Identical Twins Cured Their Cystic Acne With A Vegan Diet
Identical twins who suffered from horrific cystic acne reveal how they cleared their skin and banished blemishes with a vegan no-fat, no-oil diet
A pair of identical twin sisters who have forged successful careers as YouTube stars have revealed how they cured their painful and swollen cystic acne in just a few months simply by changing their diet.
YouTubers Nina and Randa Nelson, 22, were raised eating a vegan diet, and were therefore used to avoiding animal products such as dairy and red meat, which are known to contribute to blemishes and oily skin. Yet, having gone through high school almost completely free from spots and blemishes, at the age of 20 in the spring of 2014, the girls suddenly found themselves struggling with severe and painful breakouts.
Over the ensuing months, the Los Angeles-based pair tried a myriad of different cleansers, topical medications, antibiotics and more as they consulted several dermatologists about their condition. But nothing seemed to work.
The girls, who are both actresses and singers, were particularly dismayed by the issue as it caused them to lose confidence when it came to performing.
Eventually the girls were told that they had exhausted their options for acne treatment and were told to go on controversial acne drug Accutane, which was formerly known as a ‘wonder cure’ for acne, but has also been known to cause hair loss, cracked lips and has even been linked to serious depression.
‘There has to be another alternative,’ the girls explain in the introductory video about their acne journey. ‘We thought, it has to be something we’re putting into our body. But what is it? We don’t know. We are already vegan, what should we do?’
It was then that the girls’ father encouraged them to look up diet specialist Dr. John McDougall, who previously had helped their mother overcome a debilitating autoimmune disease a few years before - which was, as it happens, the reason the family began following a strict plant-based diet.
When they visited the doctor’s website, they saw the claims he made about how acne could, in fact, be eliminated through diet alone. Mainly, he recommended the elimination of foods containing oils and fats of any kind.
Even though the girls were vegan, they did eat foods containing fats - even so-called healthy fats - such as dairy-free peanut butter, avocados and soy milk and other soy foods. But after reading Dr. McDougall’s warnings about how fats of any kind could trigger acne, they realized they needed to cut fats and oils from their diet altogether.
‘What Dr. McDougall said on his website about acne and excess fats made complete sense to us, so we tried it,’ they explained.
And while they were hopeful that the diet would help their acne issues in the long run, they were stunned when they began to see results after just three days of switching to a no-fat regimen.
‘Within three days, we had no new breakouts!’ they explain in their video. ‘It was [then] just a matter of healing up the scars.’
The girls were so blown away by the results that they ‘cried of happiness’ as the results seemed to hold.
Now, the girls’ main meals consist of brown rice with vegetables, whole wheat and rice pasta, potatoes, sweet potatoes, condiments and various types of beans.
In order to maintain their weight, the girls also eat extra fruit, dried fruit, and regularly drink smoothies mixed with oats.
Aside from their inspiring acne story, the girls are known by their 200,000 subscribers for their music, their make-up tutorials and various adventure vlogs.
The pair also recently received some attention after claiming that fellow social media star Essena O’Neill’s much-publicized exit from Instagram and YouTube - where she decried the mediums for being ‘fake’ - was, in fact, a hoax brought on by her heartbreak over a short relationship with a Disney star going sour.
Read more:
- NinaAndRanda - YouTube
- Dr. McDougall’s Health & Medical Center » Nina & Randa Nelson: Cure Embarrassing Acne & Oily Skin
- @ninaandranda • Instagram photos and videos
- How We CURED Our ACNE - Nina and Randa - YouTube