As I said in July’s blog our skin (and health) is affected by what we eat and we looked at what to eat. Your skin counts for around 15% of your body weight so needs nourishing as much as the rest of your body. In today’s column I will address what you should definitely NOT be eating to maintain good skin health and help slow down ageing.
What not to eat
Carbs
Simple carbs such as sugar are very inflammatory (damaging) and create free radicals (thosenasty, damaging chemicals we mentioned in our last column. Sugar sticks to and breaks down collagen and elastin. Collagen and elastin are our wrinkle fighting friends as they help keeps skin elastic, soft and youthful.
Fats
Excess bad fats e.g. vegetable fats such as corn and sunflower oil not only are bad for are health but also reduce collagen and elastin production in our skin. This makes your skin loose and dull looking. Bad fats also are very inflammatory (damaging) to your skin in general. The trans fats often found in margarine’s, can reduce the hydration of the skin leading to more wrinkles.
Dairy
Some people find dairy can make their acne worse. This is because milk can be full of growth hormones and growth factors that remain intact even after all the processing of milk, such as pasteurization. These hormones and growth factors also badly affect insulin (our sugar processing hormone), and increase oil production and inflammation.
Non-organic foods
Lastly, organic food is the best to eat as the chemicals that
are added (e.g. hormones in our meat) or sprayed onto our foods (e.g. pesticides on vegetables) add to the damage that our skin sustains every day. Try to limit non-organic food.
If you have to eat food that isn’t organic, then try to peel your fruit and vegetables and remove fat from meat and limit your intake of it. Organic meat contains many more good fats than bad fats but the opposite is true for factory farmed meat.
In order to learn about nutrition and lifestyle changes that benefit your skin and health in general talk to the team at the Dr Wellness clinic for professional medical advice.
