7 Foods To Avoid For Skin Health

Does your skin need some extra help?

We all know that ‘what goes inside shows outside’. So, one needs to be careful when one is eating. The nutrient uptake needs to be right to make skin look healthy and radiant. And when we say healthy, we mean good food choices to nourish your body from within. This is because some of our eating habits can lead to seriously bad effects on the skin. We think it is important to caution you about those. Therefore, here is a list of some bad foods for skin health which you must avoid:

1. Salt
Salt affects collagen immensely, especially around areas where the skin is thin. This is perhaps the reason it is a bad food for skin. You will see puffiness around your eyes due to swelling up of tissues. Also, dermatologists opine that if you wish to keep wrinkles at bay, stay away from white stuff like salt.
Alternative: Eat less salt. Iodized salt is bad – it worsens acne condition. Check the sodium content in packaged foods.

2. Sugar
It is another white food bad for skin. Sugar boosts aging and influences your blood vessels. If you don’t believe us, just cut sugar from your diet for a week. The result is your skin will be clearer.  Sugar suppresses the immune system affecting our body’s healing ability. Thus it is unable to fight bacteria causing inflammation and acne. Sugar is responsible for constipation as well. In short, there are more toxins in the body and hence a bad-looking skin.
Alternative: Switch to natural sugars, they are complex in their formation and take more time for processing.

3. Coffee
Though not a regular food, but since its consumption is pretty high, it has become a staple food for many. The results are scary – making it a bad food for skin. Coffee can lead to dehydration making your skin look dull and unappealing. Too much consumption can stimulate pituitary adrenocorticol response enhancing cortisol levels. This fastens aging (thinning of skin and eventually lines and wrinkles).
Alternative: Drink green tea. It contains antioxidants and has lower caffeine content. Hence, lesser dehydration.

4. Red meat
A study has revealed that eating red meat more than once a week can lead to wrinkle formation. Carnitine, a compound present in plenty in animal protein makes blood vessels harder causing premature wrinkles.
Alternative: Eat it once in a week or go for sea food.

5. Non organic food
Food that is not grown organically can be full of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, wax, and hormones. These toxins can affect skin health negatively.
Alternative: Eat organic foods only. The amount of vitamins, minerals and trace elements is two to three times more in food grown organically. More nutrients means healthier skin.

6. Dairy
Though not a bad food for skin, but in order to extract more milk, some cows are fed with hormones. When one consumes this milk or any such product, we tend to consume hormones too. This can result in acne and many more health issues. Also, dairy forms mucus in our body leading to inflammation.
Alternative: Pick hormone free dairy products.

7. Hydrogenated foods
Oils and fats get oxidized when heated at a very high temperature. Oxidants are bad for our body as they cannot be removed easily. As a result, blood circulation gets affected and metabolism too slows down. For a healthy skin you need to have good circulation of blood. If that is not right your skin becomes deprived of oxygen and hence collagen and elastin formation is affected depriving skin of its youthful glow.
Alternative: There is only one way out. Stay away from them. [Editor’s Note: Couldn’t agree more!]

So shun these foods and turn to some healthy foods for skin health.