Annemarie Colbin, in her book “Food and Healing”, makes the interesting point that diets themselves, even healing diets, are not a cure per se. They do often work, but their route to health is actually a product of supporting the body’s own healing processes.
Her view on skin conditions like acne is interesting. She sees acne as a result of the regular organs of elimination, the kidneys and lungs, being unable to eliminate all the toxic waster matter that we ingest into our bodies. She sees certain foods, like those that make up what she calls the Standard American Diet, as placing too great a stress on our body’s ability to process them, at least if symptoms of ill health are appearing like acne. She has found from her own observations that a change in diet often clears up even the large, purplish types of acne. She found this with her own experiences with acne. Annemarie says it takes about ten days to three months to work.
Annemarie describes acne as falling into two main causes in her approach. The first is associated with fat, protein and excess sugar. Here she recommends eliminating foods like milk, cheese, ice cream, fatty meats,...