I know if you've ever been called "sugar face," you probably took it as a compliment! But it also refers to the damage that sugar does to your collagen, which keeps skin looking young and smooth. Let me tell you more about how and why sugar ages you!
Basically, sugar molecules wreak havoc on the proteins collagen and elastin.
Each bit of sugar goes in and LINKS two collagen fibers together...which I know SOUNDS like a good thing but it's really not. Now those two collagen fibers are tied up with each other and neither of them can be repaired.
That's just one sugar molecule, taking out two collagen fibers!!
The sugar does this because, in your bloodstream, it produces something called advanced glycation end products, or "AGEs"…Which I guess is fitting, because they AGE your skin!
These AGEs attach to collagen /elastin and get them all damaged, or tangled up in each other. Next stop, wrinkle city!
And the AGEs don't stop there in their destructive deeds. They also change the type of collagen in your skin. You see, there are actually 28 types of collagen, but the types in your skin are mainly I, II, and III. For the sake of this blog post I won't get into the nitty-gritty details of how the collagen types are different, except to say this:
The evil AGEs take STRONGER Type III collagen in your skin, and convert it into WEAKER Type I collagen.
And there is actually one more problem on top of all that, because these sugar byproduct AGEs just don't know when to quit: AGEs turn off your ability to process antioxidants.
Seriously! They turn off the enzymes you need to prevent bad oxidant chemical reactions that affect far more than your skin.
But as you probably knew, antioxidants are great for anti-aging as well by preventing oxidative and peroxide DAMAGE.
To recap, when sugar goes into your bloodstream, it creates byproducts known as AGEs, which twist up your collagen and elastin; WEAKEN the type of collagen on top of that; and prevent antioxidants from working properly.
Diabetics can attest that high blood sugar levels really do cause you to look younger, earlier, unfortunately. Diabetics can have up to 50 times more of these damaging AGEs, and so they are familiar with "sugar face."
The good news, though, is that it's possible to REVERSE the damage — yep, REVERSE the wrinkles and sugar face!
The first step is, of course, fixing your diet by cutting back on the sugar. I love my natural sugars like those found in fruits and grains, and wouldn't give up the awesome, essential health benefits of those no matter what. So what I recommend is simply cutting back on your ADDED sugars instead of going so far as to limit carbs in order to limit sugar intake.
Watch out for ADDED sugar not only where you'd expect it, but also in everything ranging from BBQ sauce and ketchup, to fruit juice and cereal. Also, stay far away from high fructose corn syrup because it produces more of the dreaded AGEs.
After you've done your sugar detox, the final step is to BOOST COLLAGEN LEVELS by eating high-collagen foods like meat (or soy for us vegans!), or by consuming a collagen powder/supplement. You need the collagen in your bloodstream to do any good and to combat the damage done by AGEs. That's why skin creams with collagen are mostly agreed to be ineffective…
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