Ah, Sweet Wrinkles

Last month, I wrote about how eating sugar might lead to acne (see Eating Your Way To Acne). Not only did it get some of you out there to comment, but it even stirred up a bit of a controversy here in the office. Now, it turns out there's a new study out that says there is a direction correlation between sugary foods and wrinkles. Yes, wrinkles. I know you just cringed. According to a study in the British Journal of Dermatology, a process called glycation is to blame for the aging process. Here's how it works:

• You eat sugar, or anything that turns into glucose in your body.
• When the glucose enters your bloodstream, it grabs onto proteins, forming a new molecule.
• This new molecule is called an advanced glycation end product, or AGE.
• The more AGEs you produce, the more they bother neighboring proteins, like collagen and elastin, which are the proteins skin needs to be strong, supple and wrinkle-free.

Of course, this won't stop me from eating the occasional morning muffin, but it will certainly have me thinking. For more information on the study's findings, check out this article. --Brianne Rieck, Sephora