When Mum told you that too much sugar would rot your teeth, it wasn’t enough to put you off your penny sweets was it? Perhaps the prospect of a trimmer tummy and slimmer thighs would? If that still doesn’t ward you off the white stuff – maybe this will.
1. A lifetime of indulging your sweet tooth with sugary foods and sweets, according to many dermatologists and skin experts, is a major factor in ageing and damaging the complexion. Yes too many sweets may scribble lines on your face, drain you of radiance and break you out in zits! Too much sugar leads to insulin spikes which spells only bad news for your general health, weight management and complexion clock.
2. Glycation is the process that strips our collagen reservoirs in cells and tissues. This is where excess sugar particles latch on to proteins and exert their damage. Plump and supple skin provides the signature of youth that no syringe or surgeon could effectively emulate. Natural collagen and elastin stores are required in abundance to maintain the strength and vitality of our skin, muscles and joints. Sadly excess sugar seems to be propelled to these features of the body and eats away at their youth essential proteins. Since collagen makes up a large percentage of collagen in our body – both internally and externally – the damage that sugar exerts on the body is as significant as it is far reaching.
3. The visible signs of ageing appear on the part of your body that we showcase to the world each and every day: our faces. This is characterised by sallow, sagging, wrinkled complexions, caused by the collagen and elastin fibres becoming parched and ravaged. Pick ‘n’ mix should not get the full blame here of course. The ageing process is determined by a number of factors which include sun damage, excess alcohol, environmental stresses and hormonal disharmony, and specific factors unique to your nutritional needs.
4. One dietary characteristic that is widely associated with fighting the signs of ageing is that familiar word, antioxidant. Did you know that sugar reacts with essential minerals in the body and breeds troublesome free radicals which declare cold war on your youthful cells and protein structures?
The effects of sugar on the ageing of the skin are somewhat downplayed, underestimated or perhaps ignored in the interest of sugar high indulgence.
So what nutritional advice will keep you healthy?
- Go for plenty of green leafy vegetables which are your skin’s BFF’s. Spinach, watercress, kale, cabbage – these foods should liberally decorate your plate on a daily basis. These foods pack a perfect punch of antioxidant protection, minerals and B vitamins – which help to ward off sugar damage by processing the white stuff before it gets a chance to run wild.
- Try to avoid sugar in its many forms and faces. The obvious examples here are the family that extends to cakes, sweets and sugar-pumped drinks. These should not necessarily be cut out altogether (note back to my cupcake confession) however they most certainly should not be featured frequently.
- Learn to understand labels. Rarely will a food manufacturer emblazon a foodstuff with the culinary criminal that is sugar. Generally anything ending with ‘ose’ is a sugar. Maltose, dextrose, sucrose, fructose… you get the gist.
- Go for natural sugars to satisfy your sweet tooth through a well stocked, rainbow coloured fruit bowl.
- Keep your insulin levels balanced through the incorporation of protein foods with all meals and snacks, avoidance of frequent sweet treats and developing the meal plan structure of little and often…
- Get plenty of antioxidant angels whizzing around your bloodstream. Fresh fruit and vegetables contain high levels of vitamin C which actually synthesises collagen.
- Increase your B vitamin intake, as they are intricately involved with metabolic processes in the body. They are found in wholegrain foods such as quinoa, brown rice, seeds and even Marmite!
Steer clear of the most troublesome treat ingredient, high fructose corn syrup which trickles into many processed foods. It is not natural and exerts a lot of pressure on the body. It is popular because it is cheap and sickly sweet. You will find it in canned drinks, juices and fruit drinks, breads, confectionery and ready-meal rogues. This sweet evil interferes with hormone balance and converts to fat in an instant! So buy desserts with wholesome organic ingredients from Bakingo – cake bakery in Delhi.
