A Dairy-Free Attempt

During mid-semester break which was the beginning of April, I decided to stop having dairy. Malaysians were going through the Restriction Movement Order and that was when Dalgona coffee went viral. There was a small packet of Nescafe Classic Dark Roast coffee that we received for free a few months ago when we bought something (can't remember what was it) at the supermarket. We used that packet to make the Dalgona coffee and loved how the milk was able to balance the bitterness from the coffee.

Subsequently, we started buying fresh milk from the supermarket (which was not normal for my family because before this we used to buy milk powder) when we realized how the dark roast coffee powder was also good for making lattes at home. It was also a way cheaper alternative than drinking coffee at Starbucks😂 Besides, I was having a lot of fun making iced latte every morning before I go through my pile of schoolwork. I love seeing how the dark brown liquid slowly mixes with the white when the coffee is dripped into the milk and waking up to that coffee aroma☕

It's like walking into a bougie café every single morning.

After a week, there were pimples popping out which was totally normal for me but it was more frequent than before. Previously, I didn't really care about my dairy consumption because I was ingesting dairy since young and didn't have any acne problems up till the beginning of my twenties so I had assumed that it has nothing to do with my emerging pimples. However, I did notice that one of my friends had shared about how cautious he was when deciding whether to have a cheesecake sofuto (which was a seasonal-flavoured ice cream sold in Family Mart Malaysia) and I thought that it was just a myth about dairy that's bothering him.

My dad used to prepare Milo with oats every morning (with milk added into it) for me to have it with my breakfast before I head out to university. There was a time where I swapped Milo with peppermint tea just for a change. After a few weeks, my acne started to reduce to the extent that there were only scars left. I was curious so I tried searching the internet for an explanation. According to positivehealthwellness.com, peppermint tea reduces our sebum secretion due to the menthol in it and it also controls acne-linked hormones. I did try to purchase one box when we're shopping before the Restriction Movement Order started but it was sold out. The bad news was that it's not sold in all supermarkets. Thus, I didn't continue drinking and didn't ask my dad to buy when he went grocery shopping because I was the only one in the family drinking it. I didn't want to trouble him.

Back to when I was having homemade lattes every morning. My acne came back as per normal but this time I decided to look into the food that I'm consuming daily. I found out that caffeine doesn't cause acne but it could make your current acne situation worse. Simultaneously, I also realized that milk is a major triggering factor for acne problems with quite a few researches backing up. According to healthline.com, it's because when we're consuming milk, we're also consuming the hormones of the cow which causes hormonal imbalance. With all this information, I decided to take responsibility for my acne problem and try to be as healthy as possible. Since taking care of my skin also means being careful of what I consume daily, there's really no reason to not try taking care of my skin condition for once. However, I'm still working on getting enough sleep every night though😶