Drop the Dairy, Clear Up Facial Discoloration

Resolve Complexion Problems with Face Reading

This twenty-three-year-old from Michigan, I’ll call her Arwen, is concerned about the facial discoloration around her nose and lips. Additionally her bowels are irregular. She’s been bothered by these problems for a few years and can’t figure out what causes them. As we’ll see below, dairy appears to be one trigger.

What can Arwen do to resolve facial discoloration and problem bowels? Let’s take a look using Face Reading, also known as Face Mapping.

1. Red under nostrils
2. Greenish/white above lip
3. Cupid’s bow outlined with white
4. Variable lip color
5. Lip borders are not precise
6. Bottom lip is double the volume of top lip
7. Pink/white ledge below bottom lip
8. Dark blue color under mouth

What Arwen’s Face Reveals

I see eight Face Reading indicators around her mouth. Can you see them? As some are subtle, zoom in to clearly see them. 

The mouth region corresponds to digestion, and any color, tone, or texture irregularities here point to gut problems. On the other hand, when digestion is sound, we see: 

• Skin surrounding the mouth is uniform in color with normal tone and texture
• Lips are uniform in size and color
• The border between the lips and skin is precise and clearly defined 

You’ll find examples in my Face Reading blogs. Using photos—including before and after photos—these blogs show you how your face is a readout for what’s going on under your skin. Thanks to photography, the traditional Asian art of Face Reading is now profoundly more subtle and revelatory.

Drop the Dairy to Clear up Discoloration

Here’s Arwen’s accompanying 24-hour food log. Overall her diet looks good with the exception of breakfast and, potentially, the wheat sandwich.

Breakfast: Puffed rice with milk

Lunch: Stir-fried vegetables

Dinner: Carrot soup and chicken sandwich

Snack: Blueberries

Beverages: Tea

Three Nasties 

First, refined foods don’t satisfy. Packaged breakfast cereals, even plain puffed rice, are highly processed. Therefore, they cannot deeply nurture. For a felt sense of this, mentally compare a bowl of steamed rice or quinoa to packaged breakfast cereal. The latter lacks substance.

Second, refined foods are inflammatory. Furthermore, both wheat and dairy often trigger inflammation in chronic health conditions. Such inflammation underlies illnesses including: heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and bowel diseases. As Arwen has had digestive concerns for several years, the odds are that she’s somewhere on the spectrum of chronic bowel disease. Note: some people can tolerate wheat.

Last, the refined grains in the puffed rice and sandwich, raise blood sugar. Breakfast sets your digestive template for the day. So if it raises blood sugar, as would Arwen’s puffed rice, it triggers sugar cravings for the day. No matter your intention to avoid sugary things, you crave them. No fun.

Problems with Dairy

But perhaps a key cause of Arwen’s facial discoloration is the dairy. It is well known that dairy products irritate chronic bowel disease. Given her actual name (which will remain anonymous), it appears that Arwen is Asian, and therefore the odds are high that she’s dairy intolerant. Asian and African American ethnicities have a 75% to 95% lactose intolerance rate. Northern Europeans have a lower rate, at 18% to 26% lactose intolerance.

What’s true for people of all backgrounds today is that dairy products are one of the top food irritants. This means that even if you tolerate lactose (a milk sugar), you may not be assimilating its fat or its protein (casein and whey).  

Many of my clients claim they’ve resolved lactose intolerance by favoring lactose-free dairy, or only A2-type milk, or only fermented dairy products, or only ghee, or only goat’s milk. But their symptoms and faces indicate otherwise. When these clients go dairy free, their symptoms resolve and their faces show it.  

Strong Cravings Are a Red Flag

If you have ongoing digestive problems, the odds are that your mouth region has unusual color, texture, or tone. If so, it’s time to experiment. Start by eliminating the most common food irritants, such as dairy, gluten, eggs, and nuts. The foods that you most crave are most suspect, so go without them for one month. If your issues don’t resolve, the odds are that you’re consuming additional food irritants or that you need digestive support such as enzymes. 

Rely on your face to help you discern. Track your mouth region and pay attention to what makes it look good and what supports your well-being. My blogs will help you discern what to look for. Or consider an in-depth, personal Face Reading from me.