For over 35 years I've had to deal with acne. As a teenager it was a vanity, self-confidence issue. As an adult, I felt it really held me back professionally from my full potential. I 've tried all of the acne products varying from cheap to expensive, drug store to medically prescribed to specialty online vendors. I even tried homeopathy cures from garlic to egg whites. I avoided chocolate, fried foods and drank gallons of water - doing everything experts recommended.
For the past 3 years I changed my eating habits to low-carb, lost 50 pounds and felt great!! My body, mental focus and attitude drastically improved. Shockingly, my acne got worse on a diet full of extremely clean eating! I reached out to a nutritional expert and she gave me surprising advice - to cut out dairy. Being low-carb, cheese and whey protein had become a staple in my diet and it was a tall order to remove it. I had nothing to lose so I cut out dairy. Within 3 days, my acne had all but vanished!! Within a dairy-free week, my skin was nearly beautiful. So, every once in awhile, I test it - I have cream in my coffee, or sour cream on my dinner and sure enough, my acne returns within two days. Bad, cystic acne that takes over a week to heal. Huh!
I share this with you because in all my years of struggling with acne, no one ever mentioned dairy. The many dermatologists I've visited, never asked me about my eating habits. Topical ointments may be a band-aid to a food allergy that we're otherwise unaware of. I had no other symptoms of a dairy issue and am still shocked that dairy was indeed to blame. I hope I can save others from years of frustration.
That's interesting. Good that you figured it out. I get bumps - not acne - just thousands of bumps on my arms when I eat dairy. I feel better when I cut out meat, wheat/white flour, milk, and processed foods, which basically leaves oatmeal, rice, beans, veg and fruit. I don't tolerate a lot of those, so I do lose weight fast when I eat like I should.
ReplyDeleteI wish I would have known this when I was growing up. I always had people telling me about the fried food and chocolate stuff, but I wasn't about to let those go.
ReplyDeleteThankfully I eventually grew out of it, but those high school years were fierce.