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Ah, the years spent trying to find the perfect face cream.

Either they all have too much of this and not enough of that. Or the other way around.

Or they just plain old have too many chemicals in them. That’s how it was for me.

I tried everything from drugstore brands, over pharmacy brands, all the way to organic ones.

And they all gave me some kind of reaction. Not enough moisture, not enough fat, or too much of both. Some felt like a plastic wrap around my face, some I could have just used water, leaving my skin dry like sandpaper. Crazy zits, or a full-blown break out.

But not even once have I found a commercial face cream that does what I want it to: moisturize my face and leave it break out free.

It was actually only quite recently that I was formally diagnosed with rosacea, which is (yet another) auto-immune disease. One more for the list! But I suspect I’ve had it most of my life, to a lesser extent, of course.

To make a long story short, I (of course) left the dermatologists office with a shopping bag full of creams and chemical potions worth more than a small african country’s entire annual GDP. Which I did use for about a month – 6 weeks.

The funny thing is, NOTHING happened. Nothing got better in my face, and the rosacea got worse rather than better during this time. So I went back to the doctors after a couple of weeks, and left again with the advice to try for a little longer.

After six weeks there still was no improvement at all. So I stopped wasting my time using expensive chemical products that didn’t help anyway.

My next question was, of course, what should I use instead? Having tried pretty much every face cream under the sun (don’t get me started on sunscreen!), what was I going to try next with the likelihood of it being yet another flop?

I started researching this extensively. Read pages upon pages of medical research, peer-reviewed articles, blatant advertisements and countless threads on various online forums.

It wasn’t until I hit a blog post by a girl who had similar problems to myself that I found what was to become my thus far most successful face cream yet – coconut oil.

Yes, after having tried face creams that were too fatty, I have joined the chorus on coconut oil as face cream. 

I even use it to “wash” off my make up in the evenings, it removes waterproof mascara like no other. And my skin doesn’t get fat, oily and more prone to breakouts as one might think, rather the opposite.

My skin has another glow to it, it’s incredibly soft, my eye lashes are longer (yay for proper nutrition!) and my rosacea is easier to handle. While it isn’t completely gone, it’s much, much better than with the chemical storm I put it through earlier this year.

I’ve now turned to completely natural skin care, with coconut oil being my no. 1 weapon. I get mine from the cooking section at my health food store. And, as a peeling/skin mask, I use baking soda with a few drops of water, which works better for me than anything else I’ve tried.

By doing this, you know what the biggest bonus is for me, apart from soft skin? All the money I’ve saved. The tub of coconut oil I have in my bathroom now I bought in January (I think), and it’s about half full still. For CHF 10 (USD 11.22  or EUR 8.18). Pretty crazy, right?

Over all, coconut oil is truly an amazing product, both inside and outside the kitchen. And it’s done an amazing job for my skin.

 

Do you have any skin care tips? I’d love to know what you use!

There are a lot of suggestions of what we should eat, what we shouldn’t eat and what we should perhaps, maybe eat (but only if it has a pinch of seaweed on it).

These things are generally dubbed “diets” and are equally generally incredibly misleading.

What seems to have stuck around as a guide is the food pyramid, first published in Sweden in 1974. And it honestly hasn’t changed much since 1992. The idea is that you “should” eat most of what’s on the bottom of the pyramid, and least of what’s at the top.

For this post I’m going to play a game. I’m going to imagine that I get to reassess the food pyramid, and that I get to recommend a new, updated, healthy version. You game?

Good. Let’s get started.

 

 

So, lets start with the easy part: what’s wrong with the food pyramid we’re currently meant to follow?

Firstly, I find it outdated for today’s society. For our (mostly, and, sadly, increasingly) sedentary lifestyle we don’t need that much energy, as provided by that much carbohydrate. Sitting by the computer, occasionally using your brain, does not burn as much energy as manual farming did or hunting and gathering food did for our forefathers.

These carbs are furthermore all refined, making them completely different from what grains and wheat used to look like only a few generations ago. And “5-12 servings” of grains per day is absurd to me! That’s way too much.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know my view on grains by now. If you haven’t, let’s just cut it down to that, in my opinion, they raise your blood sugar too much for it to be healthy, and elevated blood sugar (once your body can’t handle it anymore) means… Yupp, Type 2 Diabetes. And, yupp, this also includes the “healthy” whole grains, brown rices and whole wheat breads. Essentially, all grains do a similar thing to your body as candy, cakes and ice cream does. Just a little slower.

And if you’re concerned about not getting enough energy from carbs by shutting grains out of the equation, the majority of vegetables do have carbohydrates. Just not as much in one serving. For example, an avocado, while technically a fruit, on average has ca 17 grams of carbohydrates. And it will fill you up plenty, unlike the often 80-100 grams of carbohydrate pasta servings needed to achieve the same goal: fill you up.

Speaking of avocado: there’s not nearly enough healthy fat in this pyramid. Fat is needed by your body for energy, to build things like enzymes and hormones (especially sex hormones, explaining why low-fat eaters often “don’t feel like it” – their bodies can’t build enough hormones!), to cushion your muscles from your bones and to provide insulation, to mention a few things. In short: your body needs fat! 

What about the proteins? Where’s the meat, chicken, fish? Almost at the top! This means there isn’t nearly enough proteins for your body to rebuild itself, to repair injuries and renew cells. And, once and for all, eggs are not harmful, they are amazing sources of many nutrients that are difficult to get elsewhere.

To clarify, I’m not saying you should eat only proteins (my name isn’t “Atkins”, after all), as that can be harmful as well, but it definitely should be more than this pyramid is advocating in any case.

So many processes in the body are steered by fatty acids and amino acids (fats and proteins), and there are essential forms of both. In this case, essential means that they have to be added to the body through food, as it can’t produce them itself. Whereas there are no essential forms of carbohydrates or sugars.

Ok, I realise I’m being a Negative Nancy here. Is there anything positive with this pyramid at all?

Yes. One thing: the only thing I wouldn’t rearrange on this pyramid is the sweets – I’d keep them up there at the top, or, better  yet, remove them completely.

Recently, there has been an attempt at “revolutionising” the pyramid, through Myplate.gov. Did it get much better though?

 

 

My initial reaction is: why oh why spend a ton of money on developing this, when it’s essentially exactly the same as the pyramid? It’s not majorly improved, nor healthier.

At least it doesn’t specifically say one should eat 60% grains with every meal (which diabetes patients are STILL commonly told, although they are unable to process sugar (grains = sugar)!) – at least that’s something.

I still wonder why it’s advised to drink milk with every meal though? Calcium, I bet your guess is. But calcium is, to a large extent, found in dark leafy green vegetables, seeds, nuts, herbs, some with a higher calcium content than milk! And while calcium is essential to bone health, it’s not the only thing needed for strong bones, either.

Moving on. If all this is crap, how would you make it look, Hanna?

Well, wow. Thanks for asking!

I consider myself lucky, because luckily you and I don’t have to follow the old ways, we both live in a free world. And what foods you spend your money on is what you’re voting to see more of in the stores.

I also consider myself lucky, because although I’ve made many modified pyramids while studying nutrition, I recently found an amazing version of the food pyramid already made by Paleohacks.  This, my friend, is more according to what I see as being healthy food for me, you, and every one we know.

 

As you can see, there are NO grains and NO sweets on there, just the way I like it! The sweetest and sugariest you’ll find here is fruit and some carbier vegetables.  There’s masses of low-carb vegetables, good, healthy fats and proteins, as well as nutritious nuts and seeds. Not to forget though: drinking water and daily exercise. A lot of clean, fresh water and a daily walk.

This is what is going to keep you healthier. This is what’s going to heal you. Mostly eating vegetables low in sugar, not grains turning into sugar the moment it hits your mouth. Not processed, yet acclaimed “super foods”. It’s real, healthy, natural food. And lots of it. Remember: proteins and fats are what your body needs, they are essential to add.

The best thing is that this pyramid is so clear and well made that there can’t be a doubt of what you should go for and not.

This is pretty much what I eat and what I follow to feel the best that I can feel. So now you know my secret. If you’d like to tell me one of your (food) secrets, please feel free – I’d love to hear it! And: what do you think of the Food Pyramid? Is it something you pay attention to?