Skin Enemies

If you are reading this first of all, I hope you had a fantastic break and a wonderful holiday. If you are new to my blog, I talk all about skin care. My absolute favorite thing to research and talk about. In my last post I had mentioned that diet has a huge impact on our skin, which I will be covering in this blog post. In my family, dairy is not our best friend. My siblings and I were not as heavily affected by it as my oldest sister, who is lactose intolerant. But we are all lactose sensitive. So over the summer, I cut off dairy. I had initially hoped it would help my stomach aches but I miraculously found that it helped my acne and my dry scalp. I then decided to research more and, what do you know, dairy is a huge culprit in acne and breakouts (the question remains if it is dairy in it self or the way it is produced). Now this doesn't affect everyone of course, everyone's skin is different, but it made me wonder; what else am I consuming that's problematic for my skin? In the book "Skin Cleanse" Adina Grigore addresses these skin enemies.

So you may be wondering, is dairy really bad for you? Well, yes and no. Many claim it makes your body too acidic, or it disrupts our hormones, etc. Others disagree. Adina Grigore claims that it is the way it is produced. "First of all, milk is homogenized, which stops it from ever separating, and then pasteurized, which, as we've discussed, kills virtually all of the bacteria it contains. And then there's the way most dairy cows are raised: they're fed hormones and antibiotics, which end up in their milk and then in your body." (Grigore, 107) What she is saying here is that, dairy isn't the real deal. It has been messed with and changed so much, you can't even call it dairy. It's fake dairy. And many believe the process in which dairy is brought to our grocery stores is causing our hormones to freak out and, in turn, causing skin issues. Okay now I know your next question; what else am I eating that's bad for my skin? I'll tell you. Along with regular milk, I wouldn't suggest soy milk either. Soy is great on it's own but it is bad the same way dairy is. It is very industrialized, just as dairy is. Soy is often slipped into everyday foods without us even knowing. Butters, mayo, canned foods, baked goods, etc. Now don't freak out and stop eating mayo and baked goods, just don't go chugging soy milk from off the shelves at your nearest Safeway. Of course, anything that came in a wrapper or a package is obviously bad, and hopefully I shouldn't have to explain why. It is all processed containing synthetic flavors and preservatives.Yum. Soda. Yes even diet. Soda is overall really bad for you, trust me on this. It causes yellowing of the teeth, acne, everything terrible. Always research into those culprit foods, never trust a label.

In the book "Skin Cleanse" Adina Grigore offers multiple recipes as substitutes to food products we use everyday. One that caught my eye was a homemade mayonnaise. I'm not sure about you but my family uses a lot of mayo. So this sounded like a perfect replacement with greater benefits than your typical mayo. If you would like to make this as well, here's how you can.
Ingredients:
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup olive oil
juice of half a lemon
For this you need an immersion blender. Put all of the ingredients in a bowl wide enough for you to fit the blender in. Pulse it until it turns mostly white, then turn the blender on until completely mixed. Can be refrigerated for up to one week.


 
Mine did not turn out quite as I had hoped. I would recommend not using a super strong olive oil because that is what made mine taste not so great. But I still enjoyed making it and would like to make it again.

So, I would like to ask you: what is your biggest food culprit? What foods have you found cause you to have breakouts or have found negative skin reactions?