4 Foods to Avoid Eating After Getting a Tattoo
After getting a tattoo, it’s best to make some adjustments to your diet to accelerate the healing process, avoiding certain foods. Some ingredients increase internal inflammation levels. However, there are also other substances that are recommended, such as vitamin C.
Here we will discuss the foods you should avoid eating after getting a tattoo to keep inflammation under control and to accelerate the healing process. Keep in mind that many of them should also be limited in almost all circumstances and not only after getting a tattoo.
1. Soft drinks
Soft drinks usually contain large amounts of added sugars. These elements provoke an increase in pancreatic stress due to elevated blood sugar levels, thus increasing internal inflammation.
Even its regular intake in high quantities would be related to an increased risk of developing metabolic problems, such as type 2 diabetes. This is according to a study published in Current Diabetes Reports.
Find out more here: How Much Sugar is Recommended for Children Per Day?
2. Fried and battered foods
Fried foods alter food’s lipid profile. Fatty acids are transformed into trans type when subjected to high temperatures.
We’re talking about a series of compounds that have been shown to increase internal inflammation, as well as dysfunction at the mitochondrial level. They are not suitable to consume at any time, but much less so when seeking to maximize the body’s ability to recover from a stressful event.
3. Sausages
Sausages are a source of low-quality artificial additives. An example of these would be nitrites.
Their consumption has been linked to changes in the body. To the point that they could increase the incidence of tumors associated with the digestive tract, according to research published in the journal Nutrients.
For this reason, the consumption of processed red meat isn’t recommended. In the specific context of tattoos, they are also related to increased inflammation in the body.
4. Alcoholic beverages
Alcohol is a toxic substance, regardless of the dose consumed. It should not be present in the diet under any circumstances.
It alters endogenous protein synthesis and reduces the production of male sex hormones, such as testosterone. It also elevates cortisol synthesis, leading to stress and catabolism.
As if this weren’t enough, alcohol consumption increases the risk of developing chronic pathologies over the years. Not only does it affect the functioning of the heart, but also the physiology of the central nervous system.
In the specific case of tattoos, alcohol acts as a substance that promotes dehydration. Removing water from the skin in the middle of a healing process is not favorable and can delay the action of fibroblasts.
What to eat to accelerate the healing of a tattoo?
The best way to accelerate healing after a tattoo is to include in your diet foods with high vitamin C and vitamin A content. Both elements stimulate the synthesis of collagen, the most abundant protein in the human body. It forms part of all the tissues of the organism and its deficit is associated with problems in healing and with a greater risk of muscular injury.
Among the foods that stand out for concentrating both nutrients in their interior we could highlight the following:
- Tomatoes
- Peppers
- Citrus fruits
It would also be important to include other products with an anti-inflammatory capacity in our diets. Those that best fulfill this function are those that contain omega-3 – oily fish stand out.
You may also be interested in: Can Eating Fish Reduce The Pain from Rheumatoid Arthritis?
Avoid certain foods after getting a tattoo to speed up your recovery
In summary, avoiding the consumption of certain products after getting a tattoo is important in order to speed up the recovery process and to modulate the levels of internal inflammation. In this sense, the intake of culinary spices, such as turmeric, can be recommended.
Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s essential to optimize other good habits, such as an adequate night’s rest. This will maintain a hormonal balance that will accelerate the repair processes and reduce inflammation and pain.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Yoshida Y, Simoes EJ. Sugar-Sweetened Beverage, Obesity, and Type 2 Diabetes in Children and Adolescents: Policies, Taxation, and Programs. Curr Diab Rep. 2018;18(6):31. Published 2018 Apr 18. doi:10.1007/s11892-018-1004-6
- Oteng AB, Kersten S. Mechanisms of Action of trans Fatty Acids. Adv Nutr. 2020;11(3):697-708. doi:10.1093/advances/nmz125
- Song P, Wu L, Guan W. Dietary Nitrates, Nitrites, and Nitrosamines Intake and the Risk of Gastric Cancer: A Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. 2015;7(12):9872-9895. Published 2015 Dec 1. doi:10.3390/nu7125505
