May 5, 2015

If I'm allergic to ice cream, I can probably just end things now.

The title may seem over-dramatic, but I don't really think it is.

For the last few months, my skin has been clearer than it has in the last 2 years.  I thought maybe I was just allergic to Scott (ha ha ha) because it was after he deployed that I really noticed it.  Then, 2 weeks after Easter, I went to Culver's, bought a few pints of frozen custard, and enjoyed an embarrassing amount of it over a 2 day period.  That was Sunday and Monday.  By Wednesday, I had a cluster of pimples on my cheek.  By cluster, I mean 4 large-ish pimples that needed to be popped in order to get them to heal and go away.  I haven't seen pimples like that since...January?  Maybe before?  I don't know.  They were the kind of pimples I had plaguing me last spring.

These pimples lasted for about 5 days.

Then I thought about something: I'd given up ice cream for Lent.  Lent had, coincidentally, started around the time Scott deployed.  I hadn't had any ice cream for at least 8 weeks.

Then I started thinking about dairy...I don't eat much dairy.  I don't drink milk, except for the occasional splashes of cream in coffee.  Most days, I use the preservative-laden non-dairy creamer. I also, more or less, stopped drinking lattes within the last year because they didn't do much for me, caffeine-wise (I have a high tolerance). I always sort of had this theory that lattes were causing breakouts, but I never really put it to the test.  There's so many variables and the most likely cause has always been hormones.
Moving on...I don't eat yogurt.  I never got the appeal. I do like plain Greek yogurt mixed with cereal but it bothers my stomach so awhile ago I decided it wasn't worth it.  I only really eat cheese on pizza.  Occasionally a quesadilla.

So, I didn't eat dairy for a week after the ice cream feast and the pimples went away and no more popped up.  That was always my biggest issue: I wouldn't get one pimple.  I would get 15 at once and they would never go away.  But these went away and that was it.  Aside from cheese once or twice a week, I haven't had dairy since then.  And I haven't had anymore issues.

Which leads me to believe that large, concentrated amounts of dairy aren't good for me.  Like the large concentrated amounts found in ice cream.

I would really really hope that I'm wrong.  Like, this is awful.  But honestly, nothing is worth bad skin.  Not even ice cream.  I've learned that over the last year for sure.  However, the only way to test for an allergy is to take away a food and then reintroduce it.  So, I'll probably just avoid it for the time being.  Of course, I do wonder about the psychological effect of this.  Will I expect ice cream to cause problems in the future?  Will it be some kind of backwards placebo effect?  I don't know.  This is terrible.

This is the card that came with my ice cream necklace a few years ago...it shows how deep my devotion runs.


19 comments:

  1. That would be so sad to be allergic to ice cream. I have rosacea and it flares up due to caffeine and hormones. That being said, I will not give up my cherry coke daily habit - I'll suffer with the bad skin lol. Me without caffeine would be horrendous.

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  2. Interesting. I have a patch of breakout that occurs on my cheeks over the last several months that never really goes away. It goes down some, but not away. When they do pop up...they are painful! I wonder if I am eating something I shouldn't be. If it is dairy...just kill me now. I love cheese so, so much!

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  3. That sucks. I was lactose intolerant as a baby and it has come and gone over the years. Ice cream is the one thing that usually gets me though. I can eat it in small quantities, but nothing too big. I had been getting super weird stomach pains over the course of a year and couldn't peg it. They were the curl up in bed and not feel better till you puke kinda bad. I finally figured out it was aspartame. I switched from Coke Zero to Coke and they disappeared. Stuff is weird.

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  4. I've heard many people say that about dairy. Grains too.

    I'm sorry...I don't have much else to say...I'm still trying to absorb a life without ice cream.

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  5. ahhhh i cannot imagine being allergic to ice cream- it is one of my favorites!

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  6. Oh I would just die if I were allergic. Sorry to hear this!

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  7. Oh man! This just honestly sucks. I really hope that's not it :(

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  8. This sucks so much! I hope it's something else!

    I can't eat too much ice cream or have to move into the bathroom. So I eat it very selectively or when a flavor is truly worth it

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  9. Having to avoid dairy really stinks. The good thing is, it's easier than other stuff. At least I think so. I'm glad I have a dairy issue instead of gluten or nuts. There's hope, though, in the form of coconut ice cream. So good. And you can make it at home, too. Keep the ice cream dream alive.

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  10. Having to avoid dairy really stinks. The good thing is, it's easier than other stuff. At least I think so. I'm glad I have a dairy issue instead of gluten or nuts. There's hope, though, in the form of coconut ice cream. So good. And you can make it at home, too. Keep the ice cream dream alive.

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  11. What Anna said! Coconut ice cream is actually really good - so is almond milk ice cream though not quite as good. But I can relate to "nothing being worth ___". It's how I feel about soy stuff. Some of the best foods have soy in them (Chinese food, anyone? All flour tortillas I've ever seen? Anything deep fried in vegetable oil?) but they are NOT worth the 3 days of excruciating stomach cramps afterward.

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  12. that is awful. i eat so much dairy. mostly cheese and yogurt. i don't know what I would do without it!!

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  13. i really hope you aren't allergic to ice cream (or dairy). i will say that when i respect my disease (celiac, not allergic to dairy!) my skin is 10000 times better. whenever i eat gluten, my skin is the first thing to act up. maybe its our body's way of telling us that something isn't right haha.

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  14. Oh no. This is potentially really bad news! I love ice cream, too. But I have to say, as a person-who-can't-eat-quite-a-lot-of-tasty-things aka coeliac, the pros of not eating the tasty things always outweigh the cons. Doesn't mean it doesn't suck, though. Good luck with your dairy experimentation!

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  15. Oh noooooo! I've been wondering if dairy has been the root of a lot of my issues lately, too. I hope you're not allergic to ice cream :(

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  16. Oh no, that sucks! I have found I am becoming lactose intolerant. I love ice cream, but I feel awful after I eat it. Why must the delicious things treat us badly?

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  17. Oh man. I enjoy ice cream, but I don't love it. However, if I'm told I can't have something anymore, I desperately want it. This sucks for you. I'd hate it if for some reason I couldn't have beer ever again.

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  18. Same problem here. Seriously. Dairy definitely aggravates my acne something awful... so I try to avoid it. Yes, even ice cream, though sometimes it happens :P

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