Wine Vs. Weed: Which One’s Worse For Your Skin?
Some people kick back with a glass – or bottle – of wine every evening while others prefer to light up. And there’s a chance that if you care about your appearance, you’ve opted for weed in the past to avoid the dehydration and weight gain that can accompany wine. We all know hangovers aren’t exactly beauty-friendly, so weed can feel like the answer if you want to cut loose but still look pretty in the morning.
But is weed really that much better for your appearance than booze? That’s the question on our minds today: which one’s worse?
We spoke to celeb dermatologist Dr. Nigma Talib, who details how diet can affect aging in her book “Younger Skin Starts in the Gut,” and she gave us the low-down.
As it turns out, wine is worse because it forces your kidneys to work harder. Your kidneys go into over-drive trying to remove toxins and excess water from your system which leaves your organs dehydrated – and skin is the largest organ in the body.
On the other hand, while weed smoke and munchies can negatively affect the skin (we’ll get into that later) – THC can benefit the skin by acting as an anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory. When it comes to weed, the method of intake is the difference between good or bad skin. But also, your munchie levels can definitely have an effect.
But first, some background on how what you put into your body affects your skin. In her book, Dr. Talib focuses on the visual effects of four food groups – sugar, dairy, gluten, and wine/alcohol. She tells us:
When someone has sugar face you see lines and wrinkles on the forehead, sagging skin under the eyes, acne all over and a dullness to the face.
In dairy face you see swollen eyelids, under-eye dark circles and white spots on the chin.
Gluten face is when you see puffy, red cheeks, a fuller looking face and blemishes on the chin.
And finally, with wine face you see pronounced lines between the eyes, droopy eyelids, red skin, deep nasolabial folds and feathery lines across the cheeks caused by dehydrated skin.
The first three faces (sugar, dairy and gluten) can be found in many weed smokers thanks to the munchies. Let’s face it, when you’re high AF, all you want are pizza pockets, Pop Tarts, and sour straws. But this doesn’t mean all weed smokers have bad skin nor that they’ll age fast.
Dr. Talib explained that the effects of eating foods such as gluten, dairy and sugar are the general signs she’s noticed over the course of her career but that different bodies will ultimately react in different ways. This means not everyone who binges on junk food will show the typical signs of a particular face. However, “[Weed] smoke is harmful because you expose the skin to free radicals which damage skin and cause pre-mature ageing. Any kind of smoking can lead to collagen breakdown because you’re starving the skin of oxygen which causes reduced circulation.”
Yikes! So wine causes dehydrated skin and weed smoke deprives the skin of oxygen – where’s the sliver lining?
As we mentioned earlier, the THC in marijuana has anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that could actually benefit the skin, according to HuffPost, but the key is to smoke weed without actually producing smoke.
And how do you do that?
Vaping!
That means all you hardcore smokers who’ve ever made fun of people who vape – joke’s on you because they’ve been doing it right all along.
The only things to really watch out for are wrinkles and lines surrounding the mouth since you’re still pursing your lips but hey – that’s what Botox is for.
So in the battle of wine vs. weed – weed comes out on top, but only if you vape and don’t gorge on junk food afterward.
Happy 420.
