Got Milk? Got Acne?
There’s more to milk mustaches than meets the eye.
Especially if you suffer from acne.
Several large-scale studies have found a strong connection between drinking milk and acne. For example one study, published at American Journal of Dermatology, found that those who drank two or three glasses of milk a day had 44% higher chance of developing severe acne compared with people who didn’t drink milk.
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SIDENOTE: Though I’m only talking about milk and acne, this applies to all dairy products (such as cheese, yogurt and ice-cream). Most of them are just concentrated forms of milk – for example it takes 10 pounds of milk to make a pound of cheese.
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But how can a glass of nature’s perfect food create such havoc on your face?
Hmmm… let me count the ways…
Milk opens the sebum tap.
Drinking milk is like smearing sebum on your skin pores. And I really mean it. Every glass of milk you drink creates more sebum.
Nearly all commercial milk comes from pregnant cows. Pregnant cows’ milk contains hormones that increase sebum production.
Milk contains dihydrotestosterone (DHT) precursors, including 5a-pregnanedione and 5a-androstanedione. These hormones are only few steps away from DHT. DHT signals the skin glands to produce more sebum, and researchers agree DHT is a prime acnegen.
And that’s not all.
You skin already contains the enzymes requires for converting those precursors to DHT.
So with every glass of milk the DHT levels in your skin glands increase, and that means more sebum.
Milk contains IGF-1 and other growth hormones
It’s no surprise milk contains powerful growth hormones. It’s supposed to make things grow. Milk turns a newborn calf into 1.5 ton steer.
When you drink milk, you’ll get those same growth hormones. Because you don’t need them anymore they are going to cause more harm than good.
For acne victims it’s especially troubling that milk contains insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). Like I explained in what causes acne page, this hormone stimulates sebum production and increases skin cell turnover (=more dead skin cells to block the pores and faster aging of the skin).
Unfortunately the bovine (cow’s) version of IGF-1 is identical with humans. And, contrary to what FDA has claimed, it does survive digestion and it goes into your bloodstream.
Dairy industry’s own studies confirm this.
In a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (October, 1999, Vol. 99, No. 10) dairy researchers studied 204 healthy men and women. These people regularly consumed less than 1.5 servings of dairy products a day. They divided the participants into two groups. One was the control group that didn’t make any changes. The other group was asked to consume 3 servings of dairy products a day.
The results?
“Serum level of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) rose by 10% in the milk group“, write the researchers.
Of course the dairy industry puts their spin on this. They say IGF-1 helps bone density. Unfortunately research quite clearly shows that the more milk you drink the weaker your bones become. IGF-1 levels correlate closely with incidents of many cancers and acne.
This is from another large-scale study.
The most consistent finding was a positive association between protein intake with circulating IGF-I concentration (174, 188, 201, 192, and 196 ng/ml across quintiles of protein intake; P = 0.002), which was largely attributable to milk intake.Dietary Correlates of Plasma Insulin-like Growth Factor I and Insulin-like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3 Concentrations
So, more milk = more IGF-1 = more acne.
And if that’s not bad enough, milk also increases insulin levels.
Milk, insulin and acne
If you looked at the what causes acne page you noticed that insulin also increases acne.
Drinking milk significantly increases your insulin levels. Here again we can rely on studies funded by the dairy industry.
The blood glucose and plasma insulin responses to test milk samples were studied in healthy normal volunteers. After an overnight fast the subjects were given 500 ml of either regular fat free milk (abt 25 g lactose) or 500 ml of new low-lactose fat free milk (3.75 g lactose and 4.25 g fructose). Blood glucose levels were not significantly altered after either milk sample, but plasma insulin responses were significantly elevated after milk consumption.Blood glucose and plasma insulin responses to fat free milk and low-lactose fat free milk in healthy human volunteers
Insulin is one more pathway for milk to cause acne.
A yummy cocktail of bacteria, pus, chemicals and antibiotic
Most milk has measurable quantities of herbicides, pesticides, dioxins (up to 200 times the safe levels), up to 52 powerful antibiotics, blood, pus, feces, bacteria and viruses.
Milk doesn’t have to be pure white as fresh fallen snow to comply with the State and Federal Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. According to the regulations one 8 ounce glass of milk (240 milliliters) can contain 180 million white blood cells and still be fine for you to drink. In a study of milk sold in New York State the average SCC was 363,000 cells/ml. These white blood cells were produced by the cow to fight off the 24,400 bacteria/ml found in this milk.
Pasteurization does kill some of the bacteria but not all. When milk is pasteurized it’s heated to 162 degree Fahrenheit for 15 seconds. To sanitize water we are told to boil it (212 degrees F) for several minutes.
What does that tell you?
And even if all the bacteria in the milk would be dead they would still be in the milk. Your immune system still needs to clear them out of the bloodstream. That means more burden and more inflammation.
Pesticides, chemical and antibiotics in milk are going to create their own problems. Via the inflammation pathway they can directly increase acne.
I hope you are beginning to see why you shouldn’t drink milk if you want to cure acne.
For these and many other reasons milk is one of the first items in the ‘foods to eliminate’ list in my book Clear for Life.
So, for clear, acne-free skin wipe out the milk mustache.
What Other Visitors Have Said
Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page…
I had an opposite experience it’s funny.. bfore I used to drink tons of milk, eat lots of cheese and had very mild acne
I stopped consuming diary products and my acne has gotten a …
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Comments on Got Milk? Got Acne?
I think yogurt does cause acne.
i’ve never eaten yogurt in a daily basis,i read on a website that it can be an alternative to kefir, since it has probiotics. though it was also said that cow’s milk is really bad for the skin.
so i tried it for 2 weeks, unfortunately small acne grew on my chest, the last time i remembered having several acne on my chest was 10 years ago?! i guess, yogurt really causes acne.
Oh no. I’ve been drinking milk FOREVER. And I’m 16 and just started breaking out. Thanks so much for this little tip, I will now be more careful about drinking milk, you really opened my eyes about the bacteria being dead but not vanishing completely. And I never knew milk hindered your bones instead of helped! Why doesn’t the industry tell us these things?!
COMMENT BY SEPPO
Because the industry makes money every time you buy milk. If they would tell you milk is not good for you people would buy less milk and they would make less money.
I understand how this article pertains to regular milk, but I wonder if the warning extends to organic cow’s milk? (I made the switch a couple years ago and have noticed a huge health difference.) Furthermore….I’m curious if milk alternatives (such as soymilk, almond milk, goat milk, ect) are also to be avoided, since the author makes no mention of these. Anyone have answers?
@carolyn, since raw and organic milk is less popular it’s harder to find good information about how they affect acne. But from the little I’ve read at acne forums it seems that raw milk (and possibly organic also) is better for the skin. Raw milk has undergone less processing, so it’s generally speaking better.
That said, raw and organic milk still has the same growth hormones, which can be problematic for some people.
I guess the best I can say is to try it and see how it works for you. If you feel and look better then by all means keep at it.
I would stay away from soy milk. It can be as harmful as cow’s milk is. Rice, almond and nut milks are usually tolerated well.
hi:
I am 44 years old, I have chondromalacia patellae, therefore the orthopedician
advised me to drink a cup of milk every day, then cystic acne start to appear in my face after 3 months of milk consumption, i tried to cut off drinking milk or consuming diary products since few days ago after knowing these information about milk, shall i cure from acne ? and for how long i still not consuming cheese for example as a calcium source. Pls. just inform me.
Thanks a lot.
Actually, I call bullshit on that. I don’t deny that it may cause acne, but not milk or dairy products themselves (unless you have an allergy), but the additives in it. Tell me, did that study used organic milk, fat milk, milk with hormones…?
My brother spent his teenage years drinking roughly 3 liters of milk everyday, and he has no idea what is like to have a pimple. Seriously, not a single one through all puberty. And I’m talking regular milk, though not US milk (which I’ve heard has quite a bit of additions in comparison).
So maybe, instead of demonizing milk and dairy products in general, you can look it up to see if the fault isn’t actually from the addictives they put in it. Try switch to biological milk, and I highly HIGHLY doubt you will experience any issues.
how about almond milk? i have Silks unsweetened almond mlk and it is 100 percent almond milk? I dont think it causes acne? I want your opinion on i.
Almond milk is not really milk. Milk refers to dairy products. Non-dairy milks are just fine (with potential exception of soy milk for some people).
@dr.Azhar: Milk is not a calcium source on the contrary – it depleates your body from calcium. Check out ‘Got the facts on Milk? – The Milk Documentary. It will explain everything – why you should think about avoiding dairy
I’m really confused as to why you say soya milk is ‘as harmful’ as cow’s milk. I was under the impression soya milk was a safe alternative for acne sufferers and thought there was research that even suggested it helps fight acne. Could you explain your reasons for avoiding soya milk a little more? Also, if you recommend avoiding all dairy products, how should an acne sufferer get the necessary calcium intake into their diet? Thanks!
@Nadine, soy milk can cause sensitivity reactions in some people. It’s probably not as bad as cow’s milk to your skin, but I would still be careful with it. Home made yogurt is the only dairy product that can be safe for your skin. That’s because the fermentation process deactivates most of the IFG-1 hormone that causes acne.
Makes perfect sense to me after repeatedly testing it. I’ve been scraping to get by the last few weeks (student) and when I got money I decided to eat lasagna and 5-cheese toast one night, followed by pizza the next. At the time I was enjoying the clearest complexion I had had in weeks and today I have 4 new spots — big ones — and one is on my shoulder surrounded by red, all irritated. It’s amazing how quick that happened, but there was a delay of a few days. I read what you said about there being a delay in months’ time but that’s not what I’ve found in my case. Regardless, the effect is the same, and the simple nature of cow hormones and human consumption of another species’ fluids designed for its babies … yeah. I look forward to cutting dairy out, it has been the one constant variable in all these years of acne. No more!
@nadine: Soy milk contains phytoestrogens, which can cause a hormonal imbalance: I broke out after consuming too much soy milk and tofu, then had a test done to see what my hormone balance was, and not surprisingly, I had WAY too much estrogen and not enough progesterone to counteract it. I was breaking out on my cheeks, and this is usually caused by estrogen imbalance. Anything from congealed soy such as tofu and soy milk should be strictly avoided by acne-prone women (and men who don’t want to grow boobies!).
@Melanee, thanks for your comment. Though I have to disagree with you a bit. Yes there are phytoestrogens in soy but their effect in humans is very limited. For example studies have shown that soy (when eaten as food and part of a normal diet) has little to no effect in hormone levels in men. So no need to worry about growing boobs. Of course what studies show is on population level. But I’m sure there are some individuals who have trouble with soy and soy products – as is the case with pretty much any food you can think of, someone will have problems with it.