9 Foods to Avoid If You Want Clear and Glowing Skin

Our skin is the reflection of our soul. When we are happy and healthy from within, our skin radiates that warmth. However, when we are feeling low and ill, our skin is among the first to be affected and show warning signs! Eating the right foods and staying away from harmful foods is one effective way to ensure your skin always looks clear and glowing.

There are some common foods many of us consume on a day-to-basis without understanding how harmful they can be. While their consequences may not be visible immediately, they do persistent and continuous damage in the long run.

What Not to Eat for Glowing Skin

Please avoid eating these skin-unfriendly foods, as far as possible, and incorporate the alternatives to keep your skin beautiful and youthful.

1. Juice

Not the first thing that strikes you when it comes to foods that are bad for the skin, right? Juice seems healthy and wholesome as a food. However, this is true only when you are consuming freshly made juice from whole fruits. Packaged juice can be infused with too much sugar and also lacks the natural fibres found in whole fruits. Consuming too much sugar directly increases your acne risk!

Drink this instead: Banana, Oatmeal & Flaxseed Smoothie

2. Cow’s Milk Cheese

Cheese adds its own unique, yummy flavour to regular foods, which is why many of us have a weakness for cheesy sandwiches and spreads. However, cheese made of cow’s milk can also be a trigger for skin problems such as acne! This is because cow’s milk cheese is naturally infused with hormones from lactating cows, which can lead to hormone-induced acne. This is particularly so if you already have acne-prone skin or a history of lactose allergy in the family.

Eat this instead: Cashew cheese – it has no lactose and hence no risk of triggering skin problems. Plus, it can be used exactly like your regular cheese.

3. Canned Soup

Packaged soup – in powdered form or in cans – has made things so much easier for busy moms. Just heat them up and you have a warm, calming meal at hand. However, please be warned: canned soup is full of sodium and bisphenol – things that make your skin retain water and look bloated and dry. Canned soup can also cause problems with hormones which is the top cause of skin-related issues.

4. Coffee

We know this is going to be difficult, but it might be best to limit coffee whenever possible. Caffeine is a diuretic and this causes your body to lose water. The final result is that your skin seems dehydrated. In the long run, and with increasing amount of consumption, the overall texture and health of your skin gets affected.

Drink this instead: Green Tea (or one of these other 5 types of tea)

5. High-Carbs Chips

This one is not really a surprise – that bag of carb-rich, greasy chips many of us love indulging in as a snack is not really healthy. But we don’t mean just physical health or cholesterol-related problems but also skin health. Chips made of processed carbohydrates turn to sugar in the body, and this causes a spike in your insulin levels. As per experts, more insulin means you have a greater acne risk!

Not just that, such chips are usually made with pro-inflammatory oils such as canola oil or vegetable oils. These oils have a direct relation to triggering acne.

Eat this instead: Baked Sweet Potato Fries

6. Grilled Meat

If you are a non-vegetarian, you probably love grilled meat. It tastes amazing and makes for a good change from regularly prepared meat in the kadhai or cooker. However, please keep this in mind: when meat is grilled for too long, it can creates AGE’s (Advanced Glycation End). These products can be harmful for the skin and make it appear older. You know a piece of meat could have AGE’s if it has a blackened finish.

Eat this instead: Italian Meat Balls

7. Cold Drinks / Soda

Come summer and our intake of refreshing soft drinks goes through the roof! But if you have noticed more skin problems lately, even though you are eating healthy, it could be these sodas and cold drinks that are the culprits. Soda is full of sugar and artificial chemicals – things that produce inflammation inside the body. Plus, it also interferes with the healthy bacteria found in your gut. In fact, experts say that if you are fighting with skin issues such like acne, it is a direct evidence of imbalance in your gut bacteria.

Eat this instead: Gut-friendly foods such as Saffron Yoghurt Fruit Trifle

8. Shellfish

While the Omega 3 present in most fish can do wonders for your skin, shellfish tend to have an opposite effect. Prawns, lobsters and crabs contain high levels of iodine which can lead to clogged pores causing acne.

Have this instead: Honey Mustard Sesame Sole Fish

9. Alcohol

Finally, if you enjoy having a hard drink from time to time, understand that alcohol is actually one of the worst foods for your skin. This is because alcohol dehydrates the body, eventually drying out your skin and making it look dull and worn out. While a glass of wine from time to time won’t have a severe negative consequence on the skin, drinking in excess will affect your skin quality.

Drink this instead: Mango and Passion Fruit Mocktail

Did You Know: These Foods are Considered ‘Healthy’ But are Secretly Damaging Your Skin

Everyone is in the race to hit the gym, eat diet food and get ‘healthy’. However, these foods that you think are super healthy for you, can actually be causing some underlying damage to your skin.

1. Low-Fat Foods

Not all fat is bad for you or your skin! When fat is removed from any food, manufacturers tend to add some ‘flavour’ to up the taste or the appeal of the product, and most times that involves sodium or sugar. In a nutshell, low-fat can potentially mean ‘high-sugar’! Sugar is known to negatively impact collagen fibres and leaves them incapable of repairing themselves. Always opt for good fat like avocados or nuts. They are tasty too!

2. Skim Milk

In a study conducted on over 70 thousand nurses in the USA, it was found that those women who drank skim milk as teenagers had higher rates of acne breakouts than those who didn’t. Effects of skim milk are no different. Not only does skim milk contain lactose, but also hormones and bioactive molecules that tend to adverse skin conditions. Switch skim milk with almond milk instead.

3. Healthy Breakfast Cereal

While whole grains are overall slightly lower on the glycemic index (a measure of how a food affects the overall blood sugar level), many breakfast cereals that claim to be healthy are highly refined and full of added sugar. This leads to wrinkle-inducing glucose spikes. Choose eggs or homemade oatmeal as they are relatively healthy.

Always remember what is healthy – and what is not – for your skin’s quality and we assure you will have glowing skin throughout your life!