Celebrity dermatologist Dr. Harold Lancer, who has a client list that includes in the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and who has his own luxurious skincare range, has commented on what foods people need to avoid in order to have flawless skin like the stars. Dr. Lancer believes that sugar effectively creates uneven skin because it promotes the creation of insulin which can result in skin problems. He explained:
“The whole purpose of dietary recommendations for skin is to reduce the demand of the body to produce insulin. Insulin production makes the skin ruddy, porous, blemish-prone, it ages faster, blood flow is poor, so insulin production-boosting is triggered by sugar. Therefore, sugar in all forms is not a good thing, whether it’s refined or otherwise.”
Dr. Lancer has created his own custom diet which he believes boosts skin and helps it look the most radiant. The low sugar diet is high in protein and many other natural foods:
“It’s basically forty percent protein (meat or chicken grilled, no added salt, no spices); forty percent fat (avocado, olive oil, grape seed oil, sunflower oil, nuts); twenty percent carbohydrates. And in my own diet, I have a whole grapefruit every day with the peel and an apple with the peel, because you need fiber in your diet. So all carbohydrates have to be consumed with a significant fiber load, to keep glucose low.”
On some of the biggest skin offenders, Dr. Lancer comments that caffeine in large doses can dehydrate the skin and leave it thirsty for moisture:
“Products that have caffeine-containing components are not good for your skin. Caffeine in larger doses, whether it’s coffee, tea, cola, chocolate, or tiramisu, is a dehydrating agent. It’s a stimulant, it makes blood vessels in the skin worse, it makes the skin oiler, ruddier, it makes pores larger.”
