6.01.2011

milk.

So I'm on this new diet. I stumbled upon a blog post detailing how a person who had tried everything to cure her acne found a perfect cure just by cutting out dairy products in her life. I haven't heard of this before, and even though my inner skeptic is about to shoot me in the head, I feel like it might be worth a try. It couldn't hurt, could it? Even though I love milk, and I drink it instead of water, and I love yogurt, and I love cheese, and I love cereal with milk, and I love ice cream, and I love cheesecake.......


Anyway, here is the No Milk Acne Diet:
1. Total restriction phase - no dairy for AT LEAST SIX MONTHS. (not happening.)
2. maintenance phase - teen years to early twenties, zero intake is best (no improvement.)
3. cautious reintroduction phase - early twenties, some patients may NEVER be able to enjoy dairy again (NOOOOOOO.)
This website cites something called an "acne threshold," which is some kind of threshold for hormones that every individual has that will determine whether or not he or she will get acne. Cutting out dairy is supposed to help get you below the threshold, since it has tons of hormones, and hormones directly plug up our pores. Okay. Skepticism is off the charts. 


This source is obviously not reputable, since the entire website is dedicated to promoting this link between acne and dairy, and it is also wrought with conspiracy theories. Disregard.

Another article made a little more sense, but I still found it a little too alarmist and extreme.


I settled on this article, since it had an actual quantitative study to back it up. Also, some doctor is quoted saying, ""about 80% of the cows that are giving milk are pregnant and are throwing off hormones continuously." Makes sense, I suppose. 


How could dietary intake have no impact on what happens to your skin? I read somewhere that because doctors do not learn about nutrition in medical school, they disregard diet as a cause for acne. I don't know if this is true, but I can't imagine it having no impact. There is obviously no way I am going to eliminate dairy from my diet, it's too amazing. I'll just reduce it significantly, it can't hurt, and most of those foods are things that aren't the best for me anyway.


(Also, DO NOT EVEN START WITH ME about organic milk. It has just as many hormones, and no measurable benefit, but it is sold at a premium because it is marketed as "better for you." Organic sucks. This goes for every organic food. Actually, I have nothing against organic food, just the way it is marketed. I'd rather spend my hard-earned consumer dollars on something a little bit more legitimate.)
-T.

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