3 Drinks That Are Taking A Toll On Your Skin & Making 'You Look Older': Alcohol & More

Your diet is important when it comes to your skincare goals, it’s true — but your diet also includes one oft-overlooked category: beverages. Since we spend more time during the day drinking than we do eating, it’s important to throw some light on the beverages we’re choosing to make sure they don’t contain ingredients that can thwart our skin needs and desires.

If one of your skincare goals is getting smoother, healthier, younger-looking skin , the best drinks you can consume are — you guessed it — water first, and others like green tea (which contains antioxidants ) next. Avoiding these three drinks, or at least keeping them to a minimum can help.

Here’s what Neuroscientist Robert W.B. Love has to say about three drinks that can make your skin look older.

Alcohol

You’ll be pressed to find a body part that alcohol doesn’t negatively affect, and that includes the skin. Alcohol primarily impacts the skin and makes it look older by dehydrating the body and skin, and as we know from the countless moisturizers on the market, hydration is key to healthy skin. It also impacts the mind-gut connection, reduces stress in the short-term, but intensifies it in the long-term, and can mess with your sleep big-time. Disrupted sleep and stress both break down collagen in your skin, which leads to sagging skin, fine line, and wrinkles.

Avoiding alcohol is a key way you can help keep up your skin’s healthy appearance.

Soda

Soda ages your skin because it contains a lot of sugar and no fiber. This causes spikes in your blood sugar levels, which causes inflammation in the body. Inflammation ages the skin by breaking down collagen and elastin, producing free radicals that can damage skin cells and tissues, and compromising the skin barrier function, which can more readily show signs of aging like fine lines and wrinkles.

Unfortunately, swapping soda for diet soda won’t help — in fact, artificial sweeteners still cause insulin sensitivity and their chemicals can exacerbate skin conditions like eczema and acne.

Coffee

Coffee is actually good for your brain and can have gut health benefits, but it can be damaging on your skin because its caffeine content is a diuretic that dehydrates your body and skin. The good news for all of your coffee and latte aficionados: Dr. Love doesn’t say you need to swear off coffee for good — make sure you drink plenty of water before and after your cup of Joe to keep hydration levels up.