Woody Harrelson's Vegan Acne Cure

Actor and hemp advocate Woody Harrelson has been a vegan for almost 25 years, but it was vanity that got him started down the path, not animal rights.

Harrelson tell Maxim magazine, "It's been at least 20 years. I used to eat burgers and steak, and I would just be knocked out afterward; I had to give it up.

"The first thing was dairy. I was about 24 years old and I had tons of acne and mucus. I met some random girl on a bus who told me to quit dairy and all those symptoms would go away three days later. By God she was right."

Harrelson can next be seen on the big screen in "Zombieland," which opens October 9. The trailer is below.


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Comments

[colorperdaughter]

Zombieland is absolutely hilarious. Very shocked by how good a movie this is, go see it, the trailers do not even remotely capture the flavor of the story.

[HelloooCanada]

when i went vegan my conscience cleared up.

[westreal]

The mucus and dairy thing... totally true. About 5 years ago a friend told me dairy was causing all my mucus and making me sick. I gave it up and viola. I haven't had a problem with mucus since... or until I caught this swine flu last week

[ianmcc]

Life isn't worth living if every once in awhile I can't get a turkey sub with a chai shake.

[Gronkie]

I'll have a medium rare (on the rare side) porterhouse steak and a zit.

[VTL]

I try to eat an entire cow every month, drink at least 3 gallons of whole milk a week, eat 2 pounds of cheese a week, and drink plenty of vodka.

I have no acne.

[Gronkie]

I replace vodka with beer, and I'm not a fan of straight milk (except on sugary cereal), but otherwise that's pretty much my diet, too.

[Chris Fraas]

So, LanceThruster, do the bidding of a pharmaceutical company much?
Going vegetarian and or vegan clears up about 90% of the health problems most people have. I couldn't sleep, my weight was high, my joints ached, my sinuses killed me, I had severe allergies and I had really bad facial acne.
I'm a vegan now and my joints click, but don't do much more than that -- I'm 42 and have a genetic disorder that affects my joints and bones. And all of my other problems went away when I stopped eating meat and the processed trash they sell in most grocery stores.
Start your own health plan by choosing to eat better and you'll find your health turn right around!
Namaste

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

Fascinating throughout history there are hundreds of millions of people that don't have those issues either that eat meat and fish.

The Japanese often don't have them and they eat tons of meat and fish more fish then meat. Same with the Chinese.

Eskimos rarely ate vegetables berries were a rarity they ate mostly fish and caribou meat that was served rare. Yet on this diet they suffered no scury, no hardening of the arties yet their diet was incredibly high in protein and carbohydrates.

http://discovermagazine.com/2004/oct/inuit-paradox

Here is a sample: One might, for instance, imagine gross vitamin deficiencies arising from a diet with scarcely any fruits and vegetables. What furnishes vitamin A, vital for eyes and bones? We derive much of ours from colorful plant foods, constructing it from pigmented plant precursors called carotenoids (as in carrots). But vitamin A, which is oil soluble, is also plentiful in the oils of cold-water fishes and sea mammals, as well as in the animals’ livers, where fat is processed. These dietary staples also provide vitamin D, another oil-soluble vitamin needed for bones. Those of us living in temperate and tropical climates, on the other hand, usually make vitamin D indirectly by exposing skin to strong sun—hardly an option in the Arctic winter—and by consuming fortified cow’s milk, to which the indigenous northern groups had little access until recent decades and often don’t tolerate all that well.

[bigorangefish]

You are incorrect about the Asian diet. The Asian diets have very little meat in them - Chinese, Japanese, etc., most of their diets consist of vegetables and fruit and tofu, very rarely eating meat - maybe a few times a year at major events.

[katocat]

As soon as I saw you use the word "eskimo" and talk about them as if it were past tense, I knew to take the rest with a grain of salt.

[bigorangefish]

Same thing happened to me. I read 'Eat to Live' by Dr. Joel Fuhrman and he explains how to become a vegan. It works. I'm feeling better than I have ever felt. I think veganism clears up not just acne, but helps hyper-pigmentation too, as well as everything that you mentioned, alleviating joint pain, boost your metabolism, lose weight, improved mental clarity, better sleep, etc.. No more cravings, no more sugar lows, etc...

[LanceThruster]

Chris, all you're doing is the same thing I did; offer a first person account of what worked for me. If you want to insist that your approach is effective, let alone "as" effective, I find that not to be in my case.

There's nothing wrong with the dietary component of maintaining one's health, but there are certain medications that are undeniably wonder drugs. This is not the same thing as recognizing Big Pharma wants to prescribe a pill for everything. This is acknowledging that certain chemical compounds can fix what's broken in ahuman organism. Read the book by Kurt Vonnegut's son the doctor whose brain chemistry was corrected by minute quantities of a particular chemical; allowing him to live a healthy, happy, and productive life.

I'm not dismissing your expereience, just that you cannot realistically claim that it is the most effective approach in all cases. That's just not true.

[bog]

when i went low carb my lifelong mild acne cleared up quickly.

[LanceThruster]

The drug Accutane is *truly* the cure. Diet certainly is helpful with a great many cases but for severe lesions, Accutane gives results unlike any other med. There no longer any reason for anyone to be scarred by acne.

A list of foods/drugs to avoid that the best dermatologist I ever had gave me was very helpful (Thank you, Dr. Morton Scribner!):

Iodides/bromides (check cold meds for these)
caffeine and chocolate
seafood
citrus fruits (oranges and grapefruits)
peanut butter/nuts
milk (even skim and non-fat) and dairy (certain amount of cheese was OK)
Midol

What wasn't on the list was things like sugar and fatty foods. While these would surely make your skin greasy which was a problem in its own right (dirt and blackheads), it was the other foods that inflamed the sebaceous glands and caused the deep scarring blemishes.

On his recommendations, I got much better right away by cutting out an old favorite (PB&J and milk). Even after I started Accutane, too much of the prohibited items could still cause a more pronounced outbreak.

Foods that I could have in smaller quantities:
almonds, pistachios, cashews, sesame seeds
lobster and shrimp
pineapple was better than orange (tomato juice was a good substitute)

Dr. Scribner's list would help a majority of cases all on their own. In this regard, a nice juicy steak will cause you a LOT less problem than a bunch of nuts, or chocolate, or foods high in citric acid content.

[Furby]

Big Pharma thanks you and the check's in the mail :)

[JustifiablyParanoid]

:D

[LanceThruster]

As one who inherited the condition from my mother, my thanks go to Big Pharma on this one. I had tried everything prior to this with decidedly limited results (diet, exercise, and special cleansing products included).

A short time after starting Accutane, I was cured. Not occasionally better, or relatively better...but cured. And the maintenance dosage required afterward was remarkably low.

I would have loved it if the vegan routine would have worked but the nuts alone were ruin for my skin. I love Woody Harrelson and glad his change in diet worked for him, but to ignore those instances where prescription drugs work where nothing else has is the height of ignorance.

I guess if you experience some dabilitating illness, you'll just opt for some holistic approach and abstain from use of other compounds with an established effectiveness, eh?

Your mentality is one step away from Christian Science.

[Raintree]

I almost died from accutane treatment that I didn't even need, for heaven's sake. Stop peddling these sad products.

[LanceThruster]

I'm not sure what you mean by "I didn't even need". Do you mean you didn't have acne, or that a non-drug treatment worked for you?

There are always instances of people with reactions outside of the norm. I know people who are able to function because of Prozac and and the wife of one friend who said it made her suicidal. They found something else that was effective for her.

I am not peddling anything. I'm giving an unsolicited 1st person testimonial. I am grateful for the high school janitor who came up to me and recommended the dermatologist that was treating his daughter (my previous insurance provided dermatologist proscribed a fairly effective drug too but could not let me take it often because it could cause liver damage with continual use - and he said diet had nothing to do with breakouts but the diet list my new doctor gave me dispelled that notion).

It was important to me that anyone reading the Harrelson piece was aware of other options because not all approaches work for everyone.

[SEQUOIABISON]

My friend I have been a vegan for 30 years and eat a variety of nuts everyday, your claims about a steak being better for you than nuts is just nuts. I never have any physiological problems and have not been to a doctor or taken a pill not even an aspirin for the last 30 years.

[SweetTart]

What ever happened to this guy? I loved him on Cheers, then he made a few movies, some good, some pretty bad --- and then it was like he dropped out of sight. Did he anger someone big in Hollywood? He seems like sort of an odd ball character now.

[flhu]

You must've missed the REAL point of this article:

Zombieland, opening Oct 2 at a theater near you.

[TotalRecall9]

Cutting out milk is probably good for people with acne problems. But, cutting out meat altogether is probably why Woody is bald now.

[bigorangefish]

Huh? Where did you get that from. Eating animal products causes cancer, hearth disease and diabetes among other fatal diseases. Woody has hereditary male pattern baldness.

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

Strange that vegans have those issues as well.

Also people inherit diabetes along with heart disease.

[treegod]

ONe reason why humans are not made to eat meat is b/c are intestines are too long and not apt for moving thru meat efficiently... http://www.celestialhealing.net/physicalveg3.htm

[jrb35]

Not "made" to eat meat? Made by whom? We have sharp, pointy teeth called canines with which tens of millions of years of natural selection and evolution have provided us to eat meat.

[bigorangefish]

Excuse me, but your comment about human canine teeth aren't true. Take a look at a real predator's mouth - a cat, dog, lion, and then look at a set of cow teeth or deer teeth, human teeth look far more like cow or deer teeth. Even though we have teeth called 'canine' they are nothing like the teeth found in the mouths of true meat-eating predators.

Eating animal products just is not healthy for humans. Animals are filled with their own hormones which totally mess up people's own body chemistry, moreover, eating animals causes cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

[PunKinPai]

Explain the presence of canine teeth in humans, please.

[colibri1]

Cutting dairy out of my diet also got rid of my phlegmy throat, as well as ridding my eyes of sticky "sleep" each morning ("eye boogers"). I also haven't had flatulence much at all since I got rid of dairy products. And it is really strange for one mammal to be drinking another mammal's lactation fluid.

[wetdentist]

when you think about it, it is strange to eat anything in particular at all. humans breed plants for genocide

[KJLSanDiego]

LOL! I always rip ppl for eating baby cow food and chicken menstruation!

[jasi]

On a certain level, I think eating pigs, cows, poultry, etc, is immoral. I'm not a vegetarian, but I sometimes feel bad about eating them and consider vegetarianism. But what about a sustainable seafood such as squid? To me, there's little if any moral difference between eating that and a tomato.

Maybe someone can educate me, however.

[bigorangefish]

If you were a squid you would have a different opinion. They have their own lives they they enjoy.

[Gronkie]

I've snorkeled with squid. It didn't look like they were having a big party.

[abbeysbooks]

Here's my take on meat: I think the problems we have in eating it are related to the junk they eat, the stuff shot into them (anti-biotics) the terrible conditions and stress of the feed lots and the brutal killing. These animals know they are going to be killed and they are already stressed beyond belief from the feed lots. Look at pictures of them or go see Food, Inc for it to hit home. Hunters who kill and eat deer meat are careful how (or they used to be) they kill the animal. a clean shot to the head and immediate death. the more pure almost require that an animal present itself, the way North American Indians often described it, as a ritual self sacrifice. I think this folk wisdom comes from the fact that a relaxed animal killed for food, is far better tasting than a stressed one, and has fewer hormones running through its system. The best pork I ever ate came from a dinky restaurant in Southern China where the pigs walked around among the tourists and were petted. I mean when I am upset I can feel the difference in my body. IfI were killed for meat at that time I bet I would taste different, especially if it had gone on a long long time, as it does with our domestic meat.

Eat organic. Afford it as it is cheaper than doctors and pharmas.

[Balzac]

I could go back to veganism, in theory. I'd have to make more money to afford all those expensive vegan products. I'm open-minded to the idea, but I don't think I'm giving up on sea-food and the occasional bird. But I'd probably benefit from going predominantly back to a vegan diet, once I make enough money to afford it.

[TeresainNC]

I am a vegan and I live off of less than $15,000 a year. I cook for myself, which is key. Rice and beans...cheap, healthy, and vegan.

[Furby]

Are you a hippie?

[Balzac]

I don't cook and I'm not about to begin.

[abbeysbooks]

Try to grow your own veggies. Not hard. A garden the size of a regular dining table can feed you all season and also put up a lot for the winter. Learn which weeds are delicious. those tiny blue slender day lillies you see all over in MO can be made into a wonderful tempura. Cultivate a bank of them. Also there are many weeds that are great for eating. Learn to recognize them. Lamb's Quarters, burdock, purslane, sorrel etc.

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

Hate to tell you this bucko but a lot of soil in people's yards ain't healthy to eat the things that grow from it. Pollution is not your friend.