Clear Skin Diet Can Help Achieve Ideal Weight

by Nina & Randa

The Clear Skin Diet is based on the diets of acne-free cultures - and it's also the diet that vegan researchers have used to successfully reverse a host of chronic diseases. You may know that we were inspired and shown this diet by John McDougall MD.

A few years back researchers in New Zealand decided to put this diet to the test, track results, and then publish them in a scientific journal. Called the Broad Study, the researchers randomly assigned a group of 65 patients in a medical practice to follow either the very lowfat plant-based diet, or continue with a standard diet.

The patients in the study had all been diagnosed with obesity or overweight, and at least one of type 2 diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, hypertension or hypercholesterolaemia. 

Regarding the plant-based diet they studied, researchers reported:

This dietary approach included whole grains, legumes, vegetables and fruits. Participants were advised to eat until satiation. We placed no restriction on total energy intake. Participants were asked to not count calories... We encouraged starches such as potatoes, sweet potato, bread, cereals and pasta to satisfy the appetite. Participants were asked to avoid refined oils (e.g. olive or coconut oil) and animal products (meat, fish, eggs and dairy products). We discouraged high-fat plant foods such as nuts and avocados, and highly processed foods. We encouraged participants to minimize sugar, salt and caffeinated beverages.

Researchers created a green light/red light graphic to illustrate the diet, which they included in the study:

So the diet was very similar to the Clear Skin Diet (CSD), although CSD doesn't just merely discourage high fat plant foods, but restricts them completely, at least while acne is being cleared.

Despite eating as much as they wanted with no restrictions, the lowfat plant-based group participants lost an average of 11.5 Kg (25.3 pounds) at one year. This is the largest weight loss of any randomized control trial where participants had no restriction on calories and were not required to exercise.

The participants of the BROAD study exchanged their standard Western diet for a very low-fat, whole food plant-based diet. Two of the lead authors, Dr. Luke Wilson and Dr. Nicholas Wright, were once trained as students at the McDougall Program in Santa Rosa, California.

 At 12 months those who changed their diets increased their quality of life, decreased their waist circumference by an average of 9 cm, and their medication usage by an average of 29%. Co-author, Dr. Nicholas Wright said, "The whole food plant-based approach shows very promising weight loss results, without suffering with hunger, that were sustained over a very long time (one year)."

You can read the full study here.

And you can watch a New Zealand video news report on the diet on this news site.