What foods cause thigh fat and cellulite on legs?

Food and cellulite: that complicated relationship

LipoTherapeia: Check our advanced skin tightening, phototherapy and cellulite treatments in London, based on the best technologies in the world and on more than two decades of experience over more than 20,000 sessions

• Foods that cause cellulite

• The worst foods for cellulite: fried food, sugar, excess fat, excess carbs, food with BPA in it

• Cellulite: foods to avoid

• What foods cause thigh fat? What causes cellulite on the legs?

• We always have a choice: indulgence vs beautiful thighs

• Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment in London with the cellulite experts

• Advanced, infrared / blue / red light therapy treatments in London at LipoTherapeia

• The Cellulite School™: Get advanced training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening

Foods that cause cellulite

These are very common questions at our clinic:

• What foods cause cellulite?

• Which foods shall I avoid and which ones shall I eat for firm legs and to prevent/reduce cellulite?

• Do carbs cause cellulite?

And even specific questions, such as:

• Does honey cause cellulite?

• Does corn cause cellulite?

• Do dairy foods (milk, cheese, yoghurt, cream) cause cellulite?

The worst foods for cellulite: fried food, sugar, excess fat, excess carbs, food with BPA in it

If I had to put it in a few bullet points I would say:

• anything with sugar in it

• anything with fried/hydrogenated oils in it

• any food stored in BPA-leaching containers

• any food cooked in contact with plastic (e.g. sous vide, aluminium foil, cling film, plastic container etc) or cooking utensils/machines with a PFAS/forever chemical lining (e.g pan, pot, air-fryer, grill etc)

• too many carbs (even good carbs)

• too much fat (even good fats)

…cause cellulite.

Plus, having:

• Too little protein

• Too little fibre

• Too few omega-3 fatty acids

• Too few polyphenols/carotenoids in your diet

…don't help either.

And there is good justification for the above list:

• Sugar is one of the top three causes of cellulite these days and a major reason for the increase in cellulite in the last few decades. Sugar is responsible for glycation, inflammation and fat accumulation, i.e. three distinct hallmarks of cellulite.

• Fried oils/fat, as well as unnatural hydrogenated/trans fats, are also responsible for inflammation, glycation and free radical damage, three major causes of cellulite. Frying peroxidises fats and oils in food; hydrogenation alters the chemical structure of oils/fats. Both frying and hydrogenation leads to inflammation and cellular damage. Not to mention that frying increases the fat content of food.

• Too many carbs and too much fat (i.e. too many calories), also lead to fat accumulation. As excess hypodermal (deep skin) fat accumulation is the most important aspect of cellulite, you can understand that carbs do cause cellulite, if eaten in excess - even healthy carbs. And of course fat causes cellulite, if eaten in excess - even healthy fat.

• BPA, BPS, microplastics and PFAS / forever chemicals act as endocrine disruptors/xenoestrogens, upsetting endocrine balance in both men and women and acting as badly conformed estrogen. This results in cellulite and more female-type fat accumulation on thighs and bum - not to mention the cancers and endocrine-related conditions they cause

On the other hand, the three remaining food components - i.e. protein, fibre and micronutrients - actually do help reduce cellulite.

So fruits (especially berries), veg and herbs, as well as high protein foods, help reduce cellulite.

Cellulite: foods to avoid

So if I had to give some typical examples of what foods cause cellulite - on legs or anywhere else on the body - those would be:

• Doughnuts - the ultimate cellulite-causing food: they are fried (quite often in hydrogenated oil or oil cooked 20 times over) and they contain sugar, fat and starch (carbs), plus chemicals used in the frying process, as colorants, stabilisers etc. There is literally nothing good about a donut, nutritionally.

• Muffins should not be far off, as they also contain carbs, fat and sugar - but at least they are not fried. The same applies to snacks like:

  • granola (fat, sugar and carbs)

  • cookies, pastries and cakes (fat, sugar and carbs; and unless you make them yourself, packed with hydrogenated cr*p too)

  • chocolate (fat, sugar and carbs), including 70%+ dark chocolate, which is still fat, sugar and carbs - plus a bit of cocoa antioxidants)

  • pies, pasties (packed with fat refined carbs and unless you make them yourself, packed with hydrogenated cr*p too)

• Fried chicken with fries (fried, fat, sugar, starch) - as opposed to grilled chicken with salad and roast potatoes

• Cola and other soda/fizzy drinks (pure sugar/sweeteners and water) - as opposed to sparkling water. Not the mention the BPA in the can lining or the microplastics in the plastic bottle…

• Excess bread, pasta (too many carbs) - as opposed to some bread/pasta with loads of salad/vegetables and protein

• Thick, greasy pizza, heavy on cheese and salami (carbs and fat) - with the much lighter, Italian-style pizza with vegetables or seafood being a better option

• Greasy cheeseburgers with soda (fat, sugar, carbs) - with lighter, home-made, low-fat meat burgers being a much better option

• BPA-packaged food, such as ANY tinned drink (beer, soda, “energy” drinks, horrible wine in a box or abominable wines in a can), olive oil in a tin, and ANY canned food (tomato sauce, tuna, baked beans etc). Fresh is best - or at least prefer a glass jar/bottle variety.

What foods cause thigh fat? What causes cellulite on the legs?

That’s a very common question and the answer is twofold:

• The same things that cause cellulite or fat anywhere in the body also cause thigh fat

• But most importantly, cellulite and fat accumulation on the thighs and butt specifically - as opposed to other parts of the body - is driven by genetics and female hormones too

This means that, if as a woman you want to avoid thigh fat or cellulite you must be really careful with avoiding the above foods, alcohol, smoking/vaping and, with doctor’s permission, hormonal contraception (patches, injections, pill etc).

We always have a choice: indulgence vs beautiful thighs'

You get the drift: anything that has too many carbs or too much fat or too much sugar or is fried/hydrogenated or cooked/stored in PFAS/plastic or all of the above, is great as a cellulite-causing food.

I know I sound like a spoilsport, but reality is reality and we always have a choice:

• Either indulge frequently in unhealthy foods that will clog our arteries, increase the risk of cancer, make us fat and give us cellulite

• Or focus on healthy foods (salmon, salad and black rice, anyone?) with the minor occasional indulgence once a week

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Advanced, infrared / blue / red light therapy treatments in London at LipoTherapeia

At LipoTherapeia we are passionate about phototherapy (also known as photobiomodulation/PBM, red light therapy, infrared light therapy, blue light therapy, LED light therapy etc) and we use the most powerful equipment available today (up to 200mW/cm2), for best results and treatment of large body areas.

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