JOIN USCertains foods, like junk, speed up the skin’s ageing process. It is important to watch what you eat, warns Dr Amrapali Patil.
You have heard it before:
Certain foods are bad for your skin and can make you look haggard and old. Fried, greasy, sugary foods, foods made of refined flour, foods that lack vegetables and fruits, and a diet that is largely dependent on pasta, bread and butter spells doom for your beauty.
Why? Because these impair the function of collagen (an important factor that renders youthful appearance to your skin and keeps it bouncy and elastic) and break it down. In fact, certain foods trigger an inflammatory response across the body, which results in generation of AGEs (advanced glycation end products), which actually age the skin.
AGEs, themselves, are inflammatory products, and after all, the process of ageing is a chronic inflammatory condition.
So AGEs add fuel to fire and more age to your skin. Avoid or limit the consumption of following foods as their base effect is to generate AGEs, trigger inflammation, thereby adding to the process of ageing:
Sugary pastries, cakes, doughnuts and other sweets are extremely high on sugar content and directly cause inflammation. This translates into wrinkles on the face. Remember, everytime you indulge that sweet tooth, you age your looks.Fried and greasy foods are rich in transfat, another inflammation-provoking agent.
Also, these reduce good or HDL cholesterol and increase the bad or LDL cholesterol. That’s not good news for the skin or heart.Processed meats, cold cut meats, bacon and pepperoni not only contain nitrates, but also saturated fats, both of which induce inflammation, speeding up ageing.
Alcohol, in more than recommended dosage, straight away revs up your age.
Have more of the following foods :Lentils, beans (lima, pinto, chickpeas) Salmon and tuna - these fish are rich in omega 3 fatty acids and helps in pumping up the skin.
Green leafy veggies, fruits, coloured veggies - these are rich in antioxidants, adding that glow to your skin.Tomato and other citrus fruits - these contain a substance called as ‘Lycopene’. Lycopene slows down the process of ageing.
(The writer is weight management expert and founder, Trim n Tone)