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If you're interested in looking younger and having gorgeous looking skin, then you'll be interested in this. Did you know that sugar not only causes your skin to look dull, it can cause wrinkles as well to make you look years older? Well, it's true.

We know of the problem of sugar in causing diabetes and other health problems, but it's now known to affect your looks as well!

"Oh no!" you say, "that means I can never have sugar or carbs again!", but hey, calm down. It's not like this, so read on!

What you need is to not have a bland diet forever, what you need is to know what to do, and exactly how to do it. And it's easy to do. So let's go through exactly what sugar does to our skin (gulp!) And what to do in order to have a great diet and great skin at the same time.

So firstly, this is what sugar does to your skin.

Glycation, a natural process, is at the root of the problem. According to Dr Fredric Brandt, a dermatologist in private practice in Miami and New York City, when sugar enters the bloodstream it attaches itself to proteins, which form new molecules called advanced glycation end products or AGEs for short. A very appropriate name, would not you agree?

The amount of these sugar coated proteins, or AGEs, increases as the amount of sugar you eat increases. And this process affects your skin just like it does any other organ. In your skin, collagen and elastin became damaged by this process.

The problem is collagen and elastin are what keep your skin firm, wrinkle free, and youngger looking. According to a study disclosed in the British Journal of Dermatology, the damage to your skin caused by these AGE proteins start from the age of 35, and increases rapidly after that.

There's something else too. See, there are 3 types of collagen in your skin, called type I to III, with type III being the most tenant. A high sugar diet turns type III collagen in your skin to turn into type I, making your skin less supple and resilient.

There's another thing that happens. The AGE proteins floating around causes your body's natural antioxidants to be deactivated, which means your skin to damage by the sun, stress or other causes of free radicals.

Not only does sugar damage the collagen and elastin of your skin it also causes the bodies antioxidants in the blood stream to be deactivated. Which means you are more likely to suffer from free radicals that are generated from our body all the time. That's like a double whammy!

And if you're stressed, or are exposed to the sun or have a poor diet, then this is even worse.

Thankfully it's not too late!

You can your collagen in your skin healthy by following some easy tips to help you have younger, healthy skin:

Tip 1

Start by cutting back the amount of sweet things in your diet. Do not be surprised if you find this tough at first. Like so many addictive things sugar can be tough to kick too. Increase fruits and vegetables in your diet, which will provide you with a natural carbohydrates the body can use that's much more typically absorb and results in much less sugar coating of your proteins.

Tip 2

Limit your sugar intake to less than 10% of your total calories. For a 40 year old woman that can be equal to about 10 teaspoons a day. Are you surprised to hear that the average American has 31 teaspoons of sugar a day?

And how do you tell how much sugar is present? Check nutritional facts listed on the product for the grams of carbohydrates it contains. Then just divide by 4 to give you the number of teaspoons of sugar. So if there's 12 grams of carbohydrates, this will be the same as 3 teaspoons of sugar.

Tip 3

Watch for sugars hidden in foods. These are the ones which are harder to identify. Fast food and other prepared foods often contain a lot of sugar disguised with names like dextrose, corn syrup, dextrose, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, barley malt, maple syrup or molasses to name just a few.

In particular, avoid fructose corn syrup, which is the sweetener that's made when the sugar in the cornstarch is altered to fructose. This type of sugar produces more AGE than any other type of sugar. It's found in many foods such as soda, fruit flavored drinks, and even breads and crackers, because it's cheaper to produce. So watch out for it.

So there you have it.

You now know that sugar and your skin simply are not a good mix, causing you to look older than your calendar age. Actually sugar is responsible for a host of other health problems too, so make sure that you follow the tips above for a healthy lifestyle, as well as younger looking skin.

And this is the great thing about knowing what to do. You get healthier and you look better all at the same time. So go for it, put these anti aging tips into practice and get gorgeous looking skin!

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Source by Marcus Ryan