…before they were introduced to “processed” foods?
I have never really been plauged by acne but as I was reading in bed last night I intentionally scraped my forehead and noticed a little gleam of oil under my finger nail that glistened in the light from my bedside lamp. I immediately wondered how much “grease” I actually had on my forehead and proceeded to scrape my face with the edge of my credit card. In swipe after swipe I noticed that there was a thin line of oil present on the edge of the card. I figured that since I don’t have a problem with acne, a certain amount of this oil must be present to lubricate(?) my skin and may not be just a product of the greasy food that I eat, as I have been lead to believe in the past.
This got me thinking…is/was acne common for indiginous tribes as a natural part of puberty(if not, was is it a natural reaction to food processing, i.e. concentrated portions of fat present in butter, etc.), or was was it a rare occurance?
In other words, when the Europeans brought their diseases to the Americas and elsewhere, did they also bring eating habits that were mor conducive to acne?
There is also the possibility that acne is a natural condition that can be exacerbated buy such actions as not washing the face or genetic predisposition.