John Lennon Said it Best. "Woman Is..."

When I used to cake my face every morning before going to work with a pound of Clinique, Lancome, and Estee Lauder makeup products, my grandma would nag at me about how my skin always looked distressed. She had to remind me on a daily basis of the mountain of pimples ready to erupt and the sea of lava like redness that oozed out of my face.

"Can't you do something?" "Aren't you embarrassed to walk out of the house like that?" "How do you expect to find a man looking like that?" She couldn't stop asking me these questions, which made me even more uncomfortable about having to live in my own dilapidated skin. On many occasions, just the mere thought of having the acne threw me into a downward spiral of self-hatred, self-pity, and negative energy that even the Fibonacci Code had no answer to.

My so-called friends were constantly asking me if I was "okay" because they thought I was mad or angry from the looks of my tomato-bright face. An employer of mine once asked me in private if I had any undisclosed medical conditions that the company needed to know about for "health insurance" reasons. The truth is that the only genuine "condition" I had was being forced to pancake my face every day with clown makeup to look like the girls in the beauty magazines. It was insinuated that in order to keep my job as an investment adviser I would have to dress glamorous, be thin and act sexy like Paris, Britney, or Gisele. My male coworkers would sometimes refer to me with malicious names behind my back while telling me to my face how good our "blond" secretary looked. The secretary was often referred to as "eye candy" and a "dime piece" whereas I was always a "dog" or an "ugly mutt." I once had a pizza thrown at me as my "reward" during a celebration for closing my first big deal.

Based upon all that I had to endure, there are more than just a few reasons why I finally decided to boycott makeup altogether. The primary reason is that many of the ingredients in makeup are not exactly the best things to be putting on fragile human skin. When I actually began to read the labels on my makeup bottles for the first time, I started to notice that the foundations, eye shadows and mascaras were made primarily from alcohol and petroleum-based products. I began to realize that I wasn't exactly desperate enough to continue putting on my face the same chemicals that make gasoline.

Another reason for my boycott of makeup is that I just simply grew tired of spending so much money on it. I now think that the makeup companies should pay me to contaminate my face and jeopardize the health of my skin all for the sake of justifying the salaries of the women in the beauty magazines. At the time that I was an investment adviser, my makeup purchases - to "further my career" - was costing about $300 for a season's supply. The saleswomen at department store makeup counters also managed to always find a way to help me feel uncomfortable flashing their bouffant hairdos and Daisy Dukes short skirts. These same women were the ones telling me what I need to buy to look good while at the same time looking me up and down as if I were a pile of dog food. I felt compelled to comply by making larger purchases. I thought that I will never in my life look as good as they do, but the least that I could try to do was to wear the same kind of makeup and "pretend" that I'm part of the Hot-Chick Club. Sometimes I would buy into their sales pitch and also purchase various perfumes that I felt I must douse myself with in order to smell good enough to attract a decent man. Perhaps if I smelled as good as the women behind the makeup counter do, then the guys at my workplace would no longer use derogatory terms when speaking about me.

In the end, what really made me stop wearing makeup was that my frequent trips to the dermatologist were becoming truly irritating and ultimately unbearable. There came a point when I had become tired playing the game of waiting around the reception room for hours on end reading beauty magazines that were no more than an insult to my intelligence before the dermatologist finally got around to seeing me. Of course, this was always a few hours past the scheduled appointment time. The breaking point came after I received a bill in the mail for canceling an appointment. I was actually taken to court where I had to get out of paying a $50 "cancellation fee" that I refused to pay simply out of principle.

I have since learned that for many centuries, common knowledge has been that "you are what you eat" and that simply drinking eight glasses of water a day will help to flush the body of any toxins better than any dermatological application. Perhaps this is what my grandma meant about me doing something better for my face than what I was doing. Scientific studies have demonstrated that those people who eat a diet that's high in processed fast foods and dairy products are much more prone to getting acne or developing unwanted skin conditions. I believe this has something to do with the way that the stomach's digestive juices are unable to break down the enzymes and absorb the unnatural chemicals that are contained in unhealthy food products. A healthy lifestyle of exercise, fresh air and a diet rich in vegetables, fruits and fiber will work much better to help a person's skin glow with their own natural beauty - one that comes from the inside, not from the outside. I have personally found that this does work and that the main secret to this particular beauty regimen revolves around flushing the toxins out of the intestinal system on a regular basis. The intestines are where the food and nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream and when this is done properly, the skin has the ability to breath more effectively because it doesn't waste all of its energy fighting toxins.

What follows is a list of foods that I now eat on a regular basis - they have all helped to improve the condition of my digestive tract to the point where I now see significant and noticeable results. Once acne ridden, my skin is now clear and radiates warmth. As a point of great contrast, I now receive compliments for my skin and other women have pulled me aside to ask me what expensive makeup products I use or if I have found some secret and miraculous elixir. Most are shocked when I say that I don't use anything at all on my face anymore. Bear in mind these suggestions are based on my own personal experience and from comparing my new skin to the skin of other people who are my own age - the difference is that I now look ten years younger whereas those who party hard and eat fast foods seem to look ten years older.

Oranges
Vitamin C helps to circulate the blood throughout the body. The good blood circulation helps carry nutrients to tissues and organs.

Apples
"An apple a day keeps the doctor away." I know it's an old cliché but it helps keep the skin soft because apples are rich in fiber that can help the digestive track more efficiently push out the body's waste products.

Potatoes (Skins)
The potato skins are high in fiber and they are actually quite good mixed with an array of colorful vegetables. I don't think people who happen to be diabetic are able to eat too many of these because of the fact that the carbohydrates break down into sugar, other than this limitation potatoes are an inexpensive and healthy food.

Spinach
These green leafy things became famous through the old Popeye cartoons where that particular comic strip hero miraculously and instantaneously became strong enough to whoop Brutus good by simply downing a can of spinach. Spinach is filled with iron and can be quite delicious when mixed with other interesting vegetables like tomatoes, onions, or cucumbers.

Carrots
These are filled with vitamin A, which is one of the best foods for the skin. The tretinoin or Retin-A that a dermatologist might prescribe is actually a very potent form of vitamin A that can be found naturally and in abundance in food such as raw carrots.

Celery
There are absolutely no calories in celery and it helps to move the digestive track along with eliminating the body's waste products. It's great for weight loss as it tends to satisfy hunger cravings without calories.

Grape Juice
Grape juice once again will help the body to eliminate waste products and cleaning out one's system is the secret to having healthy skin.

Green Tea
Green tea has been used for centuries in China and India and there are studies in which it was found that green tea might have also been responsible for curing many cancers. Filled with a wide variety of antioxidants, green tea can also help to flush bacteria and other toxins out of the body.

I have found that following this natural beauty eating regimen is much more enjoyable (and practical) than visiting a dermatologist. The foods are healthy and they are also cheaper than buying makeup.