If you’d asked a dermatologist 20 years ago whether changing your diet could make your skin look better, they would have muttered something about ‘everyone should eat a balanced diet,’ and sent you on your way.
Not only are skin specialists now convinced of the link between what we eat, and the look and feel of our skin – from acne to wrinkles, to sagging and even the skin’s own sun-protection – increasingly large scientific studies are also showing which foods do what to skin. This means that depressing old aged: ‘it’s in the genes’ isn’t the whole story, and there is plenty you can do to influence the state of your face.
Only 20 per cent of the way you age is down to genetic factors,’ says leading celebrity dermatologist Dr Neetu Nirdosh, whose client list includes Kelly Brook and Frieda Pinto.
‘The other 80 per cent is governed by lifestyle factors such as smoking and sun damage.
‘A large part of that is diet, which can affect not only wrinkles and fine lines, but also hyper-pigmentation and acne’.
It’s never too early to adopt a skin healthy diet geared towards anti-ageing, says Dr Stefanie Williams, dermatologist and founder of www.eudelo.com.
In fact, a study published in the British Journal of Dermatology found that ageing effects the skin – such as collagen breakdown and skin thinning – typically begin around 35.
‘A diet high in sugar and high-glycemic index (GI) carbohydrates such as white rice, pasta, bread, and sweets have now been shown to cause inflammation in the body that can make the skin age much quicker,’ Dr Williams said.
One study, from the Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, made the first direct link between the amount of sugar circulating in the blood, and how old a person looks.
It found the higher the amount of sugar and high GI carbs a person ate, the older they looked.
Here’s what’s happening. When blood sugar levels are constantly on the high-low cycle that comes from a high sugar and high carb diet, (eating too often between meals has the same effect), sugar molecules permanently bond to proteins, including the collagen in your skin.
Sticking to low-GI diet (eating foods with a GI of 50 or under) and avoiding sugary foods will help your skin.
But if you want to keep blood sugar levels stable, and reduce breakouts and help early ageing in the skin, Dr Williams suggested avoiding all starchy, grain-based foods, even the brown versions.
Instead, she advised eating lean proteins such as beef, lamb, chicken, fish, tofu, and pulses, and plenty of vegetables.