One of the joys of being a beauty journalist is the unsolicited advice. A skin expert once glanced at my face and said, “You eat loads of sugar, don’t you?” To be fair, I was fuelled entirely on caffeine and cookies at the time, but the fact that it was obvious from looking at my skin was not welcome news.
It’s called glycation, and occurs when sugar molecules attach to fats and proteins, causing a loss of elasticity in the skin, lines and dark spots. Sugar fiends also tend to have crosshatched lines in places such as the upper lip, from deceased collagen.
Added sugar should make up at most 5% of your diet, which is 30g, or seven teaspoons of sugar a day. Lack of sleep can also impair our tolerance of sugar, as does stress. Annoyingly for those of us with a sweet tooth, there is evidence to suggest that lowering your sugar levels can have a positive impact on your skin’s condition.
Facial expert Dr Preema Vig says: “While diet can slow glycation by limiting free sugar in the bloodstream, targeted skincare can also alleviate the damaging effects.” Vig suggests consuming antioxidant-rich foods such as green tea, red grapes and blueberries to help stimulate collagen.
A brilliant skincare option is SkinCeuticals A.G.E Interrupter Advanced, an antioxidant-rich moisturiser that is also formulated to target collagen decline and glycation. In short, your pal was right – I’m sorry.
Got a beauty question for Anita? Email her at BeautyQandA@theguardian.com
• This article was amended on 25 March 2024: the sentence “Sleep can also impair our tolerance of sugar” was corrected to “Lack of sleep can also impair our tolerance of sugar”.
