If you’re thinking about making changes in your diet for the sake of having healthier, softer skin, It’s easy to become SO focused on the food you eat that you lose sight of another important part of your diet: the beverages you consume. Drinking enough water and staying hydrated is only part of the battle (although an important part). To truly make a dent in your skincare goals, it’s also important to take a good, hard look at the beverages you’re drinking that could be sapping your skin of necessary hydration and leading to age-related beauty issues you aren’t keen on dealing with, like fine lines and wrinkles. These are the three drinks dermatologists say you should avoid at all costs because they can lead to age-related beauty issues.
Alcohol
An occasional celebratory drink is one thing — but consuming alcohol on a regular basis can lead to health and skincare issues you might not be expecting. “Your skin can lose moisture and elasticity from dehydration, which can cause sagging, dryness, and wrinkles,” says Dr. Anna Chacon, a board-certified dermatologist and writer at MyPsoriasisTeam. “In other words, drinking alcohol can make you appear older. Also, the likelihood that you are dehydrated increases with age. Even one night of binge drinking will accentuate your creases and wrinkles.”
The result of the body’s metabolism of alcohol is Acetaldehyde, which is toxic and drying to the skin, Dr. Chacon says. And the most common skin manifestations of alcoholism can include urticarial reactions, porphyria cutanea tarda, flushing, cutaneous stigmata of cirrhosis, psoriasis, pruritus, seborrheic dermatitis, and rosacea.
Another thing to remember is that the higher the alcohol content in a drink, the faster and more profound are the changes, says Dr. Amee Daxini, a dermatologist and senior consultant at Think Skin Clinic. “So beer and cider, low in alcohol, are less dehydrating than liquor, Dr. Daxini says. “This is because as the body processes alcohol, it encourages extra urination to help remove alcohol and its waste products from the body quickly. In addition, alcohol reduces an important hormone called Vasopressin. Vasopressin is an anti-diuretic that helps the body retain water. The reduction of vasopressin may prevent the body from retaining the water it needs, thus promoting dehydration.”
In other words: no amount of alcohol (and especially not a copious amount) will do your skin any favors.
Sugary Drinks
Medical literature is full of research showing that sugar may make dehydration and other symptoms worse, Dr. Daxini points out. “This is likely because of the interaction of sugar and water within the cells,” she says. “Higher sugar intake causes the cells in the body to transfer more water and increase urination.”
According to Dr. Daxini, those who seek to reduce their consumption of sugary drinks may wish to avoid:
•Fruit juices (sweetened)
•fruit cocktails
•sweetened tea, coffee and soda
•energy drinks and sweetened athletic drinks
“This dehydration may increase glucagon, a hormone used to maintain glucose or sugar levels in the blood,” she adds. “This can be an indicator of higher blood sugar, which may lead to type 2 diabetes in the future.”
Caffeine
Don’t worry, you don’t have to give up your morning cup of coffee or tea — but if you’re hitting up the Starbucks drivethru three times a day, it may be worth your while to put the brakes on overconsumption of caffeine.
“Research shows that mild amounts of caffeine are not diuretic and will not lead to dehydration. Therefore, low levels of caffeine ingestion do not cause dehydration,” Dr. Daxini says. “Tea, coffee, soda containing caffeine, energy drinks with caffeine and sugar, come under this category. While tea is the mildest, significant amounts of its consumption can cause excess fluid loss from the body.”
Basically, it all comes down to hydration — and avoiding drinking that will sap your body and skin of it. “Proper hydration of the body is essential to prevent long term side effects of dehydration like increase in blood sugar, increase in blood pressure and skin aging to name a few,” Dr. Daxini says. “Taking steps to avoid the overconsumption of alcoholic, caffeinated, and sugary beverages may help a person avoid dehydration.”
