How Does Sugar Affect Your Skin?

Do you ever notice how certain things you do have a pretty quick effect on your skin? Dehydration, for example. If we don’t drink enough water for just a day, we may notice the effects the next day. Our skin may skin look tired, our fine lines and crows feet may look more pronounced and the skin under our eyes may appear darker.

The same goes if we drink too much coffee or we have one too many pale rosés in a pub garden. Caffeine and alcohol are both diuretics, so we should be matching them drink for drink with a glass of water, ideally, for healthy skin.

What about the things we eat? If we have skin that loves to go red, itchy and sensitive or we have rosacea, then eating hot or spicy foods might mean that our skin reacts angrily. Exercise is the same. Going for a run or doing a vigorous HIIT session can mean that we have a red ‘glow’ to our skin for what seems like hours afterwards

So, it’s clear, our eyes might be the windows to our soul, but our skin can give a lot more away.

But what about sugar? Can our sugar consumption have an effect on our skin that we might not even be aware of? Could an excessive sugar intake be causing some of the skin symptoms such as spots and irritation that we’re struggling with, without us even making the connection?

As ever, let’s find out. Here's what eating sugar does to your skin.

Sucrose vs Glucose: What is Sugar?

Sounds like a simple question doesn't it? It’s that stuff that we add to our tea by the spoonful and makes things taste nice, it’s white and sort of, granular?

Well, yes, but chemically speaking, what is it? (Remember, pretty much everything we eat and drink is a chemical of some sort. Water is a chemical, vitamins are chemicals. Not all chemicals are nasty.)

Dependable Wikipedia reliably tells us that sugar is a “soluble carbohydrate”, of which there are a few different types. The sugar we described above, usually referred to as table sugar, is actually called sucrose. Sucrose is a complex sugar, made up of molecules of two simple sugars - glucose and fructose.

When we consume sucrose, the body breaks it down into its simple sugar constituent parts. Glucose is the body’s preferred source of energy, and it uses it to power both us and all the biological systems in the body.

And as we well know, any excess sugar, or rather in this case, fructose and glucose, in the diet is stored, unfortunately, as fat. If we eat a high sugar diet, we’re likely to gain weight. If we reduce the amount of sugar we eat, we’re more likely to lose weight. (Weight loss is a complex subject, so that’s just a basic premise.)

Do Carbohydrates Add to Our Sugar Intake?

Carbohydrates, such as pasta and bread, are actually, again chemically speaking, long chains of complex sugars. When we eat carbohydrates, the body breaks them down into their constituent parts - sugars. This then causes our blood sugar levels to rise.

It’s for this reason that carbs are often demonised - legend goes, that if we eat a high carb diet, we’ll put on weight. Whilst this is essentially a true fact, there’s a lot more at play.

We need sugar, and by eating unrefined, brown carbs, such as brown bread and pasta instead of the refined white versions, we’re going to feel full and energised for longer. This is because unrefined carbs cause smaller blood sugar spikes than white carbs that cause high levels of sugar in your bloodstream.

If we exercise a lot, then carbs will help out there too, and again, eating the slow release brown versions will do us more favours. White bread and pasta get broken down really quickly, flooding the bloodstream with sugar, giving us a high from the high blood sugar levels. Which is very quickly followed by a sugary low and a crash in energy levels.

So, let’s not demonise carbs, but choose them carefully and make around a third of your daily calorie intake carbohydrate, less if you’re planning a sedentary day or you’re on a weight loss plan.

Does Fruit Sugar Affect Your Skin?

So now, fruit. Fruit is exceptionally good for us. It’s full of essential vitamins and minerals, and crucially, gut loving fibre. But fruit and fruit juice are also fairly high in a simple sugar called fructose.

Our five a day should really be made up more from veggies than fruits, because of their sugar content. We’re in no way saying don’t eat fruit, but just be aware that sugar is sugar (according to the body) and you may want to consider that if you’re eating a large punnet of strawberries, four bananas and a couple of apples every day.

What About Added Sugar?

Also be aware that many fruit juices have added sugar, just like cakes, sweets and biscuits do. So they may fare no better - keep sweetened juices to a minimum. Some drinks and foods have hidden added sugars, under the guise of high fructose corn syrup which will severely increase your intake of sugar and the damaging effects of sugar on the skin.

So now we know what sugar is, what about its effects on the skin?

What Are the Effects of Sugar on Skin Health?

The bottom line is really that sugar is an inflammatory food and therefore, sugar can affect inflammation in the body. This means that eating a lot of sugar, whether from cakes, pasta or berries, can cause an increase in inflammation. (However, sugary foods such as cakes that are minus any of the good - read, healthy - stuff are more likely to have an effect since brown pasta and fruit also contain anti-inflammatory vitamins and antioxidants.)

But what does this mean for our skin? First up, a quick chat about inflammation.

Sweet Stuff: What is Inflammation?

Inflammation at low levels is a good thing. As part of the immune response, it helps the body fight infections and disease. It also helps the body fight invaders. When we have a cold for example, we might get a temperature, and that’s inflammation - the body’s way of getting rid of the cold bug.

Skin wise, imagine a splinter in your finger. The area will feel warm and will look puffy and red. That’s inflammation at work, trying to rid the body of this foreign invader.

So, inflammation at normal levels is good. But things go awry when inflammation becomes bad, or chronic.

Does Sugar Damage Cause Bad Inflammation?

Chronic inflammation occurs when inflammation hangs around for too long. This can be down to factors such as a lingering infection, or an autoimmune condition.

But chronic inflammation can also be caused by lifestyle factors such as smoking, drinking pale rosé in pub gardens too frequently, being obese or overweight or suffering long term, chronic stress.

It can also be caused by our diet - if we eat a lot of processed, high fat, high salt, high sugar foods, then we could be inviting chronic inflammation to the tasty party.

What Does Eating too Much Sugar Do to the Skin?

When we eat sugar, our body releases the hormone insulin to deal with it. Insulin herds the sugar around to where it’s needed. The problem is, insulin also triggers inflammation, and inflammation can make certain skin conditions such as acne, worse. The same can be said for skin conditions such as eczema and rosacea.

But what about if we don’t have existing skin conditions? Well, we still don’t escape, as inflammation can also accelerate the skin ageing process by encouraging the breakdown of collagen and elastin fibres. As you may know, collagen and elastin are the proteins responsible for keeping the skin smooth, plump, hydrated and youthful, so the last thing we want to do is encourage their breakdown.

More signs that your skin's health might be suffering the effects of chronic inflammation include skin rashes, redness, itching, dryness, scaling, skin thickening, blisters, spots and cracked, weeping or bleeding areas.

So, what eating sugar actually does to your skin, is not good.

Does Sugar Cause Spots?

Regularly eating foods high in sugar may well be causing your spots and acne breakouts, and again, this is all down to our skin's foe - chronic inflammation.

Why Do I Get a Flushed Face After Eating Sugar?

If your skin becomes red, itch and flushed quite often, it may be because you're consuming too much sugar. And guess what? Yep, it's that pesky chronic inflammation again.

Reducing Your Sugar Intake to Reduce Chronic Inflammation in the Skin

Chronic inflammation isn’t just caused by our sugar intake, as we discovered above. There are lots of contributing factors, some we can’t help or control, others, we can.

Reducing sugar intake is one thing we can do to help the health and appearance of our skin. That means keeping the sweet treats to a minimum, choosing wholewheat carbs over refined white ones, being mindful of our fruit intake and opting for water and herbal teas over squashes and fizzy drinks.

We're not suggesting a no-sugar diet or that you should completely eliminate sugar from your diet. As much as too much sugar can cause negative effects, sugar isn't completely evil. Without it, we'd struggle with a lack of energy and severe brain fog. But to keep your skin healthy, consider some sugar breaks and try to ignore your sweet tooth more often.

The Effect of Sugar on Your Skin: Wrinkles and Ageing

So we know know that excess sugar can lead to chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation can cause existing skin conditions to worsen, and may cause signs of aging such as fine lines and wrinkles.

We all want our skin to look and feel good. So to keep skin happy, your skincare is important too. The Sönd skincare range has been developed with stressed out, contrary skin in mind and helps to keep the skin hydrated, nourished and replenished. It may even keep your skin so happy, that the odd chocolate eclair in the fridge might have no skin impacts at all...

So if you haven’t checked us out already, then what are you waiting for?!

References

https://www.healthline.com/health/skin-disorders/rosy-cheeks#food-reaction

https://www.womensrunning.com/health/is-your-beet-red-face-bad-news/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-eatwell-guide/

https://www.newscientist.com/definition/sugar/

https://www.healthline.com/health/beauty-skin-care/skin-diet#no-sugar-or-dairy

https://www.healthline.com/health/chronic-inflammation#causes

https://www.healthline.com/health/beauty-skin-care/skin-diet

https://www.insider.com/how-eating-sugar-affects-your-skin-2019-7

https://www.healthline.com/health/skin-inflammation#symptoms

This article is not meant to treat or diagnose. Please visit your doctor for advice about any health concerns you may have.