No milk/No Dairy : Dairy Free Diet

I tried to stay away from dairy as much as possible for about two-three months. It was very hard, we eat a lot of dairy-based food in my family, but we started using oat milk (I think that's what it's called) which worked fairly well. During this time I saw no improvement on my skin whatsoever. I occasionally put some butter on my sandwich every now and then but compared to the massive amount of dairy I used to consume, you'd think you'd still be able to see improvement even with a little cheating. I honestly can't see a connection between my dairy intake and acne, so I've given up om it and now I eat yoghurt everyday for breakfast and so far my skin has not been getting worse (I've been eating it for a few weeks). I guess like with everything it's individual. I'm not sure if milk/lactose intolerance is connected to acne, but I come from Sweden where lactose intolerance is one of the lowest in the world. Just a thought!

If you're like me then you have hormonal breakouts. I cut out MOST dairy such as soft cheeses, and drinking milk. I still eat hard cheeses and I drink almond milk now. It has absolutely helped in the severity of my acne. I still get pimples, but not the giant puss filled ones that last 3 weeks.

I have been on a dairy free diet for about 6 months, 2 months in I COMPLETELY stopped getting any cystic acne and I have honestly not had a single cystic pimple since, I do still get surface acne but much much less frequently I understand this may not work for everybody and must admit it was very hard at first to exclude dairy from my diet but I have had amazing results and recommend anyone to at least give it a go An animals milk is meant for its offspring, it contains hormones and sometimes other things added by milking companies such as steriods and antibiotics that we should not be ingesting Do your best to eat what we are meant to be eating, theres nothing to loose, you'll see improvements all round not just in your skin dont treat your body like a trashcan!

While this may not work for everyone (my sister did not see similar results to mine) I recommend trying it, what have you got to lose? In order to be sure of what has an effect, it is important to only change this one thing and for at least 3-4 weeks before deciding if it works.

So I'm 18 and after a couple of years of on-off bad acne I finally gave in and decided to cut dairy out of my diet. I decided to do it at a particular flare up in my skin at the beginning of 2017 when i was just feeling awful and felt like I had tried everything else. It took a week of dairy free for me to really see a difference... and there was a good difference! For the first week i saw no change though and was close to giving it up but decided to stick it out for 2 weeks because it would make sense to take time to see effects. After 1 week exactly my skin drastically changed. Its difficult to explain but it generally took away the oily greasiness of my skin, and when i looked in the mirror it didnt look as angry, red and inflamed and wet with grease. But the main thing is that I wasnt getting my usual new 3-4 spots a day!!! my skin was calm, no longer angrily, producing spot after spot. HOWEVER and this is a big however, I'm not entirely sure of the effect of dairy free alone. One week after going dairy free was when I started taking saw palmetto supplement, probiotics and evening primrose oil.... and it was around that time that i saw the difference. So its difficult for me to isolate the effect of dairy free alone. About 1 month later, I stopped taking those supplements temporarily for 1 week (because i ran out) but did continue dairy free. I had been dairy free for about 1 month at this point and i thought i had it all sorted. HOWEVER my skin went back to its normal self, oily red inflamed.. 3 spots a day etc... I was confused and it shows that it wasnt the dairy free which was having an effect it was the supplments!!! Dairy free didnt work alone..... But then last week i accidentally ate some toffee popcorn compleltey forgetting that it had milk in the ingredients. i was taking supplements at this point, but because i had broken my dairy free, i did have 4 more spots on my face over two days and the oilyness retuned for 1 day. SO this shows that dairy free does work and have a difference... i think the moral of this tale is that, for me anyway, i need to combine dairy free diet with other supplements for the desired effect. In terms of the pain of not having dairy in the UK there are plenty of substitutes... you can get dairy free butter (its not actually butter though obvs) spread, chocolate, biscuits, chocolate puddings, milk obviously, cheese, pizza and theres plenty of nice food which is not dairy; namely crisps, some popcorn, sweets..... *note that i have PCOS hormone imbalance related acne and that dairy free might work differently for that

35 year old female. Started suffering with acne at 15 years old. "Cured" by the pill from age 17 to 29. Been suffering to varying degrees since coming off the pill 7 years ago. I cut dairy completely out of my diet a month ago; milk, cheese, butter and all milk by products. At the same time I stopped using the topical treatment Clearogen that I had been using once a day, and use a natural wash & moisturiser instead. I also started taking a probiotic, Omega 3 fish oils and zinc. I added Agnus Castus too, but I admit I haven't been taking it everyday as I don't like the taste. I started drinking at least 1 cup of green tea per day. I have mild to moderate acne. I usually have about 2-3 active spots at any time. Up until day 10 my skin got a lot worse, with approximately 9 active spots. This then started to taper off. By day 21, I had no active spots. But at day 30, I'm now back to having 2-3 active spots, which is pretty much where I started. It is my time of month though, so maybe this is why, but I can't say for sure. I also have a lot of new red marks on my face from when my skin purged up until day 10. These will take a long time to fade. I am unsure or not whether to continue. I told myself I'd give it a month and see if it improved. I put a lot of effort in and I feel very disappointed that I don't have the results I was hoping for. Do I need to try it for longer? Are there any other vitamin supplements I should add? I just don't know whether to continue or not.

It's been a year since am on dairy free diet & its working. My previously oily T-zone is no more oily. Those nasty pimples shows up whenever i eat dairy food by mistake. Also Stress is one of the contributor I suppose. So stay away from dairy as well as stress. Keep smiling!! :)

I have struggled with severe acne for almost 20 years. It was all types but mainly cystic all over my face. The last year was the worst and I am 33 years old. My face had small bumps all underneath my skin and I was never without cystic acne. Finally I gave up lal dairy and seen no improvement the first two months and then I could see my skin was purging all the stuff that was under the skin and they were all coming to a head. By 4 months I had only a few bumps left under my skin and maybe one cystic spot that month. Now at 6 months my skin is completely clear, even when the sun shines on my face there isn't one bump on my face. I have tried everything too and this was my last hope. The key is to not give up and to cut down on your sugar intake also. I have heard of other and taking up to 9 months before seeing huge results but the good thing is once it's gone your whole life changes.

I've had acne for four years and found that it was just getting worse and worse. I had tried everything to get rid of my spots and even went on antibiotics twice but it barely did anything and my skin began looking severe, mainly on my chin and forehead. I would never wear makeup so I knew that that wasn't the reason for my acne, but I had lots of dairy products every day. However, I didn't think that that was the reason as I ate healthy meals, never had fast food and found lots of articles online that stated that your diet has nothing to do with your acne. Four months ago my skin began getting extremely bad so my doctor recommended going on accutane. He made it clear that it should be my last resort because of the side effects, so I decided to go on a plant based diet to see if my skin improves. This lasted for just under a month, the day after I had my first day just eating salad and fruit (I took spirulina for calcium and protein and mixed that with a teaspoon of honey and a whole lemon to take away the taste of it- it didn't taste too bad) my skin already improved A LOT. I also felt a lot more awake and I didn't bloat at all. A week past and my skin completely cleared, I was just left with a load of red acne scars all over my skin and forehead (which I still have). I gave up my plant based diet so I could eat fish and eggs, but completely got rid of meat and dairy products out of my diet. I have a shot of vinegar every morning as well as a cup of green tea which is left overnight so all the nutrients go into the water. I have oats for breakfast everyday which has maca powder, and I still have spirulina. I only use fruit as my source of sugar. My skin sometimes breaks out on my forehead and a tiny bit on my chin, but I think that it's hormonal, my skin gets back to normal within a week. Sometimes I will have a small pimple or too as well, but it's nothing compared to what my skin used to be like. I've even had people telling me how much my skin's improved. I defiantly recommend getting rid of dairy, it's worth a try but dairy may not be the reason for your acne. Make sure to have enough calcium, etc and make sure that you're also eating healthy whilst on your dairy free diet (so no fast foods, chips, crisps, etc). I also found that exercising every day improved my skin. I go on a twenty minute walk every morning to school and a half hour walk back. Every evening I have a exercise routine which I do outside so I have some fresh air. It always makes my skin look so much more brighter and clearer! Good luck for anyone going on this dairy free diet, it's so worth it! I hope this helped :)

I feel like an idiot for never trying to cut out dairy before, after suffering for many years. Within a week all new cysts stopped appearing and the existing ones started to shrink considerably. I give 4 stars because I was still getting small inflammatory whiteheads, though they healed quicker than usual. A few weeks after cutting dairy I cut gluten too, and I swear after 1 week all afterthe little whiteheads were gone too. Give it a shot, especially if you get cysts. I wish I had much earlier. ***Edit*** Ok after awhile I feel like I have to edit bcause I was bad during the week of my husbands birthday and ate dairy and gluten 3Ã - . I immediately went back on after that week, but it didnt clear like it did before. I was dispairing over it and feeling like I was right back at square one AGAIN, but then I remembered I had also began 2 tsp of cod liver oil per day a few days before I quit dairy, and I ran out a few days before my week of cheating on my diet and just didnt get a chance to run to the healthfood store for another bottle. Now a week after starting clo again Im already looking great. Im still avoiding dairy bcuz I beleive it really isnt good for you, but now I can have it on special occasions without my skin freaking out. Try it! The pills just arent enough though, you'd have to take 10 to equal a tsp. Garden of life and twinlabs norweigan are both fairly cheap and both worked for me. Good luck everyone!!!