Dairy and Acne

About 80% of American teenagers have acne, while in countries with traditional diets that do not include dairy products, there are virtually no cases of acne. However, as soon as a culture becomes westernized and begins to include milk and cheese in the diet, acne sets in. Japan is an example of this.

Of course, there may be other factors at play, but there are two reasons why milk and other dairy products can contribute to acne.

First, many people don’t digest dairy products well, and their bodies react by shedding many of the elements they can’t digest through the lungs in the form of mucus and the skin in the form of acne vulgaris.

Second, even in people who can digest milk well, there can be a reaction to hormones thought to be in milk. The main cause of teenage acne is said to be hormonal imbalance, and milk these days probably contains a lot more hormones than it did 50 or 100 years ago. This is why.

Any female human or animal that is naturally pregnant has more of certain hormones in her body. In nature, this does not matter because the milk is not used until after the birth of the baby/calf, when there are no longer excess hormones. But in today’s commercial milk production, cows are kept pregnant almost constantly so they can produce more milk. Because of this, it is believed that excess female hormones find their way into the milk we drink, likely contributing to acne and possibly other problems such as obesity, breast tissue formation in men, and even breast cancer in women. older women.

So if you have acne, consider completely abstaining from dairy for 2 weeks. This requires some planning because dairy products can be difficult to avoid. You will have to check the ingredients of each food or drink that you put in your mouth. Powdered milk can show up in places where you would never expect it.

If you’re a teen and your mom says you need milk, explain that this is just a 2-week trial and why you’re doing it. She was young once and she probably understands more than you think! She tells him that she can still eat eggs and she can take a calcium supplement, but during these 2 weeks she will not have milk, butter, yogurt, cheese or anything that contains them.

During these 2 weeks, be prepared for your acne to get a little worse before it starts to get better. You may be detoxing for the first 3-7 days. You may also develop cough or cold symptoms.

After 2 weeks, has your skin improved? Most likely the answer will be yes.

Now you can informally test your dairy tolerance by drinking a glass of milk or eating a regular serving of cheese. If you are intolerant to dairy, you may have an immediate reaction, such as a stuffy or runny nose, or a headache soon after. You may have diarrhea or very loose stools the next day. Or you may not have immediate symptoms, but if you go back to eating dairy regularly, your skin may be worse than ever. If as a result of this informal test you think you may be milk intolerant, check your results by taking a food sensitivity test with a nutritionist.

If you had a reaction, avoid dairy for another 5 days, then try yogurt. Some people can digest yogurt but not other dairy products.

If there was no reaction, you are probably not sensitive to milk. You may still want to cut back to avoid the hormones it’s thought to contain, but don’t stress about bits of milk or cheese in the foods you eat.

Make sure you get enough calcium through other food sources or supplements, and consult a doctor or dermatologist about treatment for severe acne vulgaris.