Oxide said:
Is that right, lifting makes tostesterone levels drop?
tilltheend - I believe there is a link between diet and acne. My friends who had gone to raw food got rid of acne very fast. May be it is the meat link?
I have tried the raw food diet.
I strongly believe the reason they found good results with the raw food diet isn't because they are eating raw food. It is because of the type of food the raw food diet eliminates. Refined carbs. In other words, foods with really HIGH glycemic load. Cookies, patatoe chips, breads, etc. Those are not raw foods, so they get left behind...however, it is the fact you're not eating these high glycemic load foods that is giving you the benefit...not the raw food itself.
As far as meat goes, I don't see a link personally. I enjoy eating quite a bit of meat without any noticeable acne breakouts. I guess it is possible with all the hormones/drugs some animals are injected with...but still highly unlikely.
Oxide said:
I would be interested in your idea as to what foods we should stay away from. please post
I can give you some examples that maybe you wouldn't think of. First is fruit juices. Even the "healthy" ones. Yes it is "healthy", but the problem lies in the fact that you are concentrating the fruit sugar when you drink just juice.
Nature gives us this wonderful way of mediating fruit sugar so we don't get high insulin resistance by eating a lot of it. It's called fiber. Juice is void of fiber and you're basically drinking sugar-water with vitamins. The vitamins are good, the sugar-water is bad. Even pure fruit juice is still bad, but the sweetened ones are terrible. Stick to whole fruit and you'll be fine and still enjoy fruit.
MOST fruits are fine, but minimize fruits like dates, figs, bananas. They have a really high glycemic load when compared to 90% of the fruits out there.
MOST vegetables are fine, but minimize root vegetables tubers/potatoes, carrots, parsnips, etc. They tend to have the highest GL.
Some obvious ones to avoid: cookies, most breads/bagels, chips, ALL candy, pop, most cereal and the list goes on.
There is honestly too much to go through and there are always compromises. For example with pizza: try thin crust pizza and don't eat the edges. You will cut out tons of carbs this way and make the effective glycemic load much smaller.
Look up "glycemic load" in google. You can find big charts listing various foods and you can see which are bad. You want to avoid foods with high glycemic load (that is glycemic LOAD and NOT glycemic index). A good rule of thumb is try to stick to foods that don't have a GL that is much higher than fruits.
Or you can look at the "allowed" foods to make it easier: meat, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds, butters/oils, fruits (with some exceptions), vegetables (with some exceptions), rolled oat rye breads (high fiber, not too many carbs). That is an excellent starting point.
I know it may seem overwhelming at first and it was to me. But now I am experienced with it and can immediately tell whether to avoid a food or not or if I should eat it in some moderation.