Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Daily health gyan: acne scare

One girl once told me, in a class where I keep dates for those people who skip a meal and feel weak while doing yoga, that her grandmother warned her that dates on empty stomach cause acne. Now whenever the old school people (I love grandmother's advice, it is packed with wisdom of the ages) say something I sit up and immediately take note of what they are saying. I thought she had something there. I know at least two young girls in my class who eat either fruit or date first thing in the morning. One has eruptions all over the skin, even cheeks and chin. I don't think she believes me when I say fruit on empty stomach is bad for those with skin problem. She specialises in the health industry and this is not what modern health gurus are saying..

But I knew I was onto to something. I searched about and found this out:
When anything sugary (date is high sugar, as also fruits) is taken on an empty stomach, there is a toss up in metabolism. Sugary things leave acidic residue. And the body wants to get rid it off it fast. The easiest route for this desperate attempt by the body is through the skin. Apparently, within 12 hours after such consumption, if you are prone to it, you are going to get big time acne! The body is trying to remove the acid residue left by the sugar and is throwing it out of the skin, or is trying to.

This makes a lot of sense to me.

I have never heard of yoga advising you to have sugar on empty stomach (any way, yoga goes with ayurveda on this and some things are not good for each dosha and so yoga does not have a flat rule except where it works for all doshas). At sadhana intensive we used to have almond milk, a watery concoction of very very light milk (u could hardly taste the milk in it) with ground, skinned almonds. That held us (and we were doing sadhana intensive imagine, in extreme cold, and yet, we could survive it all on this as the first power drink for the day) till our breakfast was  offered around ten.

So, those with acne actually have blood sugar issues -- which may explain why this becomes topsy turvy for women around the time of periods where the blood sugar usually drops and therefore the sugar worsens this mess-up even further. So, S, if you are reading this, I hope u are convinced:)


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shameem thanks for your advice I am sure if not that person someone else will learn from it.

Question- how long did U all wait before doing yoga after you had light milk and skinned almonds?.

Question- Can one put honey in the morning tea?good or bad.
Thankyou

sonia samtani said...

will stop dating in the morning forever :)

YOGA IN EVERYTHING said...

Sonia, that blog was written for u.
And anon. about honey.. honey in anything hot is said to be rather unhealthy, according to naturopathy..
in the almond milk, a bit of that masala stuff is usually added, cardamom, to keep u cool. Nothing else is needed, since cardamom, like cinnamon, in ayurveda is a `sweet' spice. Honey is also high calorie. And then, honey has to be raw.. most honey we get is processed, purified, so all the stuff in it that is healthy is said to be removed. that is all i know of the stuff.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Shameem for your response. Even though the honey I have is raw but will not put in hot stuff tea etc.
My second question was how long do one wait before doing yoga after milk water and almonds such as you written.
Normally I wait for hour and half after a such snack drink just wondering what the pros do .Maybe I donot need to wait long if its not needed.
Thanks Again and hugs for all the info you provide.

YOGA IN EVERYTHING said...

immdiately after yoga.. of course -- even meals may be had immediately after

Anonymous said...

Oh so this drink and almonds were after the yoga not before .
I missunderstood when you wrote"first power drink for the day"
Thanks

YOGA IN EVERYTHING said...

whatever. while doing yoga sadhana, we are doing sadhana the whole day.. so the before and after u raise about almond does not raise for those of us.. i do not eat anything before yoga.. how stupid that would be ..