohol, cigarettes, and excessive sugar from sweets and soda are vascular dilators, the cause of vascular dilation, or flushing, and should be avoided as they are all “acidic foods” or “toxins”. Once these food are consumed, they wreak havoc in our body.

Obviously you have figured out that they are very acidic and you need alkaline foods and drinks to neuralize the acids given off naturally by exercise, walking or any movement (lactic acid) and to neuralize the large amount of “acidic foods and drinks” that we “like or are used to consuming” and wish to continue.

Sodas (soft drinks, pop) containing aspartame and or NutraSweet cause excessive redness in approximately 30% of rosacea sufferers and should be avoided. Anything that affects the entire body, brain, and nervous system to awaken it in the morning or stimulate it during the day can easily stimulate the sebaceous glands to secrete more oil that has to leave the body via the pores. Also, stimulants create stress, redness, flushing, rosacea papules and acne pimples.

In their book Rosacea: Your Self-Help Guide Arlen Brownstein, Donna Shoemaker highlight nutrition as a prinicple piece of the jigsaw in fighting Rosacea. They recommend a series of suggestions that sound eerily like embarking on an alkaline diet for rosacea:

  • Eat a diet high in fibre, with plenty of raw and lightly steamed vegetables, and whole grains such as brown rice, millet, buckwheat, oats, amaranth, quinoa and spelt.
  • Use fresh vegetable juices. Consider buying a juicer and a book on juicing.
  • Eat berries (low sugar fruits), e.g. bilberry, blueberry, blackberry, etc. for vitamin C and bioflavonoid content.
  • Avoid foods which cause flushing, e.g. hot drinks, spicy foods, alcohol, coffee.
  • Avoid beef, pork, lamb and the skin of chicken and turkey, as well as dairy produce. These promote inflammation.
  • Avoid fried foods for the same reason.
  • Avoid salt and sugar.
  • Allow food to cool slightly before eating it.
  • A vegetarian or vegan diet may be best suited.

They also go on to suggest:

  • A multivitamin and multimineral
  • An antioxidant formula
  • Digestive Enzymes, and
  • An omega oil blend

THIS IS LITERALLY THE ALKALINE DIET!

* Article taken from http://www.energiseforlife.com/wordpress/2006/04/30/the-alkaline-diet-and-rosacea/

2 comments:

  1. It is recommended that you start of your day with alkaline diet recipes that can be blended into a drink. The idea behind this is that the liquid form of these nutrients is more easily assimilated by the body

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  2. It’s really an amazing and informative article regarding Alkaline Diet and Rosacea.I appreciate your posted topic.Thank you for sharing this well described article.

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