Dairy is my nemesis

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I'm a little sad. I posted a couple of weeks ago that I was going to reduce my dairy intake to see if that helped my skin, secretly hoping that it would make no difference. I love cheese you see. Mozzarella, feta, Taleggio, Camembert, Cheddar.... you name it, I like it. Milk and yoghurt... I can take or leave them more or less (except for milk in my tea, that is non negotiable).

So I cut out dairy a bit, but then when we were on holiday in Tunisia, the only dairy I really consumed was the milk in my tea or coffee in the mornings, and a little bit of cheese in my omelette. Nothing too wild. Rest of the day, practically dairy free.

My skin started to clear up. Not completely, but the spots under my jaw on my neck started to heal and not reappear. I thought it might be the constant exposure to salt water, or not wearing make up every day, but I was wearing sunscreen (albeit Clinique's hypoallergenic, oil free City Block) and sweating a lot. And I already know that my spots generally don't react to make up (unless there are oils in it).

We came back and on request, I made lasagne for dinner. A big gooey, dairy laden lasagne with oodles of bechamel and mozzarella. We also went out for pizza for lunch. I had mozzarella and taleggio on my pizza.  And then my skin erupted. Nice big angry cystic spots that hurt like hell. With more coming after I'd had lasagne a second night (no space in the freezer for the leftovers).

So I think it is pretty clear, dairy is my nemesis. Well, my skin's nemesis. I have decided for now that I will still have a splash of milk in my tea, as my skin seems to be able to tolerate a little dairy, but in order to ensure that that is the only dairy I have, I need to be vigilant and cut it out of everything else. That means no sneaky whey powder in crisps, no hidden milk powder in other things, and absolutely no cheese.

I may yet end up investigating alternatives for my tea as well, I hate black tea, putting lemon in it is just weird, but I might need to go completely dairy free. Almond milk is one of the better things to replace with, but the commercially available stuff often has oils and sugars in, so I will need to make my own, which is thankfully quite easy!