Have you ever noticed that people who eat a lot of sugar and processed foods tend to look older? Or how people with antioxidant depleting habits (like smoking and tanning) seem to age faster? Lifestyle habits have a huge effect on your skin and it goes much further than how consistently you wash your face or how often you do a mask.
How does sugar make our skin older?
If there is an excess of sugar in the body, protein molecules and sugar molecules cross-link and create aging by-products. Your body produces antibodies in reaction to the by-products, causing inflammation. Free radicals are produced, causing further damage to your cells.
There are three types of collagen in your skin. When glucose cross-links with type 3 (strongest) collagen, it transforms it into type I (weakest) and becomes rigid and inflexible. This makes it more likely your skin will develop wrinkles at an accelerated pace.
What does it mean for you?
Collagens are proteins in your skin that are essential for structure, function, and resilience. As you age and collagen production decreases, you will see thinning, sagging, and wrinkling of the skin. Although this is a natural part of the aging process, lifestyle choices can dramatically accelerate or slow the process. Typically, external signs of excess sugar induced aging will start to show around ages 30-35. The more excess sugar that is in your bloodstream, the more quickly signs of glycation will appear in your skin.
How you can deal with it:
To be clear, there is no way to completely stop glycation. The key is to stop accelerating the process and making it happen more than is necessary. Foods with minimal sugars or complex carbohydrates are not necessarily anti-aging, but they provide benefits that will nourish and protect your skin while not accelerating the aging process. Even fruits and vegetables have carbohydrates in them that will trigger the effect, so it will continuously occur, even if you are eating a healthy diet.
That being said, the foods you choose to eat will still make a huge difference. All carbohydrates are broken down into sugars by the body, so carbohydrates and sweets are going to be your worst enemy when it comes to limiting glycation. Simple carbohydrates (ex. refined sugars, white breads, milk products) are one of the greatest culprits, so it is important that you limit your consumption of these foods. When you eat a simple carbohydrate, it causes your blood sugar to spike and the sugars surge to react with your collagen and elastin. Complex carbohydrates (ex. brown rice, fruits, vegetables) take longer for your body to break down, so sugars are released more slowly into your bloodstream, limiting the damage. Follow an anti-inflammatory diet with healthy fats, lean protein, fiber, and antioxidants to limit glycation.
Antioxidants, both topical and ingested, are going to be very important in fighting off the effects of sugar on skin. They will externally protect your skin from outside damage (UV rays, second-hand smoke, and other environmental factors), and internally will fight off the free radicals that are attacking your cells. Green tea, berries, and good vitamin C and D serums will help tremendously. Topical products that stimulate new collagen production, will also help to eliminate damage, but applying a collagen cream to the surface of your skin will not make a difference to the structure of your skin.
We want you to live a Healthy Skin Lifestyle. With reduced stress, adequate sleep, regular exercise, a diet of foods that will enhance your skin, and topical products to protect and keep your skin fit, you can age as gracefully as possible.