"Your skin is your largest organ..."

[artemis]

Back story: In a very civil FB soaping group, a gal and I are talking about food coloring in baking sprinkles, and how she thinks those dyes are too dangerous to put onto skin. I asked if she also limited her consumption of foods containing those colorants and this was her response:

"Your skin is your largest organ. What you put on it ends up inside. It’s the reason so many people have skin sensitivities like eczema."

My question: she seems to feel it would be more harmful to put these things on the outside of your body than the inside. I already know what I think, but I was curious what you all thought, especially those with eczema and other skin sensitivities.

 

[BattleGnome]

It could be contact time.

with eating, stomach acid is designed to break everything up as much as possible so your body can absorb stuff. We all know that chemistry can take something bad (like NaOH) that can be broken down/combined with something else (oils) to make something good (soap). In her mind, there might not be enough time for food colorants to absorb into your body by chewing/swallowing.

To contrast that thought, it can take days for permanent marker to wear off skin if you aren’t intending to scrub it off (for those who don’t know, alcohol can remove perm markers). who really knows what’s leeching into your skin if you keep marker on your hand for a while. Using food coloring in a bath bomb might be an equivalent to wearing permanent markers, at least in her mind.

(I don’t know enough about eczema or other sensitivities to make the direct connection but I think I understand some of the logic if anything I’ve said holds up to science)

 

[artemis]

Right, but the length of time that the dye from sprinkles on your soap would be mere seconds on the skin vs the length of time it is in your body. And potentially absorbed faster in the body than by the skin, since the skin protects us?

It's been 30+ years since I've been in a science class..

 

[GemstonePony]

I don't have eczema, but some red food colorings chap my skin if they touch it. It has to be pretty concentrated to do that (like Kool-Aid), but consuming it didn't give me any other noticable adverse effects. Granted, I've never drank it on a regular basis, but she might be right about the skin being sensitive to some things that the mouth and digestive system don't care about. However, I know too many people who have gone crazy with chemical reduction and detoxes to try to cure their eczema and still have it, so I don't think she's completely right about contaminant absorption being the sole cause of eczema.

 

[AliOop]

I’m with you,@artemis. Ingesting food dyes is known to trigger ADHD behaviors, migraines, hives, asthma attacks, autism-related reactions, etc.

I’m wondering if the person who responded just didn’t read your question well and was responding to what she (mis)perceived as disbelief about her hypothesis, when in fact, she may actually agree with yours, as well, since they aren’t mutually exclusive. I’ve done that, esp when reading and responding from a mobile device.

 

[Adobehead]

making my own skin care producte is a way of controling and lightening the toxic load on my body that we, as americans, citizens of the industrial modern age worldwide are under. I avoid ingesting also.

 

[Megan]

...And I'm in the camp that everything we eat, breathe, touch is going to end up killing us anyway so I might as well not worry too much about everything. People can do everything "right" get cancer and die at 30, and people that pickle their livers can live till they're 90.

I agree that directly consuming something is in most cases more harmful than incidental skin contact and rinsing off though.

 

[sarahmarah]

I believe in genetic predisposition. Some individuals are much more susceptible to ingested foods/additives which trigger inflammation/autoimmune disorders over time in the body and all of that can present in the skin. In those cases it can be a lot harder to route out the cause(s) to control it. I would consider dyes in small doses like sprinkles usually negligible.
With topicals I’m less concerned. While contact dermatitis, irritation, and allergic reactions do suck—in my own experience it’s easier to control. I do not believe it causes eczema though it can certainly aggravate it.

 

[DLSJR]

Frankly there are people allergic to water. Anything, natural or otherwise, has the potential to irritate your skin. Though I tend to be a bit more scientific in my beliefs. If a synthetic item is chemically the same as a natural item, it’s the same item.

 

[gardengeek]

Back story: In a very civil FB soaping group, a gal and I are talking about food coloring in baking sprinkles, and how she thinks those dyes are too dangerous to put onto skin. I asked if she also limited her consumption of foods containing those colorants and this was her response:

"Your skin is your largest organ. What you put on it ends up inside. It’s the reason so many people have skin sensitivities like eczema."

My question: she seems to feel it would be more harmful to put these things on the outside of your body than the inside. I already know what I think, but I was curious what you all thought, especially those with eczema and other skin sensitivities.

I have pustular psoriasis on my foot and in my experience everyone is different. Some foods do cause it to flare up, but so does pressure on my skin. When I first developed it 20 years ago, everything I read about psoriasis said to wear supportive shoes so I wore running type shoes (great arch support) every day all day and my skin STAYED inflamed. It was only after I got laid off at the end of the shuttle program and stopped wearing those shoes did my skin start to clear up. As far as diet triggers, any of the nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers) will cause a flare up. When I say flare up, I mean within 20 minutes of consumption or something rubbing against my foot I develop painful blisters in the area (only in the arch area of one foot).

One of these days I'm going to try a gluten free diet for a month and see if that helps. I've had it for so long I've become accustomed to the discomfort. Even my VERY smart dermatologist is stumped on treatment. We've tried everything. He has five patients with it and we all have different triggers and responses to treatments he's tried.

So my answer (opinion) to your question, I don't think it's a all-or-nothing answer and everyone is different. I do see your point in a wash off product reducing the exposure so the reaction is less likely. However, CO in soap over 12% makes me itch but I can eat it by the spoonful with no reaction so I really don't know!

 

[TheGecko]

My question: she seems to feel it would be more harmful to put these things on the outside of your body than the inside. I already know what I think, but I was curious what you all thought, especially those with eczema and other skin sensitivities.

My sister has "eczema" which BTW, is a catch-all term for a multitude of skin issues. She used to wear long gloves when filing because just touching manilla folder would leave her hands and arms looking like someone had beat her with a willow switch. She can handle white sugar (she enjoys baking), but she can't eat it without having a breakout of some kind.

And while, as noted by @BattleGnome, stomach acids break down our foods so our bodies can make use of the nutrients contained within, said acids aren't neutralizers. If you eat something that is bad* for you, it's going to make you sick.

* - "bad" is defined as something that is harmful, not unhealthy.