What should you do to improve the health of your skin?

Skin care involves not only applying treatments to your skin directly but also consuming the proper foods and following a healthy lifestyle in order to maintain and regenerate healthy skin. Today we are going to discuss how your skin is affected by alcohol, sugar, and fried foods. By discovering the actual effects of these substances you can understand why you should change your diet accordingly in order to care for your skin and the rest of your body.

Let’s talk about skin

When it comes to skin and the study of dermatology, there is a ton to unpack. Even just a square inch of your skin can hold nearly 20 million cells and dozens of sweat glands. Throughout each day your skin sheds dead cells by the thousands every minute and over enough time, you no longer wear the same skin since it’s constantly renewing itself. Also, keep in mind your skin isn’t only yours. We are the hosts of thousands of species of bacteria, many of which live on the surface of your skin.

The human body itself is an extremely complex machine. What we do with it, and what we feed it, affects all our systems accordingly. If you treat yourself poorly, your skin will look the part. So with the vast amount of scientific research and other forms of understanding, you could read endlessly about all the facts, habits, and treatments available for skin care.

We are going to simplify it with three examples that will give you an understanding of the human body that you can carry into the rest of your habits and skin care solutions to improve your overall health and the health of your skin.

So how does alcohol affect your skin?

Alcohol has a wide influence on our daily lives. Nearly every social event stands on the consumption of alcohol, so let’s talk about its effects on your skin.

Alcohol has been around for tens of thousands of years. Even before humans found out how to make it, animals found fermenting fruit in the wild to get drunk from. This substance has incredible power in affecting the mind and body. Besides the obvious mental effects from consuming alcohol, let’s talk about the physical effects on your body.

Keeping your skin hydrated is key to improving the health of your skin, and alcohol will do the exact opposite for you. Your skin needs to stay hydrated and receive the proper nutrients and vitamins if you want it to look and feel amazing. Alcohol is a diuretic, this means your internal systems will pass liquids through much faster than normal; making you dehydrated. Dehydration will lead to dry, cracked, and itchy skin. This also stiffens your skin, making lines and spots more pronounced.

Additionally, a common misconception is that alcohol causes acne. On the contrary, it doesn’t cause it, but it can affect your systems in a way that may lead to acne. For example, your hormone levels may change based on alcohol consumption, and this can lead to acne.

Therefore, limit your consumption of alcohol if you care about your body and your skin. Of course, a few drinks here and there won’t hurt, but keep moderation in mind.

Sugar and it’s effects on your skin.

Sugar is a very popular and prominent ingredient in our foods. That is why we must understand it’s effects on our body and skin. Most of us know sugar has been around for a long time (up to eight thousand years old according to some). Seen as a staple ingredient to most foods, sugar is engrained in our society. Sugar isn’t poison per se, but in large repetitive amounts, it can have severely debilitating effects on your health. There are many types of sugar from its raw forms to its refined forms. To save us all time, we will cover our most common sugar, granulated sugar, otherwise known as table sugar or refined sugar. It is the most common type of sugar used in everyday foods and beverages. If you want to see all the types of sugar out there, check out this really great article that goes further into detail.

We all know sugar in excess can lay waste to your health and appearance, but how exactly does it affect our skin?

Well for starters, sugar is a high glycemic food, which means it will raise your blood sugar and insulin levels. This causes inflammation throughout the body which can lead to breakouts in acne and a vast amount of other health issues. Something you may not know is the process of glycation and how sugar plays a role in this.

Glycation, otherwise referred to as “non-enzymatic glycosylation” (say that 10 times fast), is the process in which sugars interact with the proteins inside your body. Without going into too much detail, glucose in excess can make your skin stiff and limit its regenerative processes by attaching itself to your collagen cells (proteins that make up most of your connecting tissues such as your skin). Think of it like an annoying clingy person getting in the way of the important business between the more important cells in your skin. Not my best analogy, I’ll give you that. If you need any clarification Wikipedia sums it up fairly well.

Sugar has a profound influence on many factors in health inside and outside. So as with most things, moderation is key when it comes to sugar. Since it’s a very common ingredient in most foods, it will be hard to avoid entirely, but keep track of the amount of sugar you are consuming in order to properly maintain your skin’s health and your body’s health.

Now let’s find out how fried foods affect your skin.

Fried foods are a popular staple in most daily consumption. We here at Ahh to be Sugared understand your concerns on how it affects your body and skin.

If you have ever wondered how long frying food has been around, you have to meet our friend Apicius. Unfortunately, he was a little before our time (roughly twenty-five-hundred years before us). Thankfully, this excentric greek cook left us his cookbook which has one of the oldest recorded recipes for frying something. His dish of choice to fry; the “Pullum Frontonianum”, a fairly simple fried chicken recipe. -Take that Colonel Sanders!-

The point of frying food is to cook the exterior of your preferred food quickly and add a caramelized layer for added flavor and texture. Oils burn much hotter than other liquids giving them an advantageous capability in certain dishes.

So how does this delicious art of cooking affect our body?

A vast majority of people believe fried foods directly cause or increase acne, however, that is not the case. Acne usually tends to be more affected by your hormone levels or genetics. Fried foods do affect your skin though, just not as directly as one may assume.

Fried foods tend to be high in cholesterol since they will absorb excess oils and fats from being fried. Besides weight gain and a plethora of other concerns, the leading issue is cholesterols role in heart disease. Even without getting to a lethal level, having high cholesterol and clogged arteries limits your body’s ability to let blood flow properly. If you have constricted blood vessels, your capillaries (smaller blood vessels that stem from your main veins and give blood to your skin and other areas of the body) will not receive the proper nutrients and hydration to give to your skin. This can lead to a plethora of issues, aesthetically and biologically.

Limiting the consumption of foods high in fat and cholesterol will improve your overall health, allowing your body to properly distribute the vital resources it needs, and therefore improving the health of your skin.

In conclusion

Your body is a temple, treat it as such.

Your skin is affected by a slew of variables, including your diet.

Maintain a healthy diet to provide your skin with the proper nutrients it needs to look and feel beautiful.

Alcohol, sugar, and fried foods all have adverse effects on your health and your skin when abused.

Keep in mind this article by no means covers all the possible variables at play, this is to primarily open your mind up to the issue at hand.

MODERATION MODERATION MODERATION, just because certain things can have adverse effects doesn’t mean you have to cut it out of your diet entirely, just make sure you don’t consume these in excess.

While there are countless factors we could also cover, these three things give you a general idea on what exactly your skin is affected by. The point is that your body is a complex machine you must maintain inside and out. All the skin care products in the world won’t save you if you are consuming detrimental foods and beverages. Also, keep in mind exercise can even play a role in skin care as well. Even just stretching can aid in allowing proper circulation, giving your skin all the juicy nutrients it needs. So take care of yourself, but don’t torture yourself with the complexities of living a healthy lifestyle, because even stress can be detrimental to your overall health.

Just by maintaining moderation in your diet and a simple routine of exercise can go a really long way. It’s impossible to be perfect, we all know that. There is too much to consider in the realm of health, that’s why we have so many facets of study in universities and colleges just to find out how to do things right.

If you ever need professional advice, service, or products to help you with caring for your skin, give us a call or come stop by and say hi.