The Dietary Cure for Acne

Unlike a lot of diet book writers, Loren Cordain has a solid background in science and a thorough mastery of the history of what humans eat and how it affects them. I am 28 and suffer from a lot of acne --except when I stay on the eating plan that Cordain outlines in this book. It works. The only problems I have with it are that it is a very difficult diet to stick to if you are addicted to baked bread goods like I am, and that (as Cordain acknowledges elsewhere) it is not a diet that can feed 6.6 billion people. (It is just not possible for us to feed that many people without feeding some a lot of grain at this point.) But if you are lucky enough to live in the Western world and can afford to avoid eating grain, dairy, etc., this is a great plan to follow. Cordain's explanations of how certain foods affect your skin are extremely detailed. It was very helpful to read about why it is that some foods create problems for us rather than having to just take somebody's word for it. The pictures and diagrams are very colorful and balance some rather technical material. Please note that the book is shorter than your typical paperback.

I'm a Nutritional Biochemist in Australia with around 30 years' clinical experience. In practice, I have seen heart-breaking cases of acne and the despair that such a condition brings to the person afflicted by it. Equally, I despair that such patients have been advised that diet has nothing to do with the condition. Sadly that comment is born out of sheer ignorance. Simply cutting out the 'junk food', however, is not enough and 'The Dietary Cure for Acne' confirms this. When one understands how important it is to optimise the function of the cell by regulating pH, providing the correct fatty acid balance and glycaemic load among other things, the cells can start to work normally again. Loren Cordain's excellent book offers very effective therapy for acne but his principles apply equally to a host of other modern illnesses. The cellular imbalances which can lead to acne affect every cell of the human body. Because we are all born with different weaknesses, these cellular imbalances will be reflected in different diseases; one person may be susceptible to arthritis, another to asthma and yet others to acne. Yet in each case, restoring imbalances in cell function to normal may be all that is needed to correct the condition. There is nothing nore satisfying as a Clinician than to see patients respond, easily and naturally to seemingly-incurable conditions. Brilliant work Dr Cordain! 'The Dietary Cure for Acne' is a great read and appeals to both the technical and lay reader, especially readers who have struggled to find a long term solution to their skin problems. Adopting the principles described in the book comes with a bonus - a means of becoming well and staying well for the rest of your life - something that you could never achieve with drug therapy. Christine Houghton

Believe me over many years I have tried just about every acne drug and treatment and nothing works like the Paleo diet. This book actually explains the whole process of acne and how to avoid it. For the sake of skin and for your health... buy this book.

I have been suffering from acne for almost 20 years, mild to moderate, but very annoying case. I can honestly say I have been eating healthy all my life, but appears that wasn't enough. From personal experience I knew there was a great connection between food and acne. Finally there is scientific evidence and proof of that! The book is not a quick fix diet, but rather a life style, a long term goal of achieving clear skin and staying healthy for life! Prior to reading this book I have followed Dr. N. V. Perricone's anti-inflammatory diet plan for about 2 years. It kept my acne somewhat under control, but I still had occasional flare-ups. Dr. Cordain's diet plan is more restrictive, but not too hard to follow up if you already eat reasonably healthy (meaning whole foods). The book has a lot of scientific explanations, but at the end there is a simple list of foods to avoid, which most of health-conscious people don't eat anyway. There is a long list of food to eat and trust me, you will not be starving. You can eat reasonable amounts of food and loose weight if you are overweight and then maintain it for rest of your life. Think lifelong goal of healthy skin and the whole body rather than quick fix for a week or so. I can honestly say nothing works like a miracle. I follow Dr. Cordain's diet plan and it is a slow but steady progress. I almost don't get any new breakouts, skin looks brighter and smoother after about 2 months. This book is well worth to spend money for. Do good for your skin and whole body!

This book was amazing. I highly recommend it. Cordain explains his diet well, and I've never been so free of cravings in my life. In the first two weeks my skin became dramatically less oily and I started feeling better. Over the course of the next three months my skin cleared up dramatically, and I feel much better, particularly when following the diet. Once your acne clears up, it's great to have clear, visible feedback from your skin on how you're eating and whether it's healthy or not. My one warning is it did take more like three months for me to really see a difference. My gut feeling is that this was because for the first few months I would sometimes eat too much protein. Dr. Cordain mentioned in a recent newsletter that diets are often between 19-35% protein, so even though it's high protein, you can still get too much. I found on days after eating too much protein my skin was really dry and flaky. After a month of eating between 19 and 35% protein, my acne just totally cleared. It was totally amazing... Then I tried adding foods back in to my diet... and after one month... my acne came back, though different people have different thresholds before their acne returns. I, personally, enjoy being able to feel the difference in my health that the diet makes. It's so nice to be able to eat an unhealthy meal and feel it the next day. It makes behavior change so much easier. I have a friend who managed to resist all the Christmas treats on this diet, which she'd never been able to do before. Her acne also cleared up within a month. :) I think Cordain explains the diet and acne in a clear, understandable way. Yet, he is also a very respected scientist with published papers in Archives of Dermatology. I admire what he and Valerie Treloar and collaborators are trying to do, which is to engage in scientific discussion on the link between diet and acne. This book includes results from a three month study showing a paleo-like diet significantly reduced acne in many study participants. I'm impressed that Cordain waited for the scientific paper to come out before publishing the book. Even with the peer reviewed article though, there is still a LOT of debate around whether diet causes acne and what is or is not a healthy diet. I would recommend this book to anyone who has acne and would recommend this diet for any healthy adult to try, particularly with the clarification on protein. It's just given me a much better intuition of what is healthy and what is not and a much better intuition of what is healthy for me, personally--rather than just the average American Joe, who doesn't have acne at 25. It's going to take years before the scientific community agrees on what is or is not a healthy diet, and even then people still react differently to different foods. Currently, we really don't know what causes osteoporosis, which is why unless your dermatologist is really on the ball, you're not going to hear about the information in this book from him. I wou