This is something weird: after not having any problems with dry skin, now I noticed it on my arms and legs.

I am very high raw, have been for over 1 year.

I eat lots of variety of veggies, fruits, drink enough water daily, get some sunshine early in the day, etc.

I started noticing the dry skin when I cut back my fats intake from average 32 or so % down to 23 or so %.

So, I figured I'd better increase the fat again, back to where it was when my skin felt great, but it's not working!

I don't eat overt fats, i.e. no oil in salads, or in smoothies. I do eat pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, 1 lonely brazil nut daily, once in a while some almonds, or hempseeds. Nothing "big and greasy".

I have started adding fresh coconut to my morning smoothie every day (now that I have a stash of them!), and it's wonderful, but not working on my dry skin...

Now, there is ONE thing that may be a problem: I have started going into the pool daily, too, which I didn't do before. It occurred to me that the chlorine might be the culprit, but I just don't know.

Any ideas or insight you may have on this topic would be MUCH appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Jackie

Hey Jackie.

I find tap water and shower water drys my skin out and irritates it a lot, EVEN with a chrlorine filter. This could definatley be related. There are other ways to filter pools that are much healthier...just so you know that possibility does exist.

Also, drinking a lot of water does NOT mean you are getting hydrated!!! Some water is so bunk that it just does not permeate our cells to carry information and things like it should. Try adding a lemon to whatever water your drinking and see if you don't notice a difference between that water and whatever you used to do. I did this recently and I feel a tremendous difference. What are you doing for water now anyway?

Also, a little oil in salad is a good time to consume oil. It lubes the fiber in the greens up so they pass through very nicely. And why one brazil nut? Three a day is enough to consider it supplemental selenium. It's also a wild food you know... It's impossible to cultivate. It has to be wild picked and it therefore helps save the rain forest to.

Hi Alex,

Thanks for your comments!

I know you are correct about the pool water, but unfortunately that is not a variable which will be changed any time soon.

I loved the recommendation about drinking water with lemon. I do that when eating out, but not usually at home. And I do have lemons here, usually I squeeze 1/2 lemon onto a salad occasionally. Or add them to a heavily green smoothie to perk up the taste and cut down on the bitterness, but I'm putting lemon in my water at home from now on!

Our home water supply is triple filtered including a blacklight gizmo to (supposedly) kill bacteria before it goes into the drinking water dispenser in the refrigerator. The water tastes terrific, much better than any bottled water I've ever purchased.

I've gotten away from overt fats, and am surprised to know that I still get a lot of natural fats just from different plants and fruits. I've started using 1/2 avocado daily, along with those wonderful coconuts daily, so I'll see if that has any effect. But I'm leaning pretty heavily on the pool water as the prime source of the dry skin.

I've heard that a full day's supply of selenium comes from only 1, at most two brazil nuts per day. It sure looks that way on fitday.com which I use to track my nutrients, etc. One nut gives me over 200% of daily selenium. Who knew?

I didn't know that about brazil nuts, that they can't be cultivated! Thanks for the information!

Thanks again for your time, appreciate the insight!
Jackie

FLAX SEED OIL!!!

I've tried both the liquid & the capsules and found them both effective so I prefer the capsules. I buy either Barlean's or Spectrum at the health food store and take 6-10 capsules a day.

I've always had the DRYEST skin, even on my face I always had to use straight oils, moisterizers weren't powerful enough. And in the winter I just itched constantly.

Then like 7 years ago I picked up one of my boyfriend's bodybuilding magazines and flax seed oil was suggested to cure dry skin. What a lifesaver! In my opinion the beauty magazines are such a scam hawking expensive moisterizers & saying "drink water". BS! If they told you the real cure then they couldn't collect as much advertising revenue, because nobody would buy the moisterizers. Whereas the bodybuilding magazines aren't full of moisterizer ads, so they can tell you the truth.

Good luck!

I never gave flax seed a second thought. Cool!