Sugar, Skin & Breakouts

Is Candy Really the Culprit?

🍬 Sugar, Skin & Breakouts: It always seems to happen right after Halloween- our kids’ candy buckets are just too tempting, aren’t they? A few pieces here and there can turn into weeks of sugary snacking. And then it happens – that ugly zit pops up on our faces out of nowhere!

We get asked all the time: Does candy cause acne? The answer is yes!  Sugar is bad for our body and creates inflammation which our body purges through our skin. Today, we’ll discuss the various forms of sugar, and how they affect the body, and share some tools to help you eliminate sugar from your diet (yes it is possible).

What Is Sugar?

🍭 Sugar is a carbohydrate used to sweeten foods. While cane sugar is the most common, there are many variations of sugars and some contain sugars we don’t even recognize on the ingredient list. When we eat sugar, here is how our body attempts to digest it: 

1. Our digestive system breaks down sugar into simple sugars, such as glucose or fructose. 
2. Sugar is absorbed into our bloodstream.
3. The Pancreas releases insulin to adjust our blood sugar levels
4. Our cells absorb sugar to store it for energy.
5. Our Liver also stores excess glucose to aid in blood sugar levels when necessary.
6. If blood sugar drops, the pancreas signals the liver to release glucose.

Despite all this work, our bodies are not designed to handle lots of sugar. This creates inflammation in the body, resulting in acne.

Various Forms of Sugar

🧁 When we think of sugar, we imagine the white, store-bought cane sugar, but there are many different sugars that we consume. There are 3 main types of sugars – White, Brown, and Liquid sugars.

White Sugars

When you think white sugar, you think about the cane sugar that you bake with or put in your coffee. White sugar includes cane sugar, confectioner’s sugar, fruit sugars, and super fine, and coarse sugars.

Brown Sugars

We you think brown sugar, think of brown sugar used in baking cookies. Brown sugar includes light and dark brown sugar, Turbinado, and Muscovado sugars.

Liquid Sugars

This is a simple sugar – if you’ve never made a simple sugar, it’s easy!! Melt 1 cup of white sugar in 1 cup of boiling water, and stir until melted. Simple sugars are typically used in drinks.

We found a website, called The Sugar Association, which contains everything related to sugar. We highly recommend you take a look, there’s an entire tab dedicated to how sugar impacts our health.

Artificial Sugars

🍬 Many people try to avoid sugar, we seek out alternative sugars to feed our sugar addiction. Food companies have created artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, saccharine, sucralose, and stevia. While the FDA has classified these sugars as Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS), some studies link artificial sweeteners to health issues such as diabetes, cancers, and obesity.

In an article published by the National Library of Medicine, researchers noted that “Extensive marketing by the manufacturers has led to overuse, and sometimes even abuse of NNS (nonnutritive sweeteners), by the population. They are believed to suppress hunger and appetite, leading to beneficial effects on body weight and cardiometabolic profile and are consumed by both lean and obese alike.” The article continues to explain our bodies don’t metabolize these artificial sugars, yet we continue to consume them. This can lead to other health issues over time.

Is Sugar Addictive?

🍫 Yes!  Sugar is MORE addicting than cocaine – and food companies know it! Manufacturers hide sugars in our foods because they know once we get addicted, we have to continue to purchase and consume these foods. Unfortunately, this is contributing to poor health and of course, we are having major skin issues because of the sugars in our food. 

Sugar isn’t published as a drug, but should be considered a drug due to its addictive properties.

Dr. Ken Berry, one of the trusted experts we recommend, has a YouTube Channel where he posts tons of educational videos about gut health and how to use foods to heal your body. His video on sugar addiction, how to spot it, and how to fix it is a great resource for understanding foods and how to create positive shifts in your lifestyle. He and his wife do live videos every Monday night to answer health questions.

How Does Sugar Affect Our Gut Microbiome?

🦠 Our gut is home to a variety of bacteria, known as our microbiome. The foods we eat directly affect our gut microbiome in the way it processes and breaks down foods. Eating processed foods and sugars disrupts our gut microbiome and can lead to a disease called, Dysbiosis. Dysbiosis happens when our gut has too many harmful bacteria and not enough good bacteria.  Dysbiosis is characterized by bloating, cramping, and even irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

MDPI has published studies about how sugars affect our gut microbiome. Their blog is another great resource for you to learn more.

Sugar, Skin & Breakouts

🧴 If you have been following us for years, you know our philosophy is acne and gut health are tied together. When it comes to the skin, our largest organ, most of you don’t know that our skin is not only a protective barrier, but it’s a detox organ. Those pores we have, that is how toxins are released from the body. Sweating has great health benefits because it directly releases toxins from our blood and lymphatic system. 

If you indulge in sweets, especially after Halloween or Holiday parties, you may notice more breakouts. This is a direct correlation to our gut. The good news! You CAN heal your gut because your body is amazing and no matter how old or how many health issues you have, there are ways to heal your body. If you need help with your skin, please book an appointment with us and we can help guide you and offer resources to help you heal your gut and clear up your acne.

🧘‍♀️ With awareness and action, positive changes are possible. It’s up to you to decide how you want to live the rest of your life. Do you want to continue to cheat and eat sugars that are affecting your health and your skin? Or do you want to start making changes today so you not only look better, but you feel good too?

As always, we are here to answer all your questions – please drop them in the comments below.

Thank you for reading and we will be back next week with another blog post.