Wrinkles and Sugar

by Valerie Gladstone — November 23, 2007

While it might be easier to buy a jar of anti-wrinkle cream than cut Hagan Daaz out of your diet, eating less will do your skin a lot more good (and of course your waistline) than purchasing the cream. Experts now believe that a lifetime of overeating sugar can make skin dull and wrinkled. At blame is a natural process that's known as glycation, in which the sugar in your bloodstream attaches to proteins to form harmful new molecules called advanced glycation end products (or, appropriately, AGEs for short). The more sugar you eat, the more AGEs you develop.

As AGEs accumulate, they damage adjacent proteins in a domino-like fashion. Most vulnerable to damage: collagen and elastin, the protein fibers that keep skin firm and elastic. In fact, collagen is the most prevalent protein in the body. Once damaged, springy and resilient collagen and elastin become dry and brittle, leading to wrinkles and sagging. These aging effects start at about age 35 and increase rapidly after that.

Besides damaging collagen, a high-sugar diet also affects what type of collagen you have--another factor in how resistant skin is to wrinkling. The most abundant collagens in the skin are types I, II, and III, with type III being the most stable and longest lasting. Glycation transforms type III collagen into type I, which is more fragile. When that happens, the skin looks and feels less supple. The final blow: AGEs deactivate your body's natural antioxidant enzymes, leaving you more vulnerable to sun damage--still the main cause of skin aging.

But there's good news about sugar-damaged skin--it's never too late to turn back the clock:

• Cut back on the sweet stuff in your diet. It's not easy to eliminate sugar completely. Even whole grains, fruits, and vegetables turn to glucose--the type of sugar that fuels glycation--when digested. But limiting added sugar can help.
• Watch for hidden sugar in food. Many prepared foods contain hefty amounts of sugar that is hidden under aliases including barley malt, corn syrup, dextrose, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, maple syrup, molasses, and turbinado.
• Supplement your diet with at least 1mg of vitamins B1 and B6 a day. These vitamins proved to be potent AGE inhibitors in a number of published studies. B1 and B6 are plentiful in food, but taking a multivitamin--most of which deliver at least 1mg of both Bs--ensures you're getting the daily value of 1.1mg for B1 and 1.3mg for B6 (1.5mg after age 50).
• Wear broad-spectrum SPF 30 sunscreen every day. Significantly more AGEs occur in sun-exposed skin than in protected skin
• Employ an inside-outside approach to antioxidants. These free-radical fighters help keep sugar from attaching to proteins, so replenish their supply by eating more antioxidant-rich fruits, nuts, and vegetables, such as cranberries, walnuts, and red bell peppers.