Eating Habits Affect Your Skin and Overall Health

You are what you eat. We hear it all the time! Everything you eat has properties that affect your body in some way. Whether it’s to cleanse and nourish your body or cause breakouts, your food determines what your body does. So, when it comes to your skin, how can you make sure that you are eating in a way that will help your skin be healthy and happy?

Eating habits that are bad for your skin:

• Refined carbs - Eating a lot of white bread, pasta, and candies that contain refined carbohydrates will make your blood sugar levels increase and increase the chances that you will have acne breakouts and wrinkles.
• Too much salt - If you eat a lot of salt like I do, you should watch how much you’re sprinkling on your dinner. Increased salt and sodium-rich foods will cause your skin to retain more water, causing them to swell. This can leave your under-eyes and face looking a bit puffy.
• Sweeteners & sugar - Skin inflammation and sugar come hand in hand. Too much sugar can cause inflammation in your skin, leading to worsened breakouts as well. Unfortunately, artificial sweeteners tend to cause the same skin issues. To top it all off, sugar is highly addictive! 
• Too much alcohol - Alcohol will dehydrate your skin whenever you drink it. This means that too much alcohol can leave your skin dry and dehydrated and lead to saggy, wrinkly skin.
• Coffee - Drinking coffee is amazing, but caffeine causes your body to produce more of the hormone cortisol, which when incorrectly produced, it can cause your skin to become dry and flaky, as well as lead to wrinkled skin.
• Dairy - When you have too many dairy products, your skin’s oil balance is thrown off. Your skin begins to produce too much oil and leads to breakouts and clogged pores.
• Yo-yo dieting - Restrictive diets and constantly changing the way that you eat will throw your entire body off balance, and your skin is no different. There was a study done in 2021 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34214235/) that shows a relationship between restrictive dieting/disordered eating and worsened acne breakouts.  

Eating habits that are healthy for your skin:

• Zinc - Eating foods that are high in zinc will help fight acne breakouts. These foods include seeds & nuts, eggs, dairy products, whole grains, potatoes & sweet potatoes, dark chocolate, chickpeas, beef, pork, lobster, and more!
• Vitamin C - Vitamin C is great for your skin and promotes overall health. You can vitamin C in foods such as strawberries, citrus fruits, pineapple, guava, cantaloup, white potatoes, tomatoes, and more!
• Antioxidants - Antioxidants are great for cleaning up your body, from your stomach to your skin. Eat foods like berries, tomatoes, broccoli, avocado, squash, and more or drink antioxidant teas!
• Water, Water, Water - A hydrated body means hydrated skin!

Eating healthy and working towards overall wellness for your body will produce the same result for your skin! So, in the end, the best way to make your skin healthy and happy is to keep your body healthy.