November 21, 2017
A Sweet Truth: Sugar Makes You Old
We all know that sugar is bad for our health, makes us gain weight and makes us become diabetic. However, most of us don’t know that sugar makes us older. Yes, older! So, maybe losing some weight doesn’t motivate you to put down a piece of chocolate, but getting smooth skin probably will prevent you from overindulging. A lifetime of overeating sugar can make your skin look wrinkled and dull.
Eating too much sugar (such as refined grains) increases your blood glucose level so your body increases its insulin levels in order to fight back and return your glucose levels to a normal state. However, you can become desensitize to insulin and your body will need to produce more and more insulin in order to get your blood sugar back down. This may accelerate the aging process.
So, sugar in your bloodstream binds to proteins in your body producing AGEs (advanced glycation end products). The more sugar you eat the more AGEs and inflammation is produced and more proteins get damaged, this process is known as glycation. One of the most vulnerable proteins are collagen and elastin. Sugar attaches to amino acids found in these two proteins which are the building blocks of your dermis. Once these two get damaged (collagen and elastin) your skin will lose its elasticity and wrinkles will appear. This also happens because sugar is responsible for choosing what type of collagen will last. Your body has type I, II and III collagen with type III being the most stable. Glycation transforms type III collagen into type I, which is the most fragile of all types. When this happens your skin looks less firm and dull.
We not only need to pay attention to how much sugar we are eating but also to how we eat our food. Fried food, caramelizing or barbequing our food also promotes AGEs. The higher the temperature and the cooking time the more AGEs is produced.
Your skin gets transformed by simply cutting back on sugar. After a week without sugar my skin looks fresher, radiant and my acne disappeared.
I have a few tips to help you cut down AGEs:
- Cut down your sugar intake: watch for hidden sugar in coke, cookies and any processed food as well. Sometimes we don’t pay attention to the labels and we eat anything that says “light”, “no added sugar” or “sugar free”. These packaged foods contain sugar hidden under other names such as high fructose corn syrup, maple syrup, dextrose, molasses, and fruit juice concentrated between others.
- Sleep: Your body repairs itself while you sleep. If you don’t sleep at least 7 hours your body’s metabolism can shut down and promotes age-related conditions.
- Drink water: Plenty of it. Water can flush away any waste in your body and keeps your skin hydrated.
- Avoid processed food: As they are loaded with sugar, white flour and preservatives that can promote AGEs.
- Eat your vegetables: They contain natural antioxidants that prevent the formation of free radicals that contribute to premature aging.
- Eat low GI foods: Glycemic index (GI) tells you how quickly a food is broken down into glucose once you eat it. Stick to food that has a low glycemic index such as vegetables, protein, whole grain breads, brown rice, sweet potatoes, oats and some fruits (fruits have fiber which slows down sugar break up, having less impact on your blood sugar levels).
- Eat good fat: Olive oil, salmon and almonds. Almonds contain vitamin E which is a powerful antioxidant that helps neutralize free radicals in your muscles and nervous system.
The good news is that if you cut down on sugar you will see changes immediately.
It is important to say that this doesn’t mean that you can no longer treat yourself to eating a dessert. It means that it is important to keep an eye on your sugar intake in order to have healthy skin, body and immune system. Choosing wisely on how to calm down your sweet tooth will have a great impact not only on your skin but on your energy levels and overall health. Give it a try!
