How does sugar affect your skin and aging? Myths and facts explored

With the holiday season on the horizon, everyone loves a dessert or two and most people give in to sugar cravings despite being on strict diets. Most people also regularly consume sweets post meals, and this craving arises primarily due to an imbalance in the blood glucose levels.

It is a known fact that consuming sweets seldom favors bodily health, however, it causes trouble for the skin as well. But this doesn’t apply to naturally sweet sources such as fruits. Consuming sweets regularly or in excess quantities can cause premature signs of ageing, prominent wrinkles and fine lines, sagging skin, and acne.

To understand what sweets do to the skin, let’s take an example of an apple and a cake. Eating the apple will result in dietary satiety while with a cake in front of any person, the urge to stop at one bite is surpassed easily.

Hence, sugar comes under the inflammatory food category. Excess of sugar in the bloodstream can lead to glycation, resulting in a rigid collagen. This leads to dry and flared-up skin.

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Myths and facts about sugar affecting the skin debunked

Myth 1: Sugar affects the body not the skin.

Fact: Consuming sweets has an effect on the body, brain, and the skin. Visible signs of sugar affecting the skin include sagging skin around the jaw area, deep crevices around the laughing line area, and hard and shiny appearance of the skin.

Sweet intake affects elastin and collagen which are the most viable proteins in the skin. These proteins are responsible for keeping the skin firm and offer elasticity as well.

Consuming excess amounts of sweets or consuming sweets on a daily basis can make the elastin and collagen brittle and dry, which leads to an acceleration in visible signs of ageng like wrinkles and fine lines.

Myth 2: One needs to stop sweet consumption altogether to escape its effect on skin and ageing.

Fact: For people who have a habit of daily consumption of sweets, stopping sweet consumption altogether can have an adverse impact on the body sometimes. The body does need glucose, hence it is advisable that one swaps refined and unhealthy sweet items with naturally sweet items like fruits.

This will offer antioxidants to the skin, cut down one’s sweet intake, and lessen the effect of sweets on skin and ageing.

Myth 3: It is okay to consume natural sweeteners instead of refined ones as they don’t damage the skin.

Fact: The bottom line to the fad of replacing refined sweets with saccharin or raw cane sweeteners remains that sugar is sugar. It has inflammatory properties and a spike in the same leads to breakouts, speedy ageing, and sagging skin.

However, there are certain natural sweeteners that don’t spike the blood sugar status as much, yet it does have an adverse effect on the skin in the long run as the glycemic index of sweet foods is linked to skin damage.

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Ways to cut back on sweets to save the skin

Know that sweetening agents and added sweeteners are not only present in chocolates and sweets but in items like alcohol, ketchup, and canned juices as well. Hence, the main goal is to be more mindful about consumption.

The first step is to cut back on all sweet items including pancake mixes, cereals, and beverages that are loaded with sweetening agents. Additionally, it is important to start checking labels when grocery shopping. While it is impossible to escape the presence of sweeteners in food items, one can compare the items and choose one with the least amount of sweetening agents.

For those who love their sweets too much, swapping unhealthy options with healthy alternatives is the best choice. Healthy alternatives to refined sugar include fresh fruits, dark chocolate, dates, and figs.

A tip that benefits the body and the skin is including fibre-rich foods and drinking plenty of water, which leads to reduced sweet cravings and imparts a healthy shine to the skin as well.