Ever wonder why you always have this feeling that you don’t look as good as you want to after a holiday party, a BBQ, or a drinking binge at the beach? It’s because what you eat has an effect on your skin. It can make your skin more beautiful or it can make it look older. Although the effects won’t show after a single meal, always eating unhealthy food can make you look old.
Check out fourteen kinds of food that you should limit.
1. Food with a lot of sugar like sweets can cause glycation. Scientists believe that when you consume too much sugar, the cells of your body can barely process it. The leftover sugar particles bind with protein. The result of this would be damaging to the collagen of your skin.
It should come as a surprise to no one that too much sweets has very negative effects for your teeth. We should listen more to our dentists because sugar finds its way to the hard-to-reach places between your teeth and it stays there. It attracts bacterium and causes tooth decay. Don’t forget to gargle with water after eating the sweet stuff.
2. Alcoholic beverages can be harmful to your liver. And an unhealthy liver means unhealthy skin. You liver is what cleans your body from harmful compounds. Some of these harmful compounds wreak havoc on the skin. Skin problems like acne and wrinkles are caused a liver that isn’t functioning right.
Alcoholic beverages can be very dehydrating. It can also have a negative effect on your circadian rhythm thus affecting sleep patterns. Bad sleeping patterns can speed up the aging process. It takes away the elastic properties of the skin as well as the balance of pigmentation.
3. Many might be surprised that white wine is bad for your looks. It is especially harmful to your teeth. The acids found in this particular wine can destroy your teeth’s enamel and makes your teeth more vulnerable to decay and discoloration.
Avoid brushing your teeth right after drinking wine or any drink that contains acid. It can do more damage than you think. Scientists believe that your teeth needs to gather minerals again to protect themselves. One hour after a drink should suffice.
4. The black burnt part of hamburgers might have hydrocarbons that could cause inflammation. This is bad because inflammation destroys the collagen of the skin. This however doesn’t mean you need to stop eating burgers pronto. You just need to take off the black charred meat. Don’t forget cleaning the grill after so the next time you have a barbecue, your burgers are safe to eat.
5. Next on the list is food with a lot of salt. Not cooking with salt doesn’t mean your food is salt-free. A lot of food in cans have sodium as their preservative. This causes the body to keep water in and make one look bloated. But you can use moisturizers that have caffeine if you want to reduce the areas on your skin that seem “puffy”.
6. Meat that has undergone processing with amounts of sulfites and preservatives can cause parts of your skin to be inflamed. And as we mentioned earlier, this can make people look older than they really are. Processed meat also has a large amount of salt. This can lead to puffiness. Replace the deli meat between your bread for poultry meat. If it’s impossible for you to part from processed meat, then reduce the amount you consume and eat more vegetables.
7. Food with a lot of spices can have negative effects of skin that experiences rosacea on a regular basis. For women going through menopause, spicy food can be bad as well because researchers believe that the blood vessels in the skin react more during this period of a woman’s life. Because food with a lot of spices causes dilation of the blood vessels, ladies going through menopause may discover their skin appearing weathered. Consuming spicy meals once in a while may not be harmful, but eating them on a regular basis could cause a spider vein or two to creep out to the surface of your skin. It can also cause redness which may be permanent.
8. Any kind of red meat has fat. And fat has free radicals which are on a constant lookout for electrons. More often than not, these radicals take the electrons from cells. When this happens, the cells of the skin lose the ability for protection and generation of collagen. There’s no problem eating cheeseburgers in moderation. Just don’t go out, visit your nearest fast food joint and buy one (or three) every time you feel like it. Also consider a switch to poultry. It’s a lot healthier. And stock up on antioxidant-rich food and products, and those with vitamin C because they fight the radicals that make you look old.
9. An energy drink can give you all the energy you need to overcome tasks you might be too tired to do. It can give you the strength and endurance of your younger self. But it can also harm your teeth. As a matter of fact, recent research shows that these energy drinks take away more enamel on the teeth than sports drinks. They also have a higher level of acidity which leads to staining of the teeth. But if you need to drink your energy drink, try using a straw.
10. Although any kind of citrus drink can damage the enamel of the teeth, lemons should be the most feared. In fact, recent research has discovered that juice squeezed from lemons caused more erosion of the teeth than juices squeezed from oranges or grapefruits. The sugar mixed with the juice, only makes things worse. This is another drink you should consume using a straw.
11. Beverages with caffeine can dehydrate you faster than you might realize. When this happens, the skin loses moisture causing your skin to appear dulled and old.
It’s a good thing however that moisturizers are readily available in the market. Moisturizers are the quickest way to regain that youthful look. Look for one with hyaluronic acid.
12. Trans fat is both harmful to your cardiovascular system and your skin. It causes parts of you to be inflamed which is bad for collagen as well. Trans fat also makes a person weaker against ultraviolet rays, which is the biggest factor and leading cause of looking older.
Even products that claim they have zero trans fat may still have an amount of artificial fat. Also look for those that have hydrogenated oil. Stay away from those as well.
13. Aside from the caffeine which is harmful to your skin, coffee has an acidic quality that can be bad for your teeth as well. We’re not recommending that you do away with coffee altogether. Drink coffee because it has been proven to have a host of benefits for the human body. Don’t forget to drink water after so neutralize and wash the acid. Chewing gum without sugar can also help keep your pearly whites, pearly white.
14.The tannin in tea causes stains in the teeth. The good thing about this is casein found in milk can combat this. Drink tea with milk and don’t add lemon.
