I know that this is a fairly controversial statement. Some doctors say that what you eat has no effect on the oiliness or dryness of your skin, and other doctors say that what you eat absolutely affects your face.
My mom and my sister have always complained that they can't eat chocolate because it makes them break out, and my mom has gone so far as to tell people she's allergic to it. And Past Allie always thought this was silly, because I've never heard of a few pimples counting as an "allergic reaction."
But you know how much I love Nutella? I started noticing that every time I eat it, within a day or two I get huge cystic acne flares. I thought it was because Nutella is quite oily, and decided maybe I shouldn't buy it anymore. But my skin was still flaring up every time I ate regular chocolate too.
This was kind of mind-boggling to me. I've been a Proactiv user for years and years because I had bad acne as a teenager, and when I tried to stop using it as an adult, my skin freaked out again, and so I've been back on it ever since. I figured adult acne was just my cross to bear. So the idea that maybe I could control my skin a little better by cutting out chocolate was intriguing.
AND TERRIBLE. I decided I should try an experiment to see if my skin clears up when I avoid chocolate, and on the first day, I came home and wailed to Matt that I didn't think life without chocolate was worth living. (He was obviously super thrilled with this assessment of my life.)
I just discovered Japanese green tea chocolate! How can you take this deliciousness away from me?!
Since then, I have managed to go two or three days at a time, but I keep forgetting that I'm not eating chocolate and then accidentally eat it. (On Sunday I scarfed two Andes mints at Olive Garden before I remembered that Andes mints are chocolate. Gah. Life without Andes mints isn't worth living.)
I am still interested in the results of this experiment though, if I can ever display enough self-control to actually avoid cocoa for more than a few days at a time. I'm half-scared that my skin will be perfect sans chocolate and that I'll have to give it up forever, and half-scared that it won't have any effect and that my skin just sucks.
Do you think the things you eat affect your skin? What couldn't you live without?
Oh my God. I ... I can't even imagine. Sending lots of craving-canceling hugs your way :(
ReplyDeleteBUT. Have you tried fake chocolatey stuff? Like Oreos, which are actually vegan? Does that count? I worked with a girl who was allergic to a bunch of stuff, including chocolate, and she still found fixes here and there by eating the fake stuff. Which is OBVIOUSLY not as great-tasting, but definitely works in a pinch.
Now that I'm in my mid-thirties, I have noticed this. I don't eat chocolate on a daily basis, but I had quite a bit at Valentine's Day and then got a weird breakout. It was the first time I ever thought chocolate might be the culprit.
ReplyDeleteAh. Green tea kitkats. My FAVORITE. You can get them at world market and I have to keeeeep driving when I pass one of those or next thing I'm spending $25 on candy.
ReplyDeleteHOW did I not know that Oreos are vegan?!?!?! I love Oreos, and I hadn't even considered whether they could count or not.
ReplyDeleteI probably eat way more chocolate than I should. I have basically no self-control when it comes to sweets.
ReplyDeleteWHAT. I had no idea you could get them there. I just had some co-workers visit Japan and brought some back! I guess it's a good thing there are no World Markets by us in Va, or we would be in trouble.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! Be sure and tell us what you discover. I don't have the best skin, but it is MUCH better than it was even a few years ago. One thing I did had nothing to do with food.... I started paying a lot more attention to how often I was touching my face during the day, picking at my skin and such. It started improving when I made a concentrated effort to just not touch my face. Maybe I should try the chocolate thing too and see if that helps even more!
ReplyDeleteHm, I hadn't thought about how often I touch my face. I'll have to think about that too! I know that before I had text messaging on my phone, I used to get breakouts on my cheeks and close to my ears from holding my phone up to my face constantly, but now I use texting way more than the actual phone.
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