Can Plants Cause Wrinkles?

Yes, I know. We usually hear the OPPOSITE, message. That meat is bad for you. That meat will make you fat and sick. Why is that? Where did that message even come from? The answer is that there is a long lineage of incorrect messages that tell people they will be healthier if they eat more vegetables, follow a plant-based diet and avoid meats and saturated fat.

Plants are Carbohydrates.

With regards to skin, this could not be further from the truth. There is a specific reason why plant-based diets can ruin your skin. This one reason is what is never talked about because everyone is so fixated with the incorrect idea that more plant foods equals more nutrients and that more nutrients equates to better skin. Why I am trying to tell you is that plant-based diets can, in fact, HASTEN the aging of your skin! Plant foods can contribute to the breakdown of our precious collagen and elastin that keeps us looking youthful. In other words, the same collagen and elastin that dissipate as we gain wrinkles can be broken down by the so called “healthy” plant foods you have been led to believe will prevent those exact signs of aging.

What is “glycation”?

The process is called glycation. When you eat sugar, the body creates Advanced Glycation End Products (AGES) which break down collagen and elastin, hastening the formation of wrinkles and sagging skin. We all know that sugar is not healthy for many reasons and that we should just avoid if for our best health. Where the confusion comes in is that the body doesn’t know the difference between a scoop of ice cream, a bagel or a banana because they all are carbohydrates and break down to GLUCOSE in the body. That is to say, that glucose is what initiates the process of GLYCATION.  For this reason, eating a plant-based diet (which is mostly carbohydrate) could be increasing your body’s rate of glycation.  The only way to avoid this is to prevent it by keeping glucose levels low.

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Preventing+and+treating+skin+aging%2C+Part+II-a0528917333

When glycation occurs, sugar molecules attach to proteins, creating cross-linked proteins known as advanced glycation end products (or AGEs) and causing a series of chemical reactions.

Meat for the win!

So why do we eliminate meat when we know it offers so much to maintain the structures of our bodies that plant foods cannot? Meat can support human tissues because it contains what the skin needs to stay healthy such as protein, saturated fat at glycine or collagen. Saturated fats appear to be vital in reducing the wrinkling of skin. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20085665). This is something to consider if you follow a vegan or even a plant-based diet. Nothing can do for the body what meat can!