In the previous post, I talked about how the body processes food differently given the biological characteristics we were born with being transfered to us by our parents. And that explains why some of the typical hereditary health problems we face are related to digestive issues and we all have a natural tendency to take the path of least resistance by kowtowing to it, assuming that we are all a victim of this hereditary disease and there is nothing we can do about it. And that also includes severe acne that a lot of people face today. If you suffer from persistent acne, there is a good chance that one of your parents and grandparents suffered from it. This type of tendency for acne development is all reflected in our hereditary and dietary patterns that are passed down from one generation to the next. Today I am going to continue where I left off in the previous post to show you how to perform a Chinese tongue diagnosis to give you early indications of potential causes of acne symptoms that you should be aware of and alert you to implement a modification of diet to minimize the extremeness of the symptoms of toxicity that could worsen if it is not addressed early. Look at tongue diagnosis as a satellite weather map that accurately pinpoints potential skin health problems lurking in your body that the naked eye cannot see.
My dad suffered from severe acne when he was a kid, and I remembered him telling me how extreme it was and the remedies his mother would provide him as a kid. My dad grew up poor in Hong Kong. He would tell me that his diet routine consisted Chinese rice porridge for three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner with small amounts of meats and vegetables. And he told how he awfully dreaded the rice soup diet as a kid, and how he would find himself drooling on many occasions when the delicious aroma of cooked food emanating from the restaurants filled his sensitive nose. I can understand how my dad felt. Surviving a diet on rice porridge is almost like going on a liquid fasting diet every day. A couple days of solely living on healthy rice soup will have you developing solid food cravings in not time.
But what he noticed was that a detox cleansing fast on rice porridge was the best way to get rid of acne fast without feeling starved. Even though he had gradually fading acne scars, he would notice an improvement in skin texture and smoother appearance. I am pretty sure you have seen women with mild acne and smooth skin. That is exactly what I am talking about.
For those of you who don’t know what rice porridge is, it is called Jook (in Cantonese). Most Chinese restaurants serve it. It is very delicious. The recipe for Rice porridge is just like cooking rice. The only difference is that you are only taking a small handful of raw rice and approximately 8 cups of water or more. And the rice is simmered on very low heat with your healthy choice of meat ( or none if you choose to abstain from meat ) for two to three hours until it becomes semi thick or soupy. You can add Chicken broth and salt to make it tasty.
The Chinese have eaten Jook traditionally to treat internal heat inflammation symptoms and colon inflammation. And internal heat symptoms are the primary causes of acne and a host of other skin problems. Internal heat symptoms? What the hell is internal heat symptoms you ask? For example, if I had you eating fried chicken for the next two days without no vegetables, you will suffer from excessive internal heat. And even if you had a lot of vegetables, you will still have it. The reason why is because Fried Chicken is cooked at extremely, extremely high temperature. According to the principles of traditional Chinese medicine, the toxic heat elements (as a result of the deep frying process) that is imbued in the chicken is transferred into your body when you consume it. Now compare that with boiled chicken where the heat temperature is very low compared to the unhealthy cooking method of fried chicken. Now do you see my point?
Consuming anything fried, grilled, roasted, barbecued, and baked, utilizes extremely high temperature unhealthy cooking practices that removes the water content from the food. Anything boiled or steamed utilizes the maximum heat temperature of water. But the only difference is that the boiled and steamed food retains water. And water cools down very fast.
Now you see why so many Americans suffer from inflammation symptoms? If you have ever been to San Francisco Chinatown, you see a lot of Americans going to the overcrowded Chinese herb shops to buy American Ginseng and a multitude of Chinese herbal remedies. I am pretty sure there are Chinatowns all over the US with the same kinds of herb shops. And you are wondering what is the purpose behind the healing power of American Ginseng? What it’s known to do is dramatically reduce internal heat that causes internal inflammation. A lot of Americans are catching on to the miraculous inflammation healing power of American Ginseng due to the nature of this extremely cooling herb to treat intestinal heat constipation. Heat constipation is a symptom where the heat in the intestines dries up the fluids resulting in dry stools. “Excuse me for being so graphic”…. the most memorable line from the infomercial of Klee Irwin, the creator of the Dual Action Cleanse colon cleansing solution.
But please do me a favor, do not mistake American Ginseng for Korean Ginseng or Chinese Ginseng. The latter two are more of a heating stimulant. They are the exact opposite of American Ginseng. Just remember that American Ginseng is a very cooling herbal extract in the form of tea.
So you can draw the conclusion that consuming Korean or Chinese Ginseng ( both are heating herbs) after an unhealthy meal of fried chicken meal is a definite NO NO!!! And by doing that would aggravate internal heat sickness. The perfect analogy I can use in this example is like adding more fuel to the fire.
According to the principles of Chinese internal medicine, acne, pimples, Rosacea, excessively oily skin, oily acne prone skin, dry skin, dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis, and host of other skin ailments are a direct result of intense internal heat symptoms aggravated by consuming excessive amounts of extreme heat-induced toxic foods that fall the category of FRIED, GRILLED, ROASTED, BARBECUED, BAKED, AND PAN FRIED.
I remember some time ago watching a Proactive Solutions infomercial where those dermatologists rejected the idea that acne is caused by diet. That was some time ago when Proactive Solutions came out for the first time. I think it was about 1996 when I tried Proactive for the first time. But I am sure today, the same dermatologists changed their opinion about the importance of diet being a major factor on radiant skin health. I truly believed as time evolved, they have been constantly educating themselves on the subject of skin health and eventually made some shocking dietary skin care discoveries just like I did later on in my life regarding the importance of detoxification.
And at that time, I remembered not knowing the exact meaning of a healthy way of eating. As a matter of fact, I honestly didn’t care at all. I was eating unhealthy foods like hot dogs and hamburgers almost every day. No wonder why it resulted in my acne getting worse despite my persistent use of this effective acne product that did nothing for me at all. I had excessively oily skin, a problem Proactive couldn’t solve. The reason why I say “effective product” was because a lot of people have gotten great results from that acne remedy. And till this day, Proactive Solutions is still a best selling product with constantly rising new stars like Jessica Simpson and more endorsing it. They already have their own dominated market share of satisfied customers.
If I can use a perfect analogy to describe why Proactiv doesn’t work for me, it is like me trying to fill a bucket with water with a hole at the bottom. And that hole at the bottom of that bucket was the hamburgers, hot dogs and the fried chicken I have been eating every single day. Maybe if I was eating semi healthy foods, the product may or may have not worked. And I can bet that all the people appearing as featured testimonials in the Proactive Solutions infomercials have embarked on an acne cure diet in order to see results. You never hear those customer testimonials talk about their dietary changes for acne treatment on live national TV.
And correct me if I am wrong. I can bet that when you have called to place your very first order for Proactive Solutions, before you could get a chance to hang up the phone, the operator offered you some special deal on vitamins for acne and other supplements to go with the acne product. And I am so sure that they have told you the importance of skin health and diet and they are using this as their sales pitch to sell you acne relief supplements. And now I can see why a lot of people are seeing some results. And at that time when I had placed my first order, I remembered telling the operator that I was only interested in just the acne product and nothing else.
And I remember at that same time also there were infomercials about the tongue scraper. And those so-called oral hygiene experts made the claim that this tongue scraper that looked no different than the hand held shaver would help you get rid of bad breath by aiding in the removal of the foul smelling tongue coating called halitosis. Do I need to say more? You could have saved yourself some money by using your toothbrush effectively and taking advantage of the detoxification secrets of fresh fruits or freshly squeezed fruit juices on an empty stomach.
I have done my share of tongue scraping and I do it every morning as I am brushing my teeth. But regardless of how much tongue coating you are capable of scraping off, if your body is toxic from the burden of food related ill health and hard to digest foods, the tongue coating will reappear if you decide to continue your day with the same indigestible foods of a toxic nature that you had the day before.
Due to the extreme length of this post as a results of my ramblings, I promise you on the next post that I am going to focus entirely on tongue diagnosis to help you detect oncoming toxins that lead to acne, skin problems and a host of other health issues and the acne preventive measures you should take to bring them to a screeching halt!!
Billy Loi
