I (19F) used to have really bad acne all over my cheeks, so bad that I've even cancelled plans before because of the sheer anxiety and just how insecure I felt. I'm no good with makeup either, and I felt like makeup might make my breakouts worse so I also never used it much.
After completing a very stressful internship and graduating though, my horrible acne actually gradually went away (probably caused by a mix of messy hormones, terrible sleep schedule and stress that went away) and now I'm so so happy because I only have negligible bumps left.
BUT Recently my mom bought tubs of greek yogurt that I've been eating almost everyday, and I started to notice my skin breaking out again, but this time on my forehead instead of my cheeks. I never noticed it before because my acne was really bad everywhere.
Milk and cheese seems to sometimes break me out but yogurt seems to do it the most. I
I really really don't want a repeat of those dark days where acne literally decided my confidence and everything else about me. I'm not lactose intolerant, and I really don't want to give up dairy! 🙁
Is this normal? How can I fix this? Is there something I can eat or use?
by flattenedtomato
3 Comments
I did the no-dairy thing for 9 years (12-21) because I thought it would help my acne and it didn’t. I started eating dairy again roughly over a year ago and my skin is lovely! However- for some reason, Greek yogurt really disagrees with me. I notice my stomach rumbles and hurts when I have it.
I have two glasses of milk everyday, I eat cheese whenever I want and anything dairy if I like. I just stay away from Greek yogurt. Fermented yogurt drinks like kefir & Laban are fine. Try drinking some milk (it has 18 g of protein, same are Greek yogurt) and see how you feel?
The only thing that drastically cut back my breakouts are when I stopped eating sugar (I did a 75-hard and now I just love fruits and baking but no refined sugar or processed sugar snacks) and fried things like chips and stuff.
Most of the world is actually lactose intolerant (about 69% I think?) so it’s totally okay if you can’t have it. Don’t force yourself. Find alternatives to Greek yogurt like oats or flaxseed! I love that for my bowls 🙂
For other dairy products, usually things like aged cheeses never give me side effect. A lot of cheese are made without lactose so look those things up! They’re way easier to digest and have loads of protein too!
You can try just limiting the dairy and test how much acne you develops. Everybody has their own threshold and unfortunately acne is a very “personal” thing in terms of how different it affects one person vs another person, so we have to do our own trial and error tests sometimes. I know for me it was the sugar overload that break me out so much I needed to go back to acutane.
It could be the way the yogurt interacts with your gut’s microbiome. Generally greek yogurt is beneficial but if you have sensitivities to it then that could be an issue. But I’m not a doctor so I don’t know. I just know that gut health can impact things like acne (which is annoying)