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?