My friends call me a food snob. I’m not, really. I just have several allergies, including gluten, an allergy I only found out recently that resulted with my experimenting with my diet after a particularly frustrating bout of eczema.
Obviously, that realization has eliminated a lot of things in my diet. My new fiancé, on the other hand, is not only extremely health-conscious, he is also lactose-intolerant and he cannot eat peanuts and chocolate. Out future children will have to wear sandwich boards around their necks everywhere listing all their allergies.
While my eczema is better than ever these days, I do miss things I’ve enjoyed prior to discovering my gluten intolerance. I can’t go to 7-11 and buy any random loaf of bread to devour with my jar of Nutella, for example. And I can’t order anything from Subway. It gets depressing sometimes.
The good thing is, whether you’re allergic to some of the best things in life (can you imagine not being able to eat Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups because you’re allergic to both chocolate and peanuts?!), or you’re trying to eliminate some things from your diet, there are beauty substitute that can satiate your cravings.
Lactose Intolerance: The Olivina Napa Valley Apothecary Milk & Honey Collection
The first thing that caught my eye on the packaging of their body butter was that it said “natural.” One of mornings I was staying with Marci in New York, she yelled at the TV while we were getting ready for work, “Natural isn’t necessarily safer! I hate everyone.”
You know that time I put cheese on my face because lactic acid has wicked awesome properties that will do a ton of good things to your skin? I wasn’t kidding. Lactic acid is good for your skin. Just because you can’t consume it doesn’t mean you can’t slather it all over your pretty face (and milk baths in spas? YES!). Lactic acid helps remove dead skin cells and its natural fat helps moisturize; plus, the honey that’s also in the product acts as a natural antiseptic.
The body butter absorbs easily and quickly into the skin without being greasy, and it doesn’t contain fragrances either. Winner in my books.
Cutting Out Caffeine: Lather Daily Brew Lip Balms
Lather
Daily Brew Lip Balms$16.50
Going off caffeine is a very scary thing if you’ve been depending on it for every single day of your life since freshman year in college. One of my resolutions for 2013 was to eliminate some of the things I’m heavily dependent on, one of which was my daily cup of coffee before I could function like a normal human being. Well, as normal as I can possibly get, really.
These come in a pack of three flavors: fresh coffee, vanilla latte and green tea. I’m not a big fan of the scent from the green tea one, but the vanilla latte lip balm is delish.
No More Sugar: Olay Fresh Effects Out Of This Swirled
This cleanser-scrub combo--hitting stores soon--looks like a creamsicle I would devour on a hot summer’s day and it actually does smell like creamy popsicle.
The exfoliating beads in the formula are really fine, but I don’t recommend this as a daily face wash because it will probably irritate your skin with everyday use. It does, however, smell absolutely delicious and it might curb your desire to inhale another slice of pie.
Do you have food allergies or food you try to avoid for health or other reason? Tell me, and maybe we’ll figure out alternatives for them!