- A 24-year-old man told Reddit last month that he secretly changed his vegan girlfriend's soy coffee creamer to a dairy one and that it gave her acne.
- He said in the post, which recently resurfaced on Twitter, that she became vegan before they met and that it cleared up her skin, but he thought it was probably hormonal.
- His plan backfired, his theory was proved wrong, and he said he would throw out the dairy creamer so her skin would hopefully return to normal.
- People on the thread in the subreddit "TIFU" (Today I F---ed Up) had many problems with his actions, and some called him abusive and manipulative.
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There's always going to be someone who thinks they know better and will challenge the beliefs of everyone around them. Take, for example, one man on Reddit, who told the subreddit "TIFU" (Today I F---ed Up) last month that he had messed with his girlfriend's diet and caused her acne to flare up.
The man said in the post, which recently resurfaced on Twitter, that he'd been with his girlfriend for three years and that she had been vegan for health reasons since before they got together.
"Mostly she swears that it cleared up her skin," he wrote. "From pictures, it seems she went from really gnarly acne to very clear skin."
Rather than take her word for it, the man, who said he's 24, decided to take the fate of his girlfriend's skin into his own hands.
He said he thought the acne might have been age-related, as your skin usually clears up as you get older. So to test his theory — and because he was "tired of all the vegan food," he said — he emptied her soy coffee creamer and filled it with dairy creamer for two months.
"She's a great cook but sometimes a man just needs some mac and cheese with cut up hot dogs," he wrote. "So I thought I would prove to her that the whole 'dairy gives me acne' thing is in her head."
However, his plan backfired. He said he never got to do his "big reveal" because he realized that since the change, his girlfriend's skin had been flaring up with acne.
"She's been wearing makeup both in and out of the house lately … and last night I saw her barefaced for the first time in a while and it is BAD," he wrote. "Like insects about to hatch out of her face bad."
He said he planned to throw out the dairy in the hope that her skin would go back to normal. He added that even though he "was doing it for her own good," he felt bad for being responsible for causing the problem.
It's fair to say others on the thread had more than a few problems with the man's actions.
One said the problem wasn't the acne but that the man betrayed his girlfriend's trust.
"You think you know what is good for her better than she does," they said. "You're not just an a--hole, you're actually a bit of a monster since you still haven't realised this."
Others said the change could have made her ill, as eating animal products after many years of a plant-based diet can be difficult for your body.
"You knew dairy f---s with her, which SHE told you, and you think you know better than she does and that you fed her dairy anyway FOR HER GOOD? Are you f---ing serious?" said another commenter.
A few people on the thread said this kind of behavior could be abusive and manipulative, or a sign of gaslighting, where someone knowingly toys with your sense of reality to keep you under control.
Messing with her diet in secret could also be negatively affecting her mental health, as she may be stressed out about her skin and searching for a reason her acne is flaring up again.
"If you're TRULY sorry and TRULY care about your girlfriend, you'll come clean and let her make the decision of whether you deserve forgiveness and whether she wants to stay with you," one person said. "If you don't, then you're just a selfish POS who once again has decided what he wants is more important than her."
"You have NO right whatsoever to decide you know what's better for her health than she does," another said. "If you want Mac & cheese with cut up hot dogs in it, make it your own damn self."