7 Ways Your Diet Affects Your Skin

What you eat doesn't just fuel your body, it's also what gives your skin that special glow. Your diet has just as big of an effect on your skin as the soaps and lotions you use. Your skin is a reflection of what you eat and how healthy you are, so it's important to eat right. Unhealthy eating habits will leave you with skin issues such as dryness, wrinkles, acne and more. Eating right for you and your skin is easy once you understand the relationship between food and your skin.

Here are 7 ways your diet affects your skin:

1. It Can Give Your Skin an Unhealthy Pallor: If your skin looks pale or has a dull, yellowish tinge to it, it's time to look at your diet. Dull skin could be caused by a lack of fat in your diet, which will leave your skin feeling undernourished. Fat supplies skin with nutrients to give it a healthy glow and also provides elasticity and moisture. Eating a lot of fast or processed foods can also make skin look lifeless, so try to eat more natural foods and add some low-fat items to your diet.
2. It Can Cause Dryness: This is one of the biggest negative impacts an unhealthy diet can have on your skin. A diet that lacks fat robs your body of the essential fatty acids necessary to keep skin soft and moisturized, causing dryness starting from layers deep beneath the surface. Fats also help your skin absorb the vitamins it needs to stay nourished, so restricting fats is a big no-no if you want healthy skin. Additionally, the fat burning foods boosts healthy weight loss.
3. It Can Cause Acne: When you eat foods that have a high starch or sugar content, it causes your blood sugar levels to spike, resulting in your insulin levels becoming unstable. Insulin triggers the hormones that cause acne, so if your levels are out of whack you could experience a break out. Also, increased blood sugar levels will inflame your skin and your liver, causing acne. Your liver can not remove pollutants from your skin if it is inflamed, which is why you get acne. Try switching to fruits with a low glycemic index or use sweeteners, like stevia, which are all natural and don't affect blood sugar.
4. It Can Cause Wrinkles: Wrinkles are the result of an insufficient amount of collagen. A high sugar diet inhibits collagen production, which will result in wrinkles later on in life and maybe even sooner. Collagen makes your skin appear smooth and gives your face its fullness, without it your skin droops and wrinkles appear. These are some of the common mistakes that cause wrinkles. Removing unhealthy sugars from your diet is the best thing you can do to prevent this.
5. It Can Cause Your Skin to Become Red: Foods that contain a high amount of spices can cause your skin to have a ruddy appearance, as can eating foods your body can not digest properly or is sensitive to. Reducing the amount of spices you eat will help, but if your skin still appears red, speak with your physician. He or she can test you for any food allergies, which may be the culprit. If you do have a food allergy, your physician will tell you how to avoid that type of food and what to eat in place of it.
6. It Can Cause Cracked, Peeling Lips: Dry and chapped lips are an indication that you aren't getting enough zinc or B vitamins. These vitamins are often missing in people whose diets lack balance. Foods like nuts, yogurts and fish can boost your zinc and B vitamin levels so your lips are hydrated and healthy.
7. It Can Cause Circles Under Your Eyes: If you aren't consuming enough calories, or consuming the wrong ones it can cause your adrenal glands to become fatigued, resulting in dark under-eye circles. Your adrenal glands, which are next to your kidneys, play a vital role in all bodily functions. If you consume a lot of caffeine, carbohydrates and sugars, it will tax these glands. It is important to get the proper amount of calories every day and to limit the amount of caffeine you take in. Avoid processed foods, like wheat and dairy to avoid this issue.

Diet can improve or worsen your skins appearance depending on what you eat. It is important to have a diet with equal amounts of low fat foods, lean proteins and healthy sugars to have your skin looking its best. Speak with your physician if you have any concerns about your skin's appearance. Eating right foods will do wonders for your skin which in turn will make you feel good and have you glowing from the inside out.