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A
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A
Hello and welcome to ASCP's Estee Talk. I'm your co host Maggie Stasik, ASCP's program director.
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C
And I'm Alec Cressman, licensed esthetician, big fan of skin health and content contributor for associated Skincare Professionals.
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A
Today we are diving into those guilty pleasures we all love but maybe worry about later when we wake up to a new breakout. Like every time I have pizza, which literally is once a week, maybe twice a week.
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C
What kind of pizza?
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A
Any kind of.
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C
Any pizza. Deep dish, Grandma style. Detroit. Yes, New York. Okay.
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A
All the kinds. All the kinds. Okay, so we're talking about indulgence, guilt, what's actually true when it comes to food and skin. Because spoiler alert, it's probably not what you think.
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B
Ooh.
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C
Yeah.
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A
So before we all start blaming our dinner plates, let's get into what's myth, what's maybe, and what's actually making us break out. So let's just throw it out there. What's your food confession, Ella?
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C
Oh, my gosh. I have a lot. Well, one is I noticed a correlation between, well, that's a lot selenium or like Brazilian nuts and pimples.
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A
Really?
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C
Yeah. So I don't eat those. But my food confession is like, I have to be honest with you and I have to confess this because, you know, I've been doing so good with like whole food eating and being whatever. But I had leftover Halloween candy and at the shop I keep candy for guests, but it's been Tootsie Rolls and I keep Tootsie Rolls Because I didn't think people like Tootsie Rolls, but they do. But I don't. I mean, they're okay, but they're not like a come here and get me. They don't do that to me. But I have this leftover Halloween candy. And so I took it to the shop and I must confess, had a big day of, like, creation yesterday. And they were whispering to me, they were taunting me, and they made me have nine little mini. I mean, and I only took solace in the fact that they're minis, but if you add them up, that's a lot. Little mini candy bars. Yeah. All different kinds. But that's my confession. I can't have it around the sugar. That's the sugar.
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A
Yeah. Sugar calls to me. But not like salt. I'm a salt girl.
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C
Okay, that too. Put them together.
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A
Yeah. Savory and sweet.
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C
Forget about it. I am. Yeah. That's kryptonite. Yeah.
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A
I love french fries. Potato chips. I love all potatoes. I never met a potato I didn't like.
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C
Sweet potato.
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A
I love sweet potatoes.
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C
Yukon gold.
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A
Yeah, girl.
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C
Russet.
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A
Yes.
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C
Oh, get out.
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A
All of them. So our clients, they're the same way. They maybe come to us saying, like, they had. Whatever the thing is, they had a big fat burger and now they're breaking out. Or they went bar hopping and their skin is now looking terrible. So let's break down some of these food myths and talk about what's actually going on.
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C
Oh, that sounds great.
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A
So let's start with the one everyone asks about alcohol. It gets a bad rap in skincare, I think. And maybe it deserves it. Maybe not. I'm not sure. Is my weekend binge aging my skin?
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C
Well, short answer is, is yes. Because there's a lot of things that go into those weekend fun times or the happy hour. Not so happy hours. Have you ever had a couple drinks at happy hour and then Woke up at 3:00am probably, yeah. Or like 2:00am or whatever. Sometime in the middle of the night, you wake up. It's because of the way your body is processing the alcohol into sugars. And so it interrupts sleep. But it doesn't just do that. It also dries out your skin. It dehydrates the cells on a cellular level, and it can disrupt hormones for a couple of reasons. One is like the insulin response that I was talking about. And another one is lack of sleep and just feeling sluggish. And it weakens the skin's defenses. All of those forces or those force fields are decreased. Right. Weakened. When your Body breaks it down. It produces something called acetaldehyde, which is a compound that really turns up the volume on inflammation and provides an opportunity for oxidative stress. And we know inflammation encourages aging, and oxidative stress is just an opportunity for free radicals to come on in. So your body turns this irritating compound and throws a little inflammation party under your skin. Hello, puffiness. Hello, redness. And have you ever woken up the day after, like, a really fun night and had, like, dry hands?
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A
Oh, I've never noticed that.
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C
Yeah. I mean, I may have been a weird weekend warrior back in the day, and that was one of the correlations. I would, like, have the weirdest dry hands. Maybe you noticed that visually. But dry mouth or headache, those are all what's happening. It's not just your skin cells. It's all of your cells.
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A
It's also a diuretic. Right. It's pulling water. I think that's a little bit of what you're talking about too. And this dehydration, it shows up as tight, tired, or flaky skin.
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C
It's turned off the supply. Yeah.
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A
And there's also a nutrient depletion side. Alcohol can drain vitamins like A, C, and B, which your skin needs for repair and glow. And all those wine lovers out there, they may argue that there's resveratrol, there's the antioxidants, and one drink a night is maybe a good thing for you. You see those arguments? I think often.
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C
And I'm all for it. Go for it. Because there is something to be said for the balance of reducing stress and then, like, the overindulgence part. But for me, as a practitioner, I'm like, job security. Have a glass of wine. Go in the sun. Do you? I got you.
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A
Yeah. True things like the red wine or the champagne or the cocktails, that's where you have sugar as the big offender. Redness breakouts.
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C
What about tequila?
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A
Well, what are you mixing it with?
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C
Straight ice. Yeah.
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A
And maybe that's a little less irritating, but if you're having a margarita, that's where you've got a problem.
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C
Fair. So straight tequila, you're good. I heard it's an upper, too.
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A
Oh, even better.
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C
That's what I tell myself when I'm like, bottoms up. It's gonna make me feel real nice and happy. Yeah. Mm.
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A
So, Ella, this is let's talk dairy. Let's switch gears. Talk dairy. This is one that always gets people fired up. And some people swear cutting it changes their skin overnight. Other people see no difference. The Biggest conversation around dairy and skin is acne, but it's not really clear cut cause and effect.
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C
I think this is where you have to consider individual. So you can if then, or you can theorize, but you really have to consider your client or your patient as a whole person. Because it's true that some dairy, or I mean arguably most dairy contains natural hormones or enhanced hormones, especially because it comes from lactating cows. But how much that affects the skin really is up for debate. Some studies show a correlation, not causation, between dairy, particularly skim milk, and increased acne breakouts. So that's interesting. The reason that is theorized is that milk contains these bioactive hormones and growth factors and they have an insulin level like mimic and that can stimulate sebum or oil and also keratinocyte growth, which we know is the formula for poor clogs. Um, and so skim milk versus whole milk may be worse because it can increase the ratio. Other thing to consider is like whey proteins, especially in protein drinks or whey protein because that can also affect insulin levels more strongly. And so for some people who are prone to hormonal breakouts, it can be a trigger. Skim milk, whey protein. And I remember going through this with one of my clients. I've mentioned her before, she was at really tough case because her causation is all over the place. But we got it down to correlating a breakout for her, specifically one of her breakouts to the use of whey.
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A
Protein, alternatively whole milk, yogurt, or even fermented dairy like kefir. Studies are not showing the same strong link. And actually fermented dairy may help by supporting gut microbiome and that plays a big role in inflammation and skin barrier function. And there is some evidence that suggests probiotics in fermented dairy. Or even if you're taking a probiotic on its own, it can reduce acne severity, it's calming inflammation, and it's helping balance the skin microbiome, gut face connection.
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C
Those are something you need to pay attention to, especially something we've talked about for a long time. We've had this correlation between food and face for a while, but the level of understanding between individualized gut microbiomes in overall health, man, that is just taking off right now. Yeah, yeah.
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A
So what's your take? Are you team no dairy or team bring on the cheese?
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C
For me or for my clients?
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A
Both.
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C
Go for it. Go Derry, go. I'm like, heck, yeah. I cannot live in a world without cheese. I did it for two years.
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A
Wow.
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C
There is no joy in a world without cheese. But I support individual decisions and like I said, job security for me. Go for it. I will never tell anybody not to eat something. Yeah. Not to drink something.
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A
I could never live without cheese.
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C
No. No. Oh. You know who has acupuncture? My acupuncturist has really bad rosacea, but she's like, I'm not giving up cheese and wine. And that's definitely something that affects her. I'm like, no problem. I got this serum for you.
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A
Let's move on to the myth that never dies. Greasy food causes oily skin. What's your take?
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C
Eye roll? That's my take. The skin, like the oil in your skin and the oil in your food, completely different. One comes from sebaceous glands, the other from your dinner plate or your to go container, whatever it is. So I don't. I think it's an easy one plus one, very simplistic way to think about it, but they're just not the same. In fact, it's a lot different. So it's not necessarily the grease equals grease. It's maybe the fact that they're fries, sorry, made from potatoes. Your friends. So diets in. While greasy food doesn't cause acne, diets high in like refined oils and fried foods, they can propo. They can promote inflammation. And that inflammation cascade can encourage oxidative stress, and that can directly worsen or increase the environment for redness, swelling, you know, delayed healing, all of those things that come with acne. But no, trans fats is another thing that come up with this conversation. Those are still found in some processed foods, and they can alter cell membrane fluidity, and that can make it harder for the skin barrier. But the one plus one is the math ain't mathing for greasy food causes a greasy face. It's more that it causes inflammation or can cause inflammation.
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A
And it's also often the carbs that are being accompanied with that grease. So your french fries, your chips, your pizza crust, anything that's breaded. These can spike blood sugar and insulin, and that increases insulin like growth factor, which is ultimately leading to inflammation. You don't have to tell your clients to quit the fries. No one's probably going to listen to that advice anyway. But instead suggest balance. So if they love that fried food, maybe add some omegas or antioxidants, rich foods to go along with it to maybe offset some of that inflammation, support the barrier health with topical lipids or essential fatty acids, and then have that conversation with your client on overall dietary patterns and also having probably the french fries one time isn't going to lead to so much inflammation that the next day you have breakouts everywhere. It compounds on itself.
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C
I would say it could for sure. But also, do you think it's two sides to that too? Right. Having the conversation with your client, but also just being aware of it and also understand they're not going to tell you the truth. You're like, tell me about your diet. Like, oh, it's really good. I eat quinoa for breakfast. I have a salad and salmon for lunch. They're not. I mean, that might have been like cherry picking out what their best things were, but getting to the root of it in a non judgmental way, by the way, it could take you further with understanding. Especially if you're approaching it in a non judgmental way.
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A
Totally.
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C
Nobody's going to come and be like, whoa, I had a big bender last weekend and I ate all the pizza and had 19 beers. They might be like, oh, yeah, you know, we went to the game, you know, but you have to infer and kindly dig a little deeper.
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A
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then there's sugar and one we all know can be trouble. Especially when you have nine Tootsie Rolls.
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C
Nope. I wish it was Snickers and Milky Way and all the other stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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A
So sugar spikes insulin that also is triggering inflammation. So we're seeing a running theme here that all of these guilty pleasures, all of these foods are causing internal inflammation which leads to oil production and increased keratinocytes. And that's what's perhaps leading to things like breakouts.
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C
That's so funny. I just thought about it. Like, you're mountains and lakes, I'm beach and ocean. You're a blonde, I'm brunette. There's you're winter, I'm summer. I'm sugary sweet, and you're salty. Just wanted to point that out.
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A
Yeah, yeah.
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C
Maggie's salty.
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A
Yeah, I am salty.
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C
Oh, you know what else? Since I'm so sweet, I'll bring this up. Glycation. Glycation is when the sugar binds to collagen and it stiffens it. And that stiffening, it's kind of like caramelizing. It's something that happens when you cook food too. And this is detrimental because it causes fragility in the skin, in the skin cells. And it's long term what you see later. Cause it's an accumulative thing. So it's really good to understand and try to prevent it so it's not to say no sugar ever. It's just about making better choices. And as the practitioner understanding that that's a possibility, using modalities, encouraging products that would fight against it. I would say, though, if you want the brownie, if you want the nine little tiny baby can baby like really small candy bars, go for it. But add in something that will help rebuild and replace the fragile collagen, like protein or healthy fat or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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A
So all this to say it's not about good or bad foods, it's about what we do consistently. So the next time you're having pizza, fries, a glass of wine, just remember, it's not about perfection. It's about patterns, hydration, not stressing your skin or yourself out. And hey, if you're going to indulge, at least do it with good moisturizer and zero guilt. Listeners, we want to hear from you. What's your take on food and skin? Share with us on social media through Instagram, Facebook or by emailing getconnectedcpskincare.com thank you for listening to ASCP STTalk. And as always, for more information on this episode or for ways to connect with Ella and myself, or to learn more about ascp, check out the show notes.