As you have always heard before: “You are what you eat.” When it comes to your skin, the quality of your appearance in many ways reflects the quality of your diet.
Your food across the board will affect your skin, positively or negatively. Skin creams and cleansers are not enough to keep your skin in tip-top shape, you also need a healthy diet.
This is not suggesting that you have to cut these out of your diet completely but consider “everything in moderation” is best.
Fried foods and hydrogenated fats
When oil is at a very high heat, the oils and fats oxidize and one then puts oxidized fats into the bodies and it is known that oxidants are bad and antioxidants are good. Oils that sit and are used over again are really bad, because these fats are thicker and don’t detox from the body. They can contribute to heart disease, poor circulation of the blood and a weakened metabolic process. Since healthy skin requires healthy circulation and metabolism, weak systems can lead to a lack of oxygen in the skin, slowing the collagen and elastin syntheses necessary for youthful radiance.
Excess salt
Excess salt retains additional fluid in the body causing swelling and a puffy look to the skin. The skin texture is spoiled on prolonged salt abuse. Papads, pickles, salted foods, table salt, brined/canned food products are the potential sources of salt to the body.
Processed foods
Refined or processed foods like maida (refined flour) and its products, canned and sweetened fruits and juices are low in fiber content, thus increasing the glycerine load. Moreover the processed foods are often high in their salt/sodium content. As a by-product of processing, these also lose the nutrients of the parent food products important for skin health.
Excess use of artificial sweeteners/colours/flavours: These chemicals lodge into our systems and are difficult to flush out of our body. Overuse and inability to flush them out in time could be the pre-cursor for free radical production. They contain no nutritional value, and at worst, they can irritate the body and create inflammation and histamine reactions. Worse still, the body tend to store chemicals like these in one’s tissues.
Poor quality supplements
Many people take supplements on a regular basis, but most don’t really know the origin of those supplements or what’s really in them. Most of time these super inexpensive, bulk supplements aren’t made from whole food sources. They often contain allergens, fillers or hidden ingredients that you don’t know about. It’s important to look for supplements that say whole food on the label, have a lot number on the bottle, and an expiration date. And don’t overdose. Taking too much Vitamin A or Zinc, for example, can dehydrate the skin.
Excess Sugar
Sugar can weaken one’s immune system, and when the immune systems are suppressed the body aren’t as effective at fighting off bacteria a leading cause of acne and other inflammatory skin conditions. Sugar also can contribute to constipation in the bowels, which can lead to congestion in our skin. It has been proven that too much sugar will negatively impact the skin. Sugar in the body is acidic, creating issues in our digestive tract, which establishes a more hospitable environment for the proliferation of bad bacteria in the gut meaning more bacteria, more toxins, worse skin.
Excess caffeine
Caffeine is a known stimulant which increase the cortisol production in the body and enhances the ageing process by thinning the skin. This dehydrates the skin and even leads to wrinkling. In addition, caffeine is a diuretic which further increases the risk of dehydration. Coffee is also a diuretic and can dehydrate the body. The better hydrated the body, the healthier the skin appears.
Alcohol
Alcohol inhibits the Anti-Diuretic Hormone secretion thus causing dehydration. Furthermore, it also causes vasodilatation, which then leads to excess water loss through the skin.
Red meat
Consumption of red meat, especially fat-laden parts can lead to inflammatory reactions. This is by the virtue of saturated fat content of meats. In excess, free radicals generated overpowers the anti-oxidation capacity of the free radical scavengers in the body.
