Am I chewing my food properly?

Your mouth is the first step to
digestion. The saliva in your mouth was designed to moisten
food as it makes its way to the stomach. The better the mouth
performs its job, the better the stomach will perform its and so
on in the digestive system.

So give your nutrients a head start
by chewing at least 25 times. (Studies have shown that
chewing your food correctly also aids weight loss because
more of the nutrients in the food are exposed to enzymes so
that the body can use them.

Also, properly chewed food creates
more volume, which hastens the feeling of satiety).

Are my acne lesions like volcanoes?

Does my skin seem extra dry?

You may not be digesting protein correctly. Before taking
enzymes you should make certain with your health care
provider that they will not devastate your stomach or other
components of your digestive system.

There are several enzymes available in health food stores. Some are designed
specifically for carbohydrates, milk or protein.

You can do without the manufactured enzymes by eating more raw foods
that contain natural enzymes such as papaya, grapes and a
whole array of other fresh fruits and vegetables. Or better yet,
just use your teeth to rip your food apart into tiny pieces so that
more surface area of the food is exposed, and more of it gets
digested properly.

Do you eat when you are not hungry or overeat?

Overeating is the
easiest way to stress out the liver. If the liver is overworked, it
cannot perform its primary job of filtering the blood. So what
happens, toxins in the blood such as peptides from
incompletely digested proteins have free reign.

This means your body sends in antibodies to control these toxins and an
antibody attack manifests itself in the form of inflammation.
Acne is inflammation. So do yourself and liver a favor, eat
only when and what you need.

Once you have addressed these key digestion questions, you can go on
to develop a diet that best suits you body type and nutritional needs by
determining your food tolerances.

The upcoming chapter is designed
to help you decide what foods will work best for you and in the
process help reduce the occurrence of diet-induced acne. But, before
we start to remove or add foods to our diet, it is crucial to know how
the nutrients in our diet my trigger or relieve acne conditions. So lets
look at various nutrients and their relation to acne.