Food Products to Avoid at All Costs for Healthy Skin

It’s always interesting to read about the latest super food or leafy greens that we should consume to better our health and to achieve a healthy, glowing complexion from the inside out.

But sometimes … it’s good to get a healthy reminder about the unhealthy items we should avoid eating most of the time. What you eat directly affects your largest organ — your skin. Depending on what you eat, you can create skin conditions like acne, aging and thinning. A poor diet will cause inflammation, which causes oxidative stress, which ultimately damages your collagen and DNA. In other words, try to avoid these products or do your best to consume them only occasionally.

Sugar = danger … all the danger: It’s one of the worst things for your health and your skin. It also happens to be the product that ages us the most. Additionally, it weakens our immune systems. An overabundance of sugar in your system will expedite your skin’s production of wrinkles. Consume naturally occurring sugars in fruit rather than processed candy.

Fried anything = oil: Fried foods are … so tasty. However, they are fatty and create oil buildup.

Alcohol and Caffeine = sap hydration: Alcohol dehydrates you. As a result, the less water in your body, the less of it can get to your skin. Alcohol also is known to cause vasodilatation (or widening of blood vessels and arteries), which in turn exacerbates rosacea (a recurring inflammatory disorder that affects facial skin and causes a reddish appearance). Caffeine is a diuretic, and thus it dehydrates.

Processed snacks = sugar and salt: Processed foods often contain too much sodium and sugar. And as previously mentioned, sugar will increase wrinkle production, weaken your immune system and affect quality of your skin.

Cereal = refined sugar: Even so-called healthy cereals contain high levels of refined sugar. Make sure to check the label.

Salt = bloating: While some salt is good for you, it can wreak havoc on your skin. It contributes to bloating due to trapping water in your tissues. Remember that a lot of what you eat contains salt already.