This Everyday Ingredient Could Be Aging Your Skin Faster
By the time you hit adulthood, you may be well aware of how your lifestyle can affect your skin, so you run offense to protect it: smearing on sunscreen before you leave for work in the morning, keeping a water bottle on hand to make sure you stay hydrated, shooting for eight hours of sleep per night (even if an evening out with friends or a too-long doomscrolling sesh occasionally foils your plans). Maybe you’ve even considered (or gotten!) Botox. But you may be disregarding one factor that can play a major role: your sugar intake.
There’s a long list of health issues a high sugar intake can cause—obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, tooth decay, even cancer—but it can also have another side effect that you might not know about: premature aging. Yep, that sweet-treat habit could be showing up where you least expect it: your complexion. Consistently eating a lot of sugar can actively harm your skin and make you look older than you actually are, sabotaging all that hard work you put into your nighttime skincare regimen.
“Sugar doesn’t just affect your body, it transforms your skin from the inside out,” a dermatologist based in tells SELF—and, in case it wasn’t clear already, not for the better. Below, we’ll dig into why this happens, what skin changes you can expect to see, and how you can tweak your diet to reverse some of the effects, because, thankfully, they’re not set in stone.
How does sugar contribute to skin aging?
While the biology is a little complex, the root cause is a process known as glycation. When you eat a diet high in sugar, the excess sugar molecules bind to proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids in your body, forming compounds known as “advanced glycation end products”—AGEs for short. Over time, these AGEs accumulate, directly contributing “to the visible and structural signs of skin aging,” Dr. Houshmand says.
Take two skin-specific proteins as an example: collagen and elastin, or the main “dermal building blocks,” Anthony Rossi, MD, FAAD, a dermatologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, tells SELF. Both are important for “maintaining firmness, elasticity, and resilience,” Dr. Houshmand says, but the formation of AGEs disrupts that mission by making them “stiff, brittle, and less able to repair or regenerate.” “Basically, they’re not as pliable,” Dr. Rossi says.
But the harmful impact of a high-sugar diet doesn’t stop there. In addition to hurting your skin directly thanks to their impact on collagen and elastin, AGEs also hurt your skin indirectly by triggering oxidative stress and chronic low-grade inflammation—biological conditions that put strain on your whole body.
In the case of your skin, oxidative stress and inflammation not only further accelerate the breakdown of collagen, they also mess with your ability to resist environmental stressors like UV radiation and air pollution, according to Dr. Houshmand. This, in turn, results in impaired wound healing and a weaker skin barrier. In fact, AGEs have even been implicated in skin-related metabolic disease complications, including diabetic ulcers, skin infections, and non-healing wounds, according to a 2022 review published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Medicine.
While there is a substantial body of evidence backing up the causal role of AGEs in aging, the precise degree to which a high sugar intake contributes “is still very much up for debate,” Desiree Nielsen, RD, a recipe developer with a focus on plant-based nutrition, tells SELF. Personally, however, Dr. Rossi believes it plays a major part: “I think it probably contributes more than people want to believe or think,” he says. In fact, the Frontiers in Medicine review went so far as to characterize AGEs as potentially “the most important factor in the link between modern diet and health.”
How much sugar is too much?
When we talk about excess sugar causing glycation, we’re really talking about one specific type of sugar: added sugars, or the sugars and syrups added to food and drink items when they are processed or prepared. Think: the stuff you’d find in candy, chocolate, and ice cream. These are “not like the natural sugars that you find in fruits and vegetables,” Dr. Rossi says, which, by comparison, are far less damaging.
Recommendations from scientific bodies like the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) offer some insight into the maximum amount of added sugar you should consume. Per the CDC, added sugars should make up less than 10% of total daily calorie intake for people two years old and up. (Meanwhile, children under two shouldn’t consume added sugars, period).
Like the CDC, the WHO also cites the 10% figure, but the organization notes that closer to 5% is ideal for “optimal health and skin benefits,” Dr. Houshmand says. In contrast to both the CDC and the WHO, the American Heart Association offers a more clear-cut ceiling: no more than nine teaspoons (36 grams or 150 calories) of added sugar per day for men, and no more than six teaspoons (25 grams or 100 calories) per day for women—a suggestion Nielsen, for one, favors.
But adhering to these guidelines can be easier said than done: Three in five Americans ages two and up consume more than the CDC’s recommended amount of added sugars—19 teaspoons per day for men, and 15 teaspoons per day for women, to be specific. Likewise, consistently eating sweetened beverages, pastries, or ultra-processed snacks can “easily exceed that threshold,” Dr. Houshmand says of the WHO recommendation. Even a single soda can cause a temporary spike in blood glucose high enough to trigger glycation if it’s sufficiently sugary, she adds.
That said, dietary patterns matter much more than one-off dietary choices in this context, both for reducing added sugar intake and staving off inflammation overall, according to Nielsen. Ultimately, “this is more about the chronicity of a high-sugar unbalanced diet, not occasional days of high sugar consumption,” Dr. Houshmand says. In other words, it’s not like eating a single bowl of ice cream or drinking a single milkshake will irreparably ruin your skin; rather, it’s more about regularly piling on the sweet treats over a long period of time.
And in case you were wondering, added sugars aren’t the only dietary player that can cause glycation. Other refined carbs, including pasta, potato chips, and white bread, can bring about the same harmful changes in your skin. Alcohol can add insult to injury by dehydrating you as well, according to Dr. Rossi, especially when consumed in large amounts. Finally, fried and processed foods can introduce “inflammatory fats and oxidized oils that stress the skin’s repair systems,” Dr. Houshmand says.
So how will these internal changes show up on the outside?
Like any gradual shift, you won’t notice a visible difference from one day to the next. “It’s not like you eat one thing and overnight, boom, your skin becomes brittle,” Dr. Rossi says. Instead, the effects will creep up on you slowly over the years (though if you’re looking really closely, you might start to notice a decline within months, Dr. Rossi adds).
Per Dr. Houshmand, your skin might appear:
- Less firm and supple
- Duller or more sallow in tone
- More prone to fine lines, wrinkles, and sagging
- Slower to heal after breakouts or irritation
In fact, that characteristic dullness and sallowness is sometimes nicknamed “sugar face” thanks to its links to a high-sugar diet. Research—like this 2009 study and this January 2025 study—suggests that people who have a higher AGEs index are measurably more likely to have a yellowish discoloration to their skin. What’s more, the 2025 study found that a higher AGEs index is correlated with reduced brightness and firmness as well.
Thankfully, there are ways to reverse the effects.
Despite the doom and gloom thus far, the news isn’t all bad: Just as your diet can contribute to negative changes in your skin, so too can it counter them. “You can absolutely slow, and in some cases, partially reverse sugar-related skin aging,” Dr. Houshmand says. Unsurprisingly, adjusting your diet for your skin health begins with cutting back on added sugars and refined carbs. Within the American diet, the primary sources of added sugars include candy, breakfast cereals and bars, sweetened coffee and tea, desserts and sweet snacks, and sugary drinks like soft drinks and energy drinks, so consider starting there if you’re serious about downsizing.
In addition to that, try these tips:
- Choose whole foods, including carbs that have a low glycemic index (meaning they break down slowly in the body, causing a more gradual and less pronounced rise in blood sugar).
- Optimize antioxidant intake. “Vitamins C and E, carotenoids, and polyphenols (found in berries, green tea, and leafy greens) help neutralize oxidative stress and support collagen,” Dr. Houshmand says. “You can tell when people have diets rich in antioxidant-rich foods, like fruits and vegetables,” Dr. Rossi adds. “Their skin almost glows.”
- Incorporate collagen-supporting nutrients, including vitamin C, zinc, and copper. Topical vitamin C products may also help.
- Stay hydrated (and if you’re not sure how to tell you’re dehydrated, SELF has a handy guide available here). “Water supports elasticity and barrier function,” Dr. Houshmand says.
Overall, eating “a balanced, low-glycemic, antioxidant-rich diet is one of the most powerful scientifically supported ways to keep your complexion luminous, healthy, and resilient,” Dr. Houshmand says. And of course, don’t forget to take other critical skin-health measures, like wearing sunscreen daily (yes, even when it’s rainy or overcast out!), getting enough sleep, and managing stress effectively. “Chronic stress and lack of sleep elevate cortisol, which can exacerbate inflammation and glycation,” Dr. Hushmand says.