The Ugly Truth About Sugar
People often ask me what my number one anti-aging secret is. The answer quite often surprises them. My number one anti-aging secret is to avoid sugar. By sugar I don’t mean just the sugar you put into your tea or coffee or the sugar that’s in sweets or cakes. I mean the sugar that’s in the food that most people eat these days. The sugar that’s in pasta, breads, packaged foods and drinks that flood the bloodstream with glucose which then has a negative effect on the beauty of your skin.
Well, it really isn’t a secret any more but its my number one tip. Many of you will have already heard this. Sugar launches multiple attacks on anyone who wants to keep their skin looking young and beautiful as they advance in their years. Of course some people are blessed with great genes and appear to advance into later years with an enviable youthful appearance. But no matter what your genetic inheritance is, you can increase you chances of maintaining youthful looking skin into your later years by cutting out sugar from your diet.
Skin doesn’t just age by accident or simply because the years pass by. There is a process to the aging of skin. Many things contribute to this process. But nothing is more damaging so apparently to the beauty of your skin than the constant high levels of blood sugar and insulin, which many of those eating a typically Western diet are subjecting their bodies to.
Sugar has been demonstrated, in scientific research, as being responsible for the the speeding up of the ageing process. Sugar molecules, in particular fructose, can be seen as the most aging substance as it can cause a lot of permanent damage to the body and detrimentally affect your health. The main way in which sugars display such damaging effects is through their production of
Advanced Glycation End products (AGE’s). These products are proteins or fats which have been oxidised by sugars. Proteins are found all throughout the body and so it is not a surprise that anything which affects proteins would have a large impact on your health as well as your physical appearance. The most vulnerable proteins to damage are collagen and elastin which are important in keeping the skin looking youthful and preserving its elasticity. AGE’s damage these proteins and causing your skin to look wrinkly, reducing its firmness and making it sag.
Glycation is the process where sugars and proteins uncontrollably react with each other and in turn, produces an inflammatory response in the body, causing the immune system to activate. Once the immune system is activated, it works to seek out these AGE’s to get rid of them. The downside to this process however is that although the immune system is removing these toxic end products, it causes a lot of damage to the body in the process. Plaque formation is one of these effects and these can be deposited on arteries and blood vessels, causing blockages and putting stress on the heart. Not only does sugar cause AGE’s but also creates free radicals which have the ability to bind to healthy cells and damage them.
Another way that sugar causes premature aging is through the spikes of insulin and leptin levels within the blood after eating sugar. This can produce damaging effects to the heart and lead to heart disease if these levels remain high for too long. Not only do AGE’s have these direct effects, but they also have indirect effects including making the body more susceptible and vulnerable to other harmful processes such as the damaging effects of excess UV light and cigarette smoke. And this shows up on your face and body as skin which thins, sags, wrinkles and looks older than it should. Blotches and spots appear if you genetically prone to them. You start to look tired and old and eventually you will feel as bad as you look.
I know this from experience as well. I grew up eating a very healthy diet and my skin looked fabulous into my 30s and early 40s. I looked so much younger than my years. But I then succumbed to eating fast food as I was so busy with the fast paced life I was living. At first I wondered if all that I had previously believed about a healthy diet was true as the effects were not immediately obvious. But the effects eventually came and when they did they were pretty rapid. It’s was almost as if I woke up one morning and saw a different face in the mirror. The person staring back at me looked old, tired, overweight. She had lost her spark and her radiance. I was shocked.
I quickly resolved to change the way I had been living. I am happy to state that I managed to reverse the negative effects that my busy lifestyle and poor eating habits had on my appearance. I am now slim and look younger than my years. My skin is glowing with health and radiance and I want to share what I have learnt with you. After seeing all the damaging effects that sugar can cause, it is needless to say that sugar is the most aging substance around.
We at Day Spa at Home want you to have beautiful skin. We have the best information on how you can quit sugar for good, replace this aging substance with healthier food to promote and retain younger looking skin. Join our mailing list now to receive our tips and information on how to keep your skin looking beautiful and younger for longer.