Is Your Morning Coffee Contributing to Acne?

If you’ve been dealing with stubborn breakouts, it might be time to take a closer look at your coffee routine—specifically, the milk you're using.

Here’s the scoop: Research suggests that skim milk may increase the risk of acne. When milk is processed to remove fat, it ends up with higher levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1)—a hormone that can trigger more oil (sebum) production in your skin, which can lead to clogged pores and breakouts.

But that’s not all. Skim milk also contains casein and whey proteins, which can spike your insulin levels. This in turn can increase androgens, hormones that are strongly linked to acne flare-ups.

So, what about whole milk, cheese, or yogurt? Good news—these full-fat dairy products don’t seem to have the same acne-promoting effects. Some studies even show little to no connection between these and breakouts.

What can you try instead?

• Switch to whole-fat dairy in your coffee.

• Experiment with milk alternatives like almond, oat, or soy.

• Keep your cheese and yogurt if they don’t seem to be bothering your skin.

Of course, acne is complex, and what works for one person may not work for another. But if you're guzzling skim milk daily and struggling with acne, it could be a helpful change to try.

👉 Know someone fighting acne and drinking lots of milk? Send this their way—they might thank you later.

Want the transript for this video instead?

 Have you been struggling with acne? Let's talk about how the milk you're using in your daily coffee might be playing a role. Skim milk has been shown. To have an increased risk of acne in processing the skim milk to remove the fat skim milk actually has a higher level of insulin-like growth factor.

Insulin like growth factor can actually lead to more oil and more sebum production leading to more acne breakouts. Now, the other side of this is that skim milk also contains cain and whey protein, and that actually increases your insulin level. Increasing insulin levels lead to increasing androgen levels, which are the hormone that can make acne worse.

Now I know what you're thinking. What about whole fat dairy? What about cheese? What about yogurt? Those things don't seem to have as strong of an effect, and some of them don't have an effect at all. What can you do? Well, you can try switching to whole fat dairy. You could try switching to a milk alternative like soy or almond or oat.

Certainly you can continue having your yogurt and your cheese. Not everybody is gonna respond to making these changes, right? There are a lot of different things that go into acne, but I'm merely pointing out. But if you are struggling with acne and you are using a lot of skim milk, maybe it's worth a shot.

Send this to somebody who is struggling with their acne and drinking a lot of milk.