From an early age, we are taught to believe that consuming milk will make us big, strong and healthy. While milk is an essential nutrient for babies, many people start questioning its health benefits for weaned teens and adults. Just ask any follower of a vegan diet and they'll give you a laundry list of reasons not to drink milk as an adult, including that it's unnatural for a human to drink the breast milk of another animal.
So how does milk drinking relate to acne? A recent article in the
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology stated that there is an association between milk consumption and acne. The claim comes from a study performed at the Harvard School of Public Health of 47,000 women. The study states: "We found a positive association with acne for intake of total milk and skim milk. We hypothesize that the association with milk may be because of the presence of hormones and bioactive molecules in milk.”
It's long been known that hormones are injected into the cows to make them produce more milk. And since
hormonal activity is one of the reasons we breakout, it's an easy parallel to draw. We know it's not feasible for most people to go cold turkey on milk, so be sure to look for organic, hormone-free milk at the grocery store.
