When you need to get through that all-important work presentation or busy day with the kids, there’s only one thing for it: a big steaming cup of coffee. Most of us drink coffee daily, and it’s a delicious way to get an energy boost when we need it.
Plus, it’s full of antioxidants and polyphenols, which nutritionists have been telling us for years are beneficial for our health.
But how does coffee affect your skin? Rumor has it that the nation’s favorite hot drink can actually wreak havoc on your skin. So, we’ve done research to find out whether coffee is bad for your skin.
Unfortunately, science doesn’t give us a simple yes or no answer—multiple factors are at play. With that in mind, let’s explore the effects of the popular caffeinated drink on your skin.
READ MORE : How Does Stress Affect Skin?
Does Coffee Make Your Skin Darker?
A common misconception is that drinking excessive amounts of coffee can make your skin darker. However, in reality, it is melanin that actually determines how light or dark our skin is.
The more melanin you have in your body, the darker your skin will be. Coffee doesn’t affect the amount of melanin in your body, so drinking it won’t darken your skin.
The only way to naturally darken your skin is by spending a significant amount of time in the sun. You can also darken your skin using sunbeds, but doing so is not recommended due to the increased risk of skin cancer.
Coffee can temporarily increase your body heat and the amount of acidity in your body, which can make you appear more flushed and your skin look darker. It can’t, however, change your actual skin color long-term.
Is Drinking Black Coffee Good for the Skin?
One of the factors that affect how good or bad coffee is for your skin is what you take your coffee with. Sugar, for example, has been shown to negatively impact the skin and cause wrinkles.
Having excess sugar in your bloodstream can lead to glycation, a chemical reaction that happens when sugar levels spike beyond what insulin can deal with. This chemical process affects collagen and elastin—the parts of our skin that keep it looking youthful.
The negative impact on collagen and elastin makes the signs of aging more apparent, with skin becoming drier and less elastic.
This means that coffees such as mochas, which contain lots of sugar, can be bad for your skin.
Milk is another culprit that negatively affects the skin. Studies have shown that there’s a link between skin conditions such as acne and lactose. Drinking dairy products in excess can worsen acne.
With this in mind, it might seem that drinking black coffee is good for your skin because you avoid the adverse health effects that come with drinking a sugar-laden latte.
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. While avoiding milk and sugar can reduce coffee’s negative effects on the skin, black coffee itself can be a problem.
Coffee contains caffeine, which increases levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. Studies have shown that if you suffer from acne or similar skin conditions, stress can make it worse.
Although the plainer you can have your coffee, the better it is for your skin, even black coffee can have negative effects on the skin.
Disadvantages of Drinking Coffee for the Skin
Despite the presence of antioxidants and polyphenols in this popular beverage, drinking too much coffee can worsen blemishes and wrinkles, and dehydrate your skin.
Here are a few ways coffee consumption can negatively impact your skin.
Coffee Dehydrates Skin
If there’s one thing that significantly affects the appearance of your skin, it’s your hydration level. The more hydrated you are, the more likely your skin is to look healthy, springy, and glowing.
The less hydrated you are, the more likely you are to experience dry patches and dull, sagging skin.
The caffeine in coffee makes coffee a mild diuretic, which means it increases the production of urine. If you drink a significant number of coffees a day, this diuretic effect can dehydrate you, leaving your skin looking drier and worsening the appearance of wrinkles.
Caffeine can also have negative effects on the skin’s aging process that go beyond dehydration. Caffeine causes your blood vessels to constrict. As a result, the blood vessels at your skin’s surface can’t deliver as many nutrients and antioxidants, which impedes collagen production.
Bad Coffee Disrupts Gut Flora
Your gut contains your microbiome—a community of microorganisms that affects almost every aspect of your health, from your digestion to your stress levels.
What you eat and drink can disrupt your gut microbiome, and poor-quality coffee is one of the prime culprits for negatively affecting your gut. If your gut becomes inflamed, this can also show up as inflammation in the skin.
In short, put down the cheap, poor-quality coffee, and invest in organic coffee for the best chance of saving your skin from any adverse effects.
Caffeine Can Cause Stress
Caffeine can spike cortisol levels, which, when it happens regularly, can lead to long-term stress. Stress has a detrimental effect on multiple bodily functions, but it also shows up in your skin.
Stress doesn’t create acne, but it does worsen it, so if you’re prone to blemishes, drinking caffeine in excess won’t help. The stress hormone, cortisol, can also increase the amount of oil secreted by your sebaceous glands, making breakouts more likely.
If you want to continue with regular coffee consumption but you’re worried about the effects of caffeine, opt for a decaffeinated version instead.
Caffeine Impacts Sleep
Although caffeine is great for energy boosts when you need them, that extra spark during the day can keep you lying awake at night, because 400mg of caffeine can affect sleep, even when it’s consumed six hours before bedtime.
When you sleep less, all of your important bodily functions are affected, and your skin also takes a hit. Poor sleep can result in dull, dry skin and under-eye bags.
To avoid losing sleep over your frequent cups of coffee, try limiting your intake after noon, or opt for decaffeinated coffee instead.
The Bottom Line
So, should you avoid coffee consumption altogether? Not necessarily.
Although there are several disadvantages of drinking coffee for your skin, coffee does contain antioxidants and polyphenols, which have been shown to reduce the risk of serious illness and keep your body healthy.
As with most things, coffee works best when you drink it in moderation. If you can’t give up your sugary, milky coffees, keep them to a minimum. When you can, opt for black coffee made with high-quality coffee beans, and have it decaffeinated. Two cups a day is a reasonable amount to avoid excessive harm to your skin.
If you find your skin has been impacted by excessive coffee consumption, try a few months with little to no coffee at all and see if it improves your symptoms. The good news is that a few months with less coffee can reduce the symptoms of coffee consumption on your skin, so you should notice softer, more glowing skin quite quickly.
While coffee can have detrimental effects on your skin when consumed in excess, there are some skincare products that contain coffee for topical application that can benefit your skin.
Many products containing caffeine have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, while caffeinated creams can temporarily improve the appearance of cellulite because they dehydrate the tissue.
Coffee grounds can also be used in scrubs and exfoliators to buff away dead skin cells.
They reduce swelling and puffiness too, so you’ll often find coffee used as an ingredient in eye creams.
The bottom line is: If you can’t live without your cup of morning coffee, your skin should be fine—as long as you focus on high-quality coffee beans, and keep milk and sugar to a minimum.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.