Is a dairy free diet good for acne, eczema etc?

Acne and dairy

As you probably know we have four junior shepherds, and unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of experience with acne. If you search on Google about dairy and acne or dairy intolerance and acne, you will get headlines like “ I gave up dairy and my adult acne disappeared in under a month! Of course, it’s not that simple.

Dairy intolerance

Many people  who believe they have a dairy intolerance, think about going dairy free, but this course of action comes with its own challenges for overall health. A significant downside of the dairy-free diet is getting the correct amount of calcium. Dairy alternatives lack the recommended amounts of calcium and vitamin D which are essential to bone health and overall development. Then if you care about the planet most of the plant based alternatives are made thousands of miles away, and have a huge carbon footprint.

Dairy Free Diet

Rather than taking a drastic dairy free diet step, it might be worth looking at other cow dairy alternatives. This is because most of the cow dairy products: milk, butter cheese etc, contain a protein called A1 β-casein. This type of protein has been shown in studies to cause inflammation of the gut and exacerbated gastrointestinal symptoms, which can result in acne, eczema, bloating etc. Sheep, goat and buffalo dairy milk products contain a protein called A2 β-casein, which doesn’t cause this inflammation. Sources below.

If you felt that trying a dairy alternative might be a good idea we have samples of our sheep's milk yogurt with A2 protein here  https://velvetcloud.ie/collections/all-products/products/free-sample-velvet-cloud-sheep-s-milk-yogurt-450g

Sources: 

https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12937-017-0275-0

He, M., Sun, J., Jiang, Z.Q. et al. Effects of cow’s milk beta-casein variants on symptoms of milk intolerance in Chinese adults: a multicentre, randomised controlled study. Nutr J 16, 72 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-017-0275-0

Veith WB, Silverberg NB. The association of acne vulgaris with diet. Cutis. 2011 Aug;88(2):84-91. PMID: 21916275.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21916275/#:~:text=Abstract,and%20to%20the%20obesity%20epidemic.

Bartley J, McGlashan SR. Does milk increase mucus production? Med Hypotheses. 2010 Apr;74(4):732-4. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2009.10.044. Epub 2009 Nov 25. PMID: 19932941