New Delhi: Don’t want pigmentation or rashes? Stop indulging in dairy products or sugar, says an expert.

Kiran Lohia, medical director of Lumiere Dermatology, New Delhi, suggests what not to eat for healthy skin:

* No dairy products: Most people believe that “milk does a body good”, but the fact is that it is more harmful than you think. Dairy products such as milk, cheese, ice cream and yogurt are full of hormones. Acne, ageing and pigmentation are all caused or worsened by hormonal imbalance, so adding even more hormones from your food creates the problem! Nearly all dermatologists will tell their patients to cut out the dairy products as much as possible. For those of you scared of not getting enough calcium, did you know that spinach has more calcium than milk?

* No sugar: Sugar is known to cause glycation of important proteins in the skin. Through glycation, these strength and youth-giving proteins become inactive, leading to worsening of skin sagging and wrinkles. For those of you with a sweet tooth, substituting for sugar free is not the answer. Sugar free options have a host of issues themselves, and cause just as much as an insulin reaction as sugar does. For truly gorgeous youthful skin, keeping it clean and natural and without sugar is the way to go.

* No artificial ingredients: Eating excessively processed foods with untested additives can only damage your system in ways that we are only just beginning to understand. Trying to keep your diet simple and true to nature at least 80 percent of the time will make a big difference in your body and your skin.

* No white foods: White flour and corn starch, present in everything from pasta to namkeen, are a huge cause of insulin dysregulation. These foods have no nutritional value. They just taste good. And in the process, cause your insulin to spike, while causing your stress hormones to skyrocket. You remember what your skin used to look like as a teenager before a test? Those pimples, that dullness and that skin sensitivity? Well that happens because your stress hormones have shot up through the roof. To stop your hormones from going crazy, avoid these white foods.