Food Can Fix It - dr. Mehmet Oz

you’ll also weed out some of the culprits that can steal your glow. Not
surprisingly, one of the worst things for your skin is sugar (and refined
carbohydrates). Why? You guessed it: inflammation. When you eat sweetened
foods, it causes your blood sugar to spike for about fifteen minutes. In response,
your body churns out a type of protein that triggers inflammation. Anecdotally,
some people report skin issues after eating sweet foods, and this might be one of
the reasons. In addition, higher blood sugar can stiffen up collagen fibres, which
may make the skin less springy. Sugar also sticks to proteins and makes your
skin sallow. This is why diabetics may have a discoloured complexion.
Your skin is your anatomical wrapping paper. Most of us only care about it
when it burns, wrinkles, or breaks out in unidentified thingamajigs (are those ant
bites, pimples, or some kind of fungus?), but we ought to show our skin a bit
more appreciation, considering its genius structure. Containing 70 percent water,
25 percent protein, and 5 percent fat, your skin is your body’s largest organ, and
it makes up 15 percent of your body weight. Skin acts as a barrier to the outside
environment, but it’s also an absorber. For example, there are thousands of
chemicals in our modern world that can be readily absorbed by our skin. You
want to feed your wrapper with nutrients that will strengthen not just its
appearance, but also fortify its underlying structures, to help keep irritating
chemicals out of the body.
Your epidermis—the outside layer—is the part of the skin that we all see.
Because dead cells slough off approximately every thirty days, it’s a self-
rejuvenating layer. The innermost layer, called the subcutaneous tissue, is made
up of fat and helps insulate your body.
The real action happens in the dermis, the middle layer of your skin. This is
where you find the hair follicles and sweat glands, plus tiny blood vessels (they
feed your skin nutrients) and lymph nodes to help fend off toxins.