When starting a skincare routine, students often forget that other than using skincare products, establishing a healthy diet helps strengthen and maintain your skin. Today I’m going to talk about “sugar”, the skin’s no. 1 enemy and is a component in many of our processed foods when we have no time or access to healthier meals.
1. How does sugar affect skin?
When we consume more sugar than our daily recommended intake, we run into what’s called glycation. Sugar will combine with chemicals that strengthen your skin like collagen and elastin, changing the structures of these chemicals and essentially weakening your skin in the process. From there, our skin will be more vulnerable to wrinkling and dehydration. The more glycation in your body, the “older” we become.
2. How can we limit our daily sugar intake?
Of course, it is impossible as well as unrecommended to completely cut sugar out of our lives, but doctors recommend that we should consume a maximum of 25 grams a day. Other than that, there are ways to control our sugar intake such as:
- Avoiding sugar that appears in foods you might not expect. For example, your fast food burger may not seem like a dessert, or the heavily sauced BBQ wings, but there is a lot of sugar in those. You should be wary of which foods may contain a lot of sugar before you consume them.
- With tea, coffee and various sweet treats as the ultimate all-nighter combo, you can cut out sugar from these. If you don’t need caffeine, the best options are still water, coconut juice or unsweetened soy milk!
- When buying food, you should try to avoid processed foods because they may contain lots of sugar. Try to compare the nutrition labels of such products so you can get that balance.
- Replacing tasty sweets with healthier sugars, such as bread and fruit, helps cut down on processed sugars. Dividing up your meals into smaller ones throughout the day and drinking lots of water also helps regulate sugar processing in your body.
3. Alternatives to sugary foods
Another way to cut down on sugar is to get familiar with healthier nutrients that consist of our daily meals. Choosing a proper diet not only improves your skin but also your overall health. These foods can be your alternatives to chips or instant ramen:
Vegetables: the essentials of essentials. Vegetables like broccoli, lettuce, carrots, spinach and many others are major sources of vitamins and protect you from oxidation. Alternatively, I suggest eating bitter melon, because your intestines and digestive organs love bitter foods. Depending on each person's individual tastes, we can pick and choose our vegetables and still create tasty, healthy meals!
Fish: It’s not uncommon knowledge that fish contains the protein omega 3. You can eat salmon or tuna, fish that contain a lot of protein, to balance your meals.
Nuts: Nuts like hazelnuts, walnuts, and almonds are all nuts with healthy fats. However, I also do not encourage people to eat too many of these nuts because they contain a lot of calories.
Saturated fats: Products with words like “lite”, “skimmed” or “low-fat” should be avoided because the fat substitute is carbohydrates. Instead, "good" fats like olive oil or avocado are preferable options if you want to reduce your sugar intake.
Berries: Blueberries, strawberries and mulberries are low calorie fruits and have a lot of antioxidants as well as containing very little sugar.
Legumes: Beans are a great source of fiber and help lower cholesterol. In addition, legumes combined with lean protein and soluble fiber help us control hunger, avoid excessive snacking that causes the body to absorb a large amount of excess sugar.
I hope the information above is helpful to you! Share some of your skincare journey to TFA!
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