Often times we hear about how the way our skin looks on the outside is a tell-tale sign of what is going on internally. It’s important to take a look at internal health, starting with the gut when it comes to skin concerns. If we experience any issues with our gut, inflammation, leaky gut or digestion problems, our skin is usually the first place we notice the problems. The word “gut” stands for gastrointestinal tract, and in our gut lives about four hundred strains of bacteria that all have a variety of different functions such as; supporting your immune system, digestion, and the absorption of vitamins and minerals. All these different bacterias is known as your micro-biome. So how can we have a healthy gut? Take probiotics, eat well, get enough sleep, exercise, and try to live a healthy lifestyle.
Probiotics are live bacterias that are naturally in certain foods like yogurt, apple cider vinegar, kombucha, etc. They are also available in supplement form for all the picky eaters out there like myself lol. These probiotics promote good gut health and keep a balance of good bacteria in our guts to prevent the bad bacterias from taking over fully.
When probiotics are added to our system, it can improve acne, help with puffy or inflamed skin, lessen rosacea symptoms, and give the skin an overall glow complexion. foods can be negative as well and can cause some negative affects to our gut and skin. For example, if you have lots of dairy or gluten in your diet, it can lead to skin issues as well and affect our gut.
Dairy– Everyone reacts differently to dairy, sometimes people are totally fine when they consume it, other times people react negatively to it. Drinking cow milk can cause the body to increase its own hormones (testosterone and androgens) which can lead to inflammation which then causes your skin glands and hair follicles to increase their oil production and can lead to acne. SOME (not all) dairy cows are treated with artificial hormones that affect their milk supply. Research suggest that those hormones may throw your hormones off balance when you consume milk products which can be an acne trigger. A sign of a dairy sensitivity is pimples around the chin and jawline area which is a cause of hormones, whether that be your own or ones you invest. If you do drink milk, it can be better to consume full fat milk as opposed to low fat milk because it contains more beneficial fats and protein, whereas low fat dairy can have more added sugar. Also, try to look for milk that is pasture raised, and grass fed 🙂
Grains- Similar to dairy, grains trigger an inflammatory response in our body and gut. If you are noticing your face is puffy and inflamed, take a look at your grain intake (specifically refined or processed grains). Process grains (cereal and crackers, etc) are refined so that they can last longer on shelves. These grains contain little amounts of fibre that digest into sugar (read below on how sugar affects the skin). When our body has more sugar levels in out gut, our body will releases more insulin and therefore causes inflammation, which can then lead to redness, rosacea, puffiness, and increased oil production. When it comes to grains, try to have organic whole grains that contain niacin and folate. 🙂
Sugar- This is a tough more for me, I have the BIGGEST sweet tooth ever. I love candy and defiantly have a sugar addiction. SO, how does sugar affect our skin? As I mentioned earlier, sugar raises our level of insulin, which leads to inflammation, which leads to redness and puffiness. It also interferes with the binding of water molecules in our skin which can cause skin dehydration. Because of this, our skin will begin to pros excess sebum (oil) which can then led to breakouts. Sugar also causes our lymphatic drainage to slow down. Our lymphatic drainage system transports white blood cells and clears the body of cellular waste. When this is slowed down, toxins aren’t cleared out and healthy skin cells are not replaced. This can mean that our pores become clogged (again leading to more breakouts). Lastly, too much sugar in our bloodstream stimulates testosterone production which leads to bigger pores, increased oil production, blackheads, and pimples. Try to cut back on processed sugar to avoid this. Its HARD, trust me I get that. I recommend checking out “Smart Sweets” which are a healthier candy alternative with less sugar and lots of fibre (also, its a Canadian company!).
I feel like I went into a bit more than just gut-health, but essentially- what we put in our bodies is going to play a role in how our skin looks. I am not a dietician or nutritionist, and if you have questions about any of that I would seek someone with more knowledge! I am just sharing what I have learned and have seen with my clients and myself over the years, and I hope that this can help you. Remember, not all skin concerns can be targeted with products, we have to look internally too and take care of our health and gut so we get that glowing skin from the inside, out!
Until next time, you fave local estie ❤
PS: Wear your SPF!!!
Lifestyle Beauty by Kate 