Sugar Gives You Wrinkles!

Time marches on and eventually we realize it’s marching across our skin.
As we stare this fact in the face, we begin to spend worriedly. We want to look like the airbrushed models bigger-than-life on the screen, proclaiming that certain creams and lotions have changed their lives.

We schedule weekly visits to our estheticians in our quest for latest and greatest skin rejuvenation techniques.

If it takes an occasional visit to the plastic surgeon, we will do it. We’ll drain our savings because we’re worth it.
Wrinkles aren’t choosy. Men are also endeavoring to ward off those inevitable, dreaded creases.

All the while, we’re still in bed with the enemy: SUGAR!
A few years ago I learned something startling about sugar that made me realize it’s not been my friend after all!

SUGAR CAUSES WRINKLES!

What?! It is already known that excess sugar can lead to a variety of health concerns. I think diabetes is a health concern, don’t you? And what about cancer? Did you know sugar is considered a feeding and breeding ground for cancer? OK, these two health hazards should hopefully be enough motivation to give up sugar.

Well, it wasn’t for me. Why? Probably because I couldn’t see the health dangers that lurked inside me. The internal damage would not be visible until it was too late. But wrinkles? Wrinkles are written all over your face!!!! You can’t miss them! It wasn’t until I learned that too much sugar can affect the skin and make me look older was when I started paying attention to what I was eating.

Jube Jubes? Licorice? Air-popped caramel corn? And my favorite, the chocolate chip cookie?

Oh NO! Say it ain’t so! Sugar has been with me my whole life and we’ve had some great times together! I felt so betrayed!

But alas, it’s true. So, I will say it again.

Sugar causes wrinkles…

Let me explain: This is what happens when we open the door to our sweet but beguiling friend, sugar. Once inside, it gets converted into glucose in the blood, which then attacks collagen fibers. This causes wrinkles. It’s that simple.

My story:
As a child I was an emotional eater and extremely overweight—as in a whopping 200 pounds—due to a diet that consisted primarily of sugar buns for breakfast, frozen chicken TV dinners and fast food for lunch and dinner, ice cream sundaes, canned chocolate pudding, bagels and pizza for snacks.

To add to that, when I was 11 years old, I decided to spend five hours riding the waves at Zuma Beach, California, without a sunscreen. Who needed it, right? That icky white stuff was just something parents made us wear just to torture us.

Well, come to find out, the ocean acts like a mirror and has the ability to increase the intensity of the sun off the water and slap it right onto our skin. Ouch. The result of my five-hour fun time? Second degree burns.

But I didn’t learn so quickly. I felt my skin could take more. When I was 15, I decided to look into a sunlamp for almost an hour, figuring that would really make a difference in skin tone. It did. I turned into a leathery cherry. More damaging burns.

Consequently, my sugar-rich diet coupled with a lot of sun damage had me looking 40 at age 25.

Now, for all you inquiring minds who now want to know if it’s too late for your skin, NO, it is not. But first, let me give you Biology 101 on sugar, wrinkles and the “How To” to turn back the hands of time.

Let’s start off with sugar and how it causes wrinkles.
Sugar can be digested in many forms, including the consumption of simple sugars such as white table sugar and complex carbohydrates such as beans, peas, whole grains and vegetables. If there is too much sugar in the body, protein molecules can cross-link with sugar molecules.

Once this cross-linking process has occurred, the new sugar proteins are called advanced glycation end products, aka AGEs. (Hmmmm, AGE, I wonder if that is where the term AGEING comes from).

The body does not recognize AGEs as normal, and will produce antibodies that cause inflammation in the skin. Once formed, AGEs tend to gravitate toward dermal collagen and elastin which ultimately creates the wrinkles..

As we age, proteins in the body can become damaged through the introduction of AGEs—one of the key factors in aging of the skin. The more sugar you eat, whether processed or natural, the more AGEs are produced. (YUP, AGING SKIN…Now it makes sense to me!!)

When the body is overwhelmed with AGEs, collagen becomes compromised. Effects of glycation (the binding process by which sugar turns into glucose in our blood) at the cellular level of the skin’s structure may result in wrinkling, loss of elasticity, stiffness, accelerated aging and compromised barrier function.

So that’s the science of sugar and wrinkles.

Now let’s review:

When we consume sugary products such as cookies, champagne, soda pop, candy bars, packaged foods, ketchup, white bread and pasta, sweetened yogurt and other evil temptresses, the sugar turns into glucose in our blood and binds with protein or lipid molecules.

As we know, collagen and elastin are the proteins in our skin that are vitally important for a wrinkle-free, elastic, young looking complexion. As a result of glycation, skin becomes stiff and loses its elasticity, which then opens the door to the formation of…WRINKLES!

Glycation also impairs the body’s ability to produce and utilize antioxidants. Broad-based antioxidants defend against signs of premature aging by withstanding sun, water and other environmental threats. They are proven to protect skin against UVB-induced photodamage

So now, what is an antioxidant? Think of an Antioxidant as your best friend and very own personal body guard, willing to take a bullet for you and sacrifice itself to the free radical’s roaming around inside your body looking for healthy cells to destroy.

Antioxidants are your saving grace against the byproduct of free radical damage—inside and outside aging, including lines and wrinkles!

All this time, free radicals and wrinkles have been hiding in the most innocent, obvious places.

Simple sugars like chocolate (not including organic 85% dark chocolate), white bread, white pasta and potatoes seem harmless enough, but have a look at the label. You will often be amazed at the amount of sugar they contain.

So, whats the solution?

First of all, become an avid label reader! And I mean the actual nutrition label, because sadly, some products will try to mislead you with the flirtation up front: “I’m good for you. Let me in!”

Perfect example: yogurt! I thought I was doing good eating yogurt every morning until I realized one serving of my favorite brand contained 29 grams of sugar. That’s half of what we should have in one day!

Have I mentioned that you should read labels?!

Find more hidden sugars in packaged foods, canned foods, low-fat foods and processed meats. For that matter, processed anything! (Processed foods can contain not only whopping amounts of sugar, but they are also pumped full of sodium—another unnecessary evil.)

Second, supplement your nutrition with an inside-outside approach to anti-aging by eating REAL FOODS such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Nothing Packaged. Incorporate raw foods into your diet for the enzymes they possess. Treat yourself to low sugar fruits such as yummie fresh raspberries or boysenberries; munch on a fresh carrot and or lightly steamed broccoli, and other vegetables.

This way your body can maximize the power of their living enzymes to help you achieve peak energy, performance and of course, anti-aging benefits. And let’s all remember to whip up your own anti-oxidant cocktail by juicing fresh vegetables and fruit.

Check the ORAC chart and incorporate herbs, spices and grains with high ORAC (anti0xicant) values into your daily menu. Ground cloves and cinnamon are two of my favorite antioxidants I put in my morning shake to get a head start at defeating those nasty free radicals. Both are listed in the top 10 ORAC value antioxidant foods, with both beating out Acai and Resveratrol. (ORAC units measure the antioxidant capacity of foods. The higher, the better.)

Again, this is science talking here. I didn’t make this stuff up!

Natural antioxidants to look for when label reading include vitamin E, Lycopene, green tea and grape seed.

Sugar and aging may not be choosy, but you can be. Read labels. Avoid sugary foods and let antioxidants in.

It’s time to slam the door on sugar and its oxidizing friends, and take back your skin’s health and radiance.

I did it, and so can you.

Read more of my articles about Health and Beauty by clicking HERE!