By SOPHIE DONNELLY
PUBLISHED: 15:31, Sun, Jun 26, 2016 | UPDATED: 16:03, Sun, Jun 26, 2016
Most women don’t like being asked how old they are but for Kim Lloyd it’s a question she loves to answer. “When I tell people I’m 52 they never believe me. They always think I’m in my early 40s, which I’m very happy about,” says Kim, a dentist and cosmetic practitioner.
Kim’s secret weapon isn’t the latest face cream packed with cutting-edge technology but an age-old diet that harks back to our caveman ancestors.
The paleo, or palaeolithic, diet is based on the principle of only eating foods that were available to hunter-gatherers including meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts and roots. Sugar, grains, dairy, legumes, alcohol and processed foods are all off the menu.
The theory is that our bodies haven’t adapted quickly enough to process the “new” food groups introduced into our diets 10,000 years ago during the first agricultural revolution such as grains and dairy. So by eliminating these foods from our diets, our bodies are able to function more effectively.
When The Paleo Diet was first published in 2002 it was a big hit with celebrities such as Hollywood stars Jessica Biel and Uma Thurman, who loved the health and fitness benefits, which include weight loss and reduced inflammation. But according to experts the diet has anti-ageing benefits too.
“There are a number of reasons why the paleo diet is good for your skin,” says Dr Stefanie Williams, a dermatologist, author and founder of the European Dermatology London clinic.
“The first is that the diet is low in sugar and starch. It is widely known that sugar is bad for our health, waistlines and skin but what people don’t realise is that starch is also a sugar. As soon as you eat starchy foods, such as white pasta, starch is broken down into sugar molecules which attach themselves to proteins in our skin.”
This process, called glycation, causes the proteins responsible for maintaining a youthful complexion (collagen and elastin) to become stiff and brittle.
