An innocent cupcake with a fragrant cup of coffee that you enjoyed this morning, or a nourishing sandwich with salami you had for lunch might seem harmless to you at first.
Though, many products have negative effects on our body. Sugars, unhealthy fats, excessive salt, alcohol, and even caffeine can destroy important proteins and dehydrate us, and our skin is the first to suffer.
In this article, we’ll be listing 7 products that have a bad influence on our skin and should be eaten with a sense of caution.
1. Sugar destroys protein and lipids
Sugar is responsible for weight gain, creating wrinkles, making your skin saggy, and harming your health in general. Eating too much sugar starts a process that called glycation: consuming more sugar that you can process makes glycose bind with proteins and lipids. This process damages your skin’s collagen (because these proteins are responsible for the firmness of the skin) and encourages the development of wrinkles.
2. Trans fats weaken the blood flow to the skin
Trans fats can be found in fast food, deep fried foods, margarine, canned frosting, any junk food, and the list goes on and on. Not only do they raise the risk of developing heart disease, but they also stiffen the arteries or constrict the blood vessels. This weakens the blood flow to the skin and causes premature aging and wrinkles. Don’t believe the packages with labels that say, “Zero trans fats” because the products inside might still contain under 0.5g of it.
3. Alcohol builds up toxins
A rare glass of wine won’t do any harm to your body, but drinking regularly will affect your liver. When your liver works well, toxins are expelled naturally through your body. But if these toxins build up in your liver, and they aren’t broken down properly, it can cause damage to your skin, like acne, sallowness and wrinkles, loss of collagen, loss of elasticity, redness, dehydration, and puffiness.
4. Salt makes you retain water
Excess salt can be found in a lot of popular products: cheese, pepperoni pizza, chips, crackers, cereals, etc. Salt causes the body to retain water and leads to a “puffy” look. It also causes the cells to shrink and leads to dehydration. Not enough water leaves the skin with wrinkles and, as a result, makes it age faster.
5. Processed meats cause dehydration
6. Fried potatoes use up important minerals from your body
almost instantly break down into sugars once they get inside of our bodies. Foods fried in oil at high temperatures release free radicals and this causes cellular damage to the skin. If you want to enjoy your potato in the most harmless way — bake it!
7. Low consumption of healthy fats
Healthy fats are essential for your health and your skin’s youthfulness. They reduce inflammation in the skin, encourage hair growth, and build strong cell membranes that reduce water loss in the skin cells, among other advantages. Here are the healthy fats that should be consumed regularly to maintain healthy skin:
- Salmon
- Chia seeds
- Avocados
- Almonds
- Wheat germ
- All nuts and seeds
- Dark green leafy veggies
- Omega 3-fortified eggs
- Coconut oil
