Is Soy Making You Breakout?

You may not know this yet, but I struggled with cystic acne for almost 4 years when I started Veise. 

I had no idea at the time that food could be contributing to my flare ups until I really started to pay attention to my skin and became committed to figuring out a way to clear my skin naturally. 

Now I know a lot of skincare companies would evil eye me over writing a blog post saying that not ALL skin concerns can be fixed with topical treatments, but we're not most skincare companies. Skin health, internal health, and mental health all go hand in hand when seeking a healthier lifestyle. 

I've learned that when you deal with acne or cystic acne, a food based approach along with amazing skincare also go hand in hand. 

If I'm not sharing my full knowledge and experience I've learned through my own skin struggles, then I'm not very good at being a CEO. 

My current food regimen - notice how I don't say diet? It's a lifestyle. Not a quick fix.

I'm a gluten free, soy free vegan, who still takes my Veise Collagen Peptides everyday. When I decided to become Vegan, it was initially an experiment to see how cutting out meat would affect my skin; whether that was for good or bad.

Again, you don't know me very well yet but I've always had a saying. That I want to experience everything. 

My mother hated this when I was growing up because I typically got into trouble from my curiosity, and my need for adventure getting the best of me sometimes. 

It's a blessing now because I want to experience all the different things that can happen from our skincare line. What happens if you wear a mask too long? What happens if you overuse our products? How does this particular food group or item affect the skin? 

I have to know.

And we're cruelty free, so who better to test all my experiments on, than me!

Goodbye Dairy

I was already dairy free and had an inkling that soy and gluten also contributed to my cystic flare ups. 

I had been doing this food related experiment for about 6 months at this point, and noticed that every time I ate cheese or chocolate (I already only drank nut milk), my skin would become inflamed and I would see more cystic knots pop up. 

{I'll do a separate blog post dedicated to why dairy can cause flareups}

The case against Soy

When I became Vegan, most of my meat consumption was replaced with delicious soy free options, and I went HAM on any and everything that was vegan. 

I was soooo excited to eat mayonnaise, and butter, and desserts, and everything that I hadn't eaten previously because of the negative effects on my skin.

The first week was great. I instantly saw a shift in my skin for the better - glowing, vibrant, less inflammation, and less redness. 

I thought I had finally found the other culprit causing my random cystic flare ups, out of what seemed like no where!

Then one week later, my face blew up. And I was crushed. Large, deep, painful cystic knots on my cheeks and around my chin. 

I cried, picked at them, did some positive mantras, and sat completely awe struck as to what had happened. My face hadn't freaked out like this in months. The traumatizing thought that I hadn't kicked my cystic acne like I thought I had, completely crushed me.

For a day.

And then it hit me.

It was the high amounts of soy I was eating.

Food Allergies

I already have a lot of food allergies because of my auto-immune disease. Due to the crazy amount of research and medical journals I've read learning how to heal my body with food, it absolutely made sense that food allergies and cystic acne worked together. 

It's funny because you don't really see a lot of information on this topic when you google it, and that's because there hasn't been a lot of research done on the two topics being linked. For years the marketing and advertising industry boasted that acne or especially cystic acne were not linked to foods, in an effort to drive revenue for the pharmaceutical companies and big skincare companies.

Some people can eat anything and everything, and never have an issue. 

Some of us on the other hand, have sensitivities or allergies that in order for us to live our best lives, are something we need to pay attention to and essentially respect that our bodies are telling us, "Hey, I don't like this."

I like to think it's part of what makes us unique individuals ;)

With my auto-immune disease, anti-inflammatory foods like turmeric cause inflammation in my body. Too much avocado, or cucumber - causes inflammation. Coconut, mangos, zucchini, squash, oats, grapefuit; they're all good for your right? They cause so much inflammation in my body that I get seizures. 

I'm telling you this to make a point that every single persons body reacts differently to different foods. 

Theirs nothing wrong with you if every time you eat a cookie, you break out. Or if you eat soy and breakout. Or dairy. Or gluten, Or nuts. 

This is your bodies way of telling you that this particular food group or item, doesn't vibe here. It's causing inflammation, or throwing your hormones out of whack. 

Which comes back to the case for Soy.

Phytoestrogens 

Soybeans are high in phytoestrogens, which can reduce the amount of estrogen in the body. Meaning that if you have balanced estrogen, eating foods high in phytoestrogen, can throw the whole machine off kilter, leading to increased cystic acne. 

Phytoestrogens are also commonly found in flax, and sesame as well. A diet rich in phytoestrogens can decrease your estrogen levels by as much as 30%!

That's insane isn't it?! No wonder some of us are having issues with our skin. Our body has no idea how to keep up!

I am not a doctor, nor should this be taken as medical advice. This is from not only my own research, but many other women I have seen that have the same sensitivity to soy. 

If you haven't tried removing soy from your diet (not just tofu or foods that are strictly soy, soy lecithin too which is commonly found in a lot of foods, including some all natural foods) 

Check ingredients and pay attention to your skin. 

Don't become obsessed, but do your own experiments and watch your skin. If you notice an improvement from cutting out soy, then my dear, we may be on to something. 

Let us know in the comments below how your own experiment goes. We love to hear from you!

xoxo,

Angelica