Find out how sugar is impacting your skin, plus how you can reverse this!

Whilst you’re probably well aware that sugar may not be the best for our skin,  often we are not often told the why or how it negatively impacts our skin.
The sweetness of sugar may provide an instant gratification, however, the negative effects reap beyond skin deep. 

Sugar, when coming from a processed or refined form, can actually lead to multiple issues for our health, as it is highly inflammatory, and its effects impact the health and function of our skin and organs in numerous ways. 

In fact, sugar is often one of the largest contributors of inflammation on our skin our and our overall health, impacting multiple organs including our gut, hormones, and even our immune system. 

Think of sugar as a sticky coke can when it comes to discussing the effect it has on your skin.
If you have ever seen a coke can which has been left out in the sun, or had some spilt over the edge, it forms a ‘sticky coating’. This is what it does to our skin on a cellular level. This process is known as AGES (advanced glycation end products). 

Sugar acts as a ‘sticky coating’ over our blood vessels, which hardens and blocks the constriction of blood vessels. This AGEs formation process literally accelerates the ageing process, as sugar weakens and slows the process of new collagen production, and actually hardens and increases the breakdown of collagen and blood vessels. This formation often contributes to further inflammation in the skin.

Here are 5 ways sugar can negatively affect our skin, plus 5 tips to reverse this process:

1. Increases inflammation, leading to breakouts and acne in the skin

Sugar is one of the biggest drivers of acne and breakouts. In fact, sugar is so closely related to breakouts, that it has actually been labelled the ‘diabetes of the skin’. 

This is because excess sugar leads to increased insulin (sugar) in the blood, which then drives inflammation, impacting our hormones, often leading to an increase in androgens (male hormones) contributing to the production of acne.

 
2. Increases internal inflammation, leading to external inflammation
Sugar also impairs the quality of the bacteria within our gut, reducing the amount of good bacteria, and increasing the ‘bad’ or pathogenic bacteria causing a state of dysbiosis. Dysbiosis is when we have an overgrowth of bad bacteria within the gut due to consuming a high amount of inflammatory foods. This internal inflammation leads to formation of acne and breakouts over our skin. This drives inflammation internally, which shows up externally. 

3. Can lead to hormonal imbalances, often increasing inflammatory hormones

Refined sugar can reap havoc on our hormones and hormonal health, particularly for young girls.
Excess sugar can also lead to conditions like candida, as this type of bacteria thrives in a high sugar environment. 
Also, having high levels of insulin in the blood can be particularly problematic for women and girls with PCOS, as this increases the production of androgens (male hormones). 

4. Impairs our wound healing and immunity Excess insulin (sugar) in the blood also impairs our immune system and wound healing.  As the sugar in the blood affects the collagen production, it reduces the integrity of the skin and healing process which makes it more prone to scarring and increased healing time if faced with injury or trauma to the skin. 

5. Can lead to discolouration and pigmentation on the skin
Lastly, it can also lead to discolouration and pigmentation on the skin. This is due to an excess amount of sugar or insulin within the blood, therefore the body tries to excrete it elsewhere, hence showing up on our largest excretory organ, our skin! 

So, how can we reduce excess sugar?

Here are 5 tips to reverse the effects of sugar on your skin, and health!

* Focus on eating real, whole foods, and foods as close to its natural state as possible. 
Limit your intake of foods coming from processed, refined or packaged foods as these often have excess sugars and additives added to them. 

* Aim to increase your intake of wholefoods, particularly fresh fruit and vegetables.

* When looking for a sweet treat, look for natural sweet alternatives, such as cinnamon, cacao and fruit!  

 * Ensure to have a source of protein and fat with each meal, as this will help to stabilise blood sugar levels, reducing drops in energy levels, and helping to reduce your sugar cravings. 
Also, ensuring that you are having balanced meals helps with satiety and reduces drops in energy levels and the urge to snack later on.

For supplements to help lower blood sugar levels; consider Magnesium, Zinc and Chromium. These can help reduce sugar cravings and have been shown to be beneficial for reducing and supporting elevated insulin levels, particularly in women.

I always recommend taking any nutrition advise back to basics. Rather than focusing on what to cut out, focus on what you can include and implement into your diet. This way you will feel like you have more options of what to eat, and prevent you from feeling deprived!
Once you slowly start to reduce processed and sweetened foods from your diet, your taste buds will start to adjust and you will slowly start to lose your cravings and desire for the overly sweet foods!

For more inspiration on healthy sweet alternative and recipes, check out the 28 day clear skin program at www.skinnuntritionco.com.au

For more information on skin health, and achieving optimal skin from the inside out, subscribe to www.skinnutritionco.com.au to receive updates weekly. 

If you are struggling with your skin and hormones and are ready to get to the root, then simply contact Skin Nutrition Co., we would love to assist you and are here to help!

Until Next time, Take Care.

Dominique

Skin Nutrition Co.

contact@skinnutritionco.com.au
www.skinnutritionco.com.au