Dairy and Soy: Why You Might Want to Stay Far, Far Away

I’ve long known that dairy leaves me feeling bloaty. I’m fine if I have a slice of cheese here and there or a little bit in my cereal and it’s not a problem if the dairy is in say a piece of cake, but if I have any more than that I end up looking like I’m pregnant for a few hours… A few months ago however I decided to ignore that fact and became obsessed with Greek yogurt. I figured it’s more important to be healthy and get probiotics, calcium, vitamin D etc. than worry about a balloon-like belly. Well after a few days of having two or three Greek yogurts a day my face broke out. This happens every so often, but usually the breakout clears up very fast. This time however it would not go away – and trust me I tried a lot of different products! It took me a good two months to make the connection to dairy, but once I did I cut out the Greek yogurt and my skin cleared up in less than a week. How insane is that?! It just goes to show what we eat really does affect us from the inside out beyond just our weight.

The fact that dairy causes acne was scientifically confirmed not too long ago (read about it in Clinics in Dermatology), but the problem is replacing it. My first instinct, like most, was soy. Unfortunately not only does soy cause bloating, 90% of it is genetically modified and it has been associated with a host of ailments (including cancer and mood swings) – soy milk and tofu are particularly bad as they tend to have the most processed forms of soy (versus say edamame beans). OK…so no soy! So what am I eating now to get all my probiotics? Coconut and almond-based yogurts. They’re not the tastiest and at about $2.50 they’re very expensive, but they’re healthy and get the snack job done, plus probiotics are a very important part of a healthy diet. Probiotics keep your gut healthy and when your gut is healthy it doesn’t need to waste excess energy on digestion and can instead focus on things like rebuilding collagen.