3 Types of Foods That Can Lead to Skin Inflammation

As the New Year gets underway, we often strive to to take positive steps in the wellness sphere to start things off with a clean slate. A major focus for me for 2021 will be amping up my skincare routine both from an external, product-based perspective as well as from an internal nutritional one. What I am discovering more and more, about eating for optimum skin health is that sometimes it is not just about making sure one eats enough fruits and veggies but also about moderating intake of certain other kinds of foods, particularly those that cause inflammation. Inflammation in the skin can lead to a host of concerns, spanning everything from clogged pores to acne to excessively dry skin and flare-ups of dermatits, rosacea, and eczema. Of course, foods that cause inflammation vary for everyone, but here are three major ones that also are specifically prone to impact our skin's balance and appearance.

Dairy: While it is true that there are many good-for- you nutrients to be found in dairy products such as calcium and protein, cow and goat's milk products also contain lots of excess hormones, both naturally occurring in the animal and others often synthetically-derived and injected to increase milk production for mass industry. These hormones mix with our own, (especially true of females), causing them to flood into our system, making it harder for our livers and kidneys to deal with the overload, and the excess often gets secreted through our skin resulting in inflammation that leads to more breakouts especially. Also, for many people lactose spikes blood sugar, which gives off an inflammatory response. To combat the issues surrounding dairy consumption on your skin, you can always reduce your intake, but you may also want to consider buying organic milk when available, which has less of a hormone overload than conventionally-produced milk. Or you might want to try some plant-based milk alternatives such as cashew milk, which has great skin nourishing B vitamins and no lactose and usually less added sugar than cow and goat's milk.

Artificial Trans Fats: Found in fried foods, processed meats, and hydrogenated vegetable oils, trans fats are especially high in Omega 6 fatty acids, which play both good cop and bad cop with our skin. , Omega 6 fatty acids are essential to human health and are found in many nutritious, skin supporting foods and ingredients like walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, avocados, and evening primrose oil) and help build a strong lipid barrier and give moisture to the skin The problem comes in when they are consumed in excess or in large amount suddenly that is not balanced out efficiently by their anti-inflammatory counterpart, omega-3 fatty acid (found in seafood,spinach , and chia seeds, for example), Many natural foods rich in omega-6 fatty acids also contain omega-3s, but consuming too much omega 6 fatty acids that are not balanced out such as by a eating a diet high in processed meats and lots of hydrogenated oils can send our own oil production into overdrive and puts our bodies into stress mode while producing that oil. Among the largest sources for a sudden influx of artificial trans fats that will bring about an inflammatory response is fast food and most especially french fries because the salt on top can also lead to more fluid retention and, thereby, further inflammation.

Refined Sugars: Last but not least, we have the area that is hardest for me personally to mitigate-- refined sugars and carbs. The effects of processed sugar relating to our skin is three-fold. For one, bacteria loves to feed on sugar, and acne is, at its core, a bacterial condition. Secondly, sugar often messes up the balance of our hormones and spijes our bloodsugar (similar to the way milk can), which causes inflammation in the body. But thirdly, refined sugar is also very closely linked with accelerated aging of our skin because sugar molecules bind withe collagen protein molecules of our skin. When this happens, they form something called an AGE, or an Advanced Glycation Endproduct. These basically result in the skin shedding too quickly and neither looking nor being as plump and smooth and well-hydrated as it once was. This more sallow-looking and broken down skin can be much more prone to drying our and not being as resilient to bacteria or environmental damage and become more inflamed as a result.

By no means is skin a one-size-fits- all science, and the foods that can both help and hinder great skin health are no different. Likewise, no drastic dietary cuts or changes necessarily need to be made to have your skin be its best. Enjoying a little bit of everything, I believe, is key to a living happy, beautiful life, inside and out. Having the facts on how our habits affect our bodies just give us the tools to make that so! Next week, I am going to talk about one more food-related item-soda- its connection to skin wellness and one's overall being.