Does dairy make your skin break out?

If I were to stop eating some dairy, will it help keep my skin more clear? Or is that just a myth?

I've assumed it's just from eating more nutritious foods since going vegan, but a couple of months after I went from vegetarian to vegan my husband said my skin was glowing, and I have had much better skin since.

Thanks! But is there any actual link between dairy and acne?

Try giving up dairy for two weeks.  I have read many things about dairy and acne, so it's worth a try.

Original Post by redkitty:

Try giving up dairy for two weeks.  I have read many things about dairy and acne, so it's worth a try.

On New Years day I attempted to go vegan (but that only lasted a few weeks) and my skin started to break out, it really sucked. My skin is generally okay. I may get a pimple around that time of the month, but overall I have it under control. So I was kinda annoyed by that.

Whenever I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and drink lots of water, my skin looks really great. I think processed foods and junk make your skin look bad, but I'm not a dermatologist or anything.

It depends on who you ask.  My dermatologist says that no food has any impact on skin, but I definitely know better.  He didn't see the marked improvement when I quit drinking coffee, nor does he see the small blips that occur a week or so after I down a good bit of dairy.

For me, most of my acne has been hormonal.  But most definitely different foods help or hurt.  The best thing I've found is to experiment by cutting something out of your diet for 30 days and see what the difference is.  Try and take before and after pictures for comparison's sake.

Remember that acne can often take a week or two to develop, so cutting something out of your diet for just a few days won't give you true results.

Good luck!

I gave up dairy, meat, coffee and alcohol and limited sugar for a month. My skin looked fantastic at the end of it, and I've always had problem skin

It's going to be different for each person. I haven't had dairy since early Dec & my skin has gotten a lot worse. (Before Dec, I hardly ate dairy, so it's not like I had it often) It seems to be clearing up a bit now, but I don't know if it'll stay like this.

i've heard that dairy can have an affect.  depends on the person i think.  the only girl i knew that went vegan i saw her a few years later and her skin looked awful.  but who knows what she was using to wash her face and what her skin type/skin regimen/diet in general was.  i would give it a shot, stop eating dairy for about a month and see how it affects your skin, give it enough time to know that changes aren't due to time of the month and don't change anything else in your skin care regimen.  worth a try!

 

Yes, dairy has been pinned as a culprit for acne.  Other culprits are genetics, too much iodine [liver, cheese, iodized salt, kelp products, clams, crabs and other shellfish], excessive soy consumption [for me, at least].

Here is a link to a site that explains the dairy-->acne connection, although I am sorry to say that it is a PETA site, haha.

 

Oops! Check out this page of good tips for reducing acne as well! 

YES !!!! I used to break out a lot from drinking milk and having milk with cereal. I've stopped for about 8 months now and I rarely break out anymore and when I eat even a moderate amount of dairy (usually yogurt and cheese), I get a pimple within 2 days.

I've been a vegan for 2 years and my acne never improved.  It may differ between people, but this was not true in my case.  I noticed my acne was hormonal, it would get worse when i was getting ready to start my period and would "get better" when i was halfway through my cycle.  I started taking YAZ in october, and my skin is completely clear now. It is truly amazing, because I have had acne since i was 12, and being 21 now, that's a long time to live with acne.  

Original Post by from_nebraska:

I've been a vegan for 2 years and my acne never improved.  It may differ between people, but this was not true in my case.  I noticed my acne was hormonal, it would get worse when i was getting ready to start my period and would "get better" when i was halfway through my cycle.  I started taking YAZ in october, and my skin is completely clear now. It is truly amazing, because I have had acne since i was 12, and being 21 now, that's a long time to live with acne.  

 Hi Nebraska,

I'm not familiar with Yaz, however, as you and many others have noted, there is a hormonal aspect to this.  Dairy has an effect because milk is basically set up to be nature's hormone delivery system, for getting babies to grow quickly at a time where growth is most rapid.  For those of us who are vegan, and therefore do not drink milk, there is a hormone related issue associated with the use of products containing isolated soy protein, which is a processed and unnaturally concentrated source of soy protein.  The problem is that isolated soy protein has been associated with high levels of IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor 1), and high levels of IGF-1 are associated with breast and prostate cancer.  I'm just throwing this out there as a possibility that might explain why you continued to have acne problems as a vegan.  If you used products containing the isolated soy protein, this could be related to your hormonal issues. 

I've pretty much been a vegan for about two weeks and right now my skin looks a lot better. I used to have to wash it with soap twice a day, one in the morning and one at night, then I would HAVE to put this cream stuff on it at night to help get rid of it... it never really worked but if I didn't use it, my acne would be absolutely horrible. Now I just rinse off with water twice a day and I only use the cream stuff on the bad pimples that are still clearing up after I pretty much stopped eating dairy.

I also have to say, that after stopping eating dairy and cheese and everything.. I haven't had any weird feelings or noises coming from my stomach. lol 

It definitely depends on the person -- in my case, dairy does cause me to break out. Back when I didn't know any better, I've always just associated it with TTOTM. By now I've actually realized that while I do get pimples due to the hormone level change, the kind that's caused by dairy is much worse and harder to get rid of (which I often refer to as 'cow puss', that kind of nasty acne :/).

For some reason, I don't get any weird side effects from eating fat free dairy. I've cut back on my dairy consumption since I'm aiming to be vegan at some point, but I used to eat fat free cottage cheese by the tub daily and not once did it cause my skin to break out. It's made me think that it's the fat in dairy that's the culprit, though I've yet to read up on it.

I've always seem to have acne for a couple weeks on and off, but when I became vegan my acne stayed away for good.  When I did reintroduce some dairy into my diet a while back I broke out a bit.  But this is not a definitive answer because it could be that at the time I was having some dairy was also a time when I wasn't counting calories, my apartment was a mess, and I wasn't exercising as much.  It's hard to say...

i found avoiding dairy for stomach issues made my skin clear up and i do less to keep it clear now. (such as using special acne fighting cleansers ect.) i also started to avoid a few other foods though that were making me gassy so i don't know if it was the dairy for certain but i'm very suspcious because i always struggled with my skin before that.

Many people I have spoken to said that giving up dairy made their skin clearer. I believe it has something to do with the hormones put in to cows- ends up in their milk.