Sugar and High-Glycemic Foods: The New Axis of Evil

I came across this very succinct and scientifically correct explanation of the effect of consuming sugar and High glycemic foods from skincare-news.com.

How they hurt skin: Carbs are found in foods like bread, rice, pasta and potatoes. Not surprisingly, sweet treats, such as cookies, cake and candy, are full of sugar. High glycemic foods: Our bodies convert carbs and sugar to blood glucose very quickly. The measure of how long this takes is called the glycemic index. Foods quickly converted to glucose are high-glycemic. If we load up on carbs and sugars, our glucose levels go up. "When the glucose level is too high, the body increases its production of insulin to get it back down," according to the National Skin Care Institute. So what happens to skin when our insulin levels are too high? Oil production rises and skin cells die quicker. Oil and dead skin cells block pores, which can lead to acne breakouts. Not surprisingly, studies show a correlation between a high-glycemic diet and acne.

Risk of wrinkles: Sugar binds to skin protein, causing wrinkles, explains Gregory Nikolaidis, M.D., of Westlake Dermatology to KEYE-TV — a binding process called glycation. After these sugar/skin protein bonds are made, damaging structures called advanced glycation end products — or AGEs, for short — are formed. AGEs destroy collagen (which keeps skin firm), causing wrinkles. Then, free radicals are created, which damage skin cells. Particularly in people over age 35, the effects of glycation become stronger. Diabetics are also highly affected by glycation: they "can have up to 50 times the number of AGEs in their skin as those who don’t have diabetes," dermatologist Karyn Grossman, M.D., tells Karyn Repinski in Prevention.