Currently, more and more therapists are placing an emphasis on changing diet for acne. Unfortunately, the scientific studies are not yet thorough enough to substantiate the effect of diet on acne, but in practice, adjusting your diet appears to work well. Removing cow’s milk from the diet, seems to give good results on the amount of inflammation in acne. Also on the topic of cow’s milk and acne, there are still few articles on the effect of cow’s milk on acne, but small studies are slowly beginning to indicate that cow’s milk consumption definitely plays a role in acne. For example, Ismail, Manaf and Azizan (2012) conducted a study in which they concluded that the acne group had a significantly higher diet of milk and ice cream than the control group, which does not have acne. Intake of fast sugars was also significantly higher. No significant difference was seen in other nutrients, BMI and body fat percentage.
According to Melnik, John and Plewig (2013), androgen production is enhanced when there is a high dairy intake, due in part to the milk sugars contained in it. Androgens are hormones that we all have in our bodies. When these are elevated, it affects the regulatory proteins for fat production for the sebaceous glands, increasing sebum production and also thickening the skin, making it harder to release the sebum.
But what do you take as a dairy substitute? My question is rather, why seek a replacement? In addition to dairy helping to raise androgen levels, dairy also contains other hormones purely to make a calf grow very quickly to the size of a cow. Of course there are vitamins, minerals and proteins in milk that are important. But you can also get these from vegetables (especially dark green leafy vegetables for calcium!) and legumes.
Almond or soy milk is also used as a substitute for milk. Soy is a healthy food rich in antioxidants, protein and minerals, provided it is fermented soy. Often the almond milk from the supermarket also contains unfermented soy milk. This type of soy contains phytoestrogens that can imitate the effects of estrogen (female hormone in the body). This also gives you an upset hormone balance.
So I take my cup of coffee nicely without milk and sugar, but I prefer tea the most!
Britta Meijers
Skin therapist and orthomolecular nutritionist at Huidkliniek Amsterdam Zuid
Sources:
Melnik, B.C. & Zouboulis, C. (2013). Potential role of FoxO1 and mTORC1 in the pathogenesis of Western diet-induced acne. Experimental Dermatology 22(5):311-315
Ismail, N. H., Manaf, Z. A. & Azizan, N. Z. (2012). High glycemic load diet, milk and ice cream consumption are related to acne vulgaris in Malaysian young adults: a case-control study. BMC Dematology 16:12-13
