Suffering From Skin Issues? Beauty Blogger Taylor Love Shares How Giving Up Gluten + Dairy Can Help

Have you ever suffered from skin issues? Unfortunately, most of us have. From acne to eczema, skin issues can do a number on your confidence. I’ve definitely been there!

For this reason, I want to talk about something that’s really helped me in the skin department, cutting out dairy and gluten. Before you go rolling your eyes, hear me out because cutting out dairy and gluten has been one of the best things I’ve ever done for my skin.

While I’ve gone into detail about this subject in my dairy & gluten free recipe ebook, I’ve never really discussed it on the blog before and felt like it was about time to get this out there!

To give the full story, I feel like I need to give a bit of my skin background.

Around the age of 12, I started getting acne. This was in 6th grade and happened to be a few years before anyone else I knew had it. This was something that totally affected my confidence between the ages of 12-14. Luckily by the time I got into high school, my skin had cleared up. I’m pretty sure it was my hormones that balanced out but man, those two years felt like a LONG time when you’re the only middle school kid with pimples.

There was another time during my junior year of college where my skin got really bad and the cystic acne came back around. This was around the time that I discovered my functional hormone specialist, who has been a real lifesaver in my wellness journey! After finding this specialist and getting my hormones under control, my skin got better once again, but still wasn’t fully where I wanted it to be.

At this time, my diet was what I thought was “healthy” but was actually filled with many different processed foods along with dairy and gluten. The cherry on top for me what that I also started breaking out in eczema rashes around my chest and back. I had never experienced this before and vowed to get to the bottom of what was causing that inflammation in my body.

I did a huge deep dive of research and learned all about an elimination diet. Basically what this means is to cut out a food group that is often times known to cause inflammation for a full 8 weeks, to see if it makes you feel better and helps your symptoms.

I was going through a yoga teacher training and decided there was no time like the present to cut dairy and gluten cold turkey to see if it would heal the eczema and improve my skin!

It was pretty crazy because I was fully prepared to have to wait the 8 weeks before noticing much of a difference. NOPE! I was blown away by how amazing I felt, even those first few days without dairy and gluten. I was also shocked at how many of the salad dressings, bars, cereals, and other items I deemed “healthy” had dairy and gluten in them. Giving them up taught me to be an ingredient reader and really opened my eyes to many ingredients that are hiding in our foods.

Another thing I noticed right away was that I didn’t have a stomach ache after eating anymore. I can’t believe I thought this was normal! I definitely now know that if your body is giving you symptoms, it’s trying to tell you something. Don’t ignore it and don’t give up until you get to the bottom of what’s bothering you.

Another thing I want to point out is the difference between a food sensitivity and a food allergy. A food allergy is where you have a direct reaction right after eating a food. This can be the kind of reaction where people are rushed to the hospital, like for a peanut allergy. The stories I’m telling in this post are not food allergies, but food sensitivities. At different points in life, we can become sensitive to different foods, like I did to dairy and gluten.

Does this mean that I will never eat dairy or gluten again? No. For me, it means that I’ve gone without them for the past two years and feel WAY better without them at this point in life. However, maybe my body will change and I’ll eat them again sometime! Who knows!

If you guys enjoyed this post, you might be interested in checking out my dairy & gluten free ebook which can be found here. It’s chock-full of all of my favorite easy recipes and exact shopping list that you can print out and bring with you to the store!

Thanks so much for stopping by, love you all!

-Tay
xoxo

For even more wellness + beauty inspiration, follow Taylor on Instagram and check out her blog, Love Inside + Out!