June 04, 2004 The Times
Face or figure: Which would you plump for?
By Lucia Van Der Post
Eat more cheese, drink red wine and stop jogging and those wrinkles will fill out naturally, say dermatologists. But you may have to choose between your skin and your weight
(It would seem that we low carbers can have both! 
Rustpot)
WELL, WHAT do you know? Dieting — it’s now officially, medically acknowledged — is ageing. Too much exercise is bad for you. On the other hand, dark bitter chocolate, rich red wines, runny cheeses, creamy pâtés, oil-packed nuts, prime rib beef (yum-yum) — all the traditional baddies banned from the pantheon of foods allowed to those of us who hope to look our best — are now quite all right. In fact, they are more than all right; they are essential if we want our skin to remain as wrinkle-free as possible and if we are to look our best.
The flavonoids in good chocolate gobble up the damaging free radicals and act as antioxidants. Red wine increases healthy blood flow and also has the good flavonoids. Full-fat cheeses have significant amounts of retinol vitamin A (key for glowing skin). Pâté is another source of retinol vitamin A, and nuts are rich in unsaturated fats that reduce skin inflammation, moisturise the skin and help the body to absorb vitamins such as A and E (vital to luminous skin). Almonds are a rich source of the antioxidant vitamin E, so dip freely into the pre-dinner nut bowl. And as for that legendary enemy, red meat, why it turns out that it is one of the best ways of absorbing iron, which we need to carry oxygen in the blood, and (why has nobody told us this before?) plays an important role in collagen production. Collagen, as all those who read the small print in the beauty press will know, is the stuff that holds the skin together, gives it its elasticity and its firmness. It is primarily the slowing down of collagen production that makes skin sag and look old. So anything that helps collagen production is to be warmly embraced.
Since all this sounds a bit radical, not to mention too good to be true, you’ll want to know the provenance of this rather uplifting news. Well, it’s a brigade of pukka, white-coated, degree-garlanded dermatologists from that heartland of deprivation chic, New York, interviewed for a feature in Harper’s Bazaar. But it is only truthful to add their very own caveat, which is this: these are foods that should be eaten in moderation only, and though they can almost certainly help to keep your skin looking younger, they will do nothing to keep your figure trim. In other words, it is a not-so-tacit admission that you can’t have it all ways. Unless you’ve been dealt an amazing gene card at birth, once middle age hits, you’ll probably have to choose between your skin and your figure.
This may be news to the posh dermatologists of New York’s Upper East Side, but most of us have known it for years. It’s been a matter of common observation that in middle age the smoothest, most glowing skins are to be found on women who are to varying degrees on the plump side. Lady Antonia Fraser once famously observed that “after 40 you’ve got to choose between your face and your bum”. In other words, keeping the derričre looking trim after you’ve passed that worrisome birthday is such a sweat that it shows — on the face. But if it’s your face that you’re more concerned about, a little plumpness does wonders for the lines — not to mention, as the Harper’s Bazaar article points out, for the scaffolding that holds up the face.
This, to me, points up a deep philosophical divide in the approach to ageing. Being skinny — the few times I’ve experienced it — is quite a heady feeling. Would that I knew it better. No wonder my thin friends prance around in fancy clothes. They’re into Dries van Noten, Armani, nippy Marc Jacobs jackets, slinky Chanel suits and wispy, chiffony dresses from Prada and Diane von Furstenberg — the sartorial equivalents of saying to the world at large: “Look, Ma — no fat.” But most of them work at it. You see them at dinner parties: one glass of wine only, pushing away the carbs. They swim and work out. And often they pay for it with faces that are more lined than those of their plumper peers.
In New York this phenomenon is more advanced and very much more visible in the shape of the social X-rays whom Tom Wolfe so cruelly skewered in The Bonfire of the Vanities. Remember them? The middle-aged, anorexic, sexless harpies of his novel who spend all their time decorating, shopping, exercising and dieting? You see them tripping into Saks and Bergdorf Goodman, heading straight for the size 4 rails (don’t panic: an American size 4 is a British size 8) and there is something deeply scary about them. The little bones look as if they might snap in the middle of a bit of rumpty-tumpty, and besides, it might muss their hairdos. Which makes one wonder what this seeking after thinness is all about. It doesn’t seem to be about trying to please the men in their lives (which would give the whole thing a certain point), but more about an insecurity, a self-obsession, a competitiveness, which in itself doesn’t seem a load of fun.
The plumper ones, dare I say it, often look a whole lot more fun, not to mention more relaxed and tranquil. The chic of the species evolve a style of dressing that makes one notice only their faces. They usually turn to the “intellectual” Japanese designers, to Shirin Guild, Wall and others of that ilk. Sonia Gandhi (58, as the newspapers’ fearless addiction to accuracy reveals) is a marvellous example of the tribe. She is helped, admittedly, by being able to wear a sari (anyone for Delhi?) but there she stood, her face apparently make-up free, her hair tied back, simply looking terrific, seemingly entirely unconcerned about whether she could get into the latest offering by Marc Jacobs.
But these are not women who just allow themselves to balloon into a slobby size 16 or more. Being really overweight doesn’t, in my experience, result in tranquil, fun-loving beings either. They’re mostly crippled with self-disgust, and talk even more obsessively about food and diets than the skinny ones. In the end we’re back to the age-old answer — the middle way, of moderation. A bit of plumpness does wonders, but too much and it’s not attractive. And, to put it all in some perspective, when these New York dermatologists talk about a little plumpness being a good thing, they don’t have a stone or so in mind; they’re talking about the odd 5lb (2.2kg).
Mind you, spoilt creatures that we are, most of us would like to have it all — the all in this case being the great derričre and the wrinkle-free skin. Well, the good news is that these days there are lots of things that can be done to both figure and face. Liposuction and tummy tucks will deal with less than perfect shapes — a friend’s 50th birthday present to herself was four hours under the knife in Paris. She emerged with a fresher skin (a facelift), bosoms that now (so she tells me) look so good that she can walk around with no bra on (she has a younger husband) and her tummy all neatly tucked. For some that may speak of desperation but it has done her confidence the world of good.
Microdermabrasion treatments can now do wonders for lines, as can Botox and Restylane. Lasers can remove blemishes and age spots and deal with broken veins. If all else fails, never forget the surgeon’s knife. I think Anne Robinson looks like a million dollars. So does Julie Christie, so does Helen Mirren, and bully for Jane Fonda, too. I fail to see why it’s thought to be a matter of such shock and horror that women who feel great, are busy with lives and careers but notice that things are sagging a bit shouldn’t avail themselves of the techniques on offer. Cutting away bits of saggy skin seems to me no big deal. Who wouldn’t, if they had the glitzy career and the big fat purse, opt for the new, softer, more glowy Anne Robinson rather than the stressed and lined-looking version of a few months back? Seems only sensible to me.
But in the end the lessons to be gleaned from the New York dermatologists seem to be these. If you’re young (and I count anything under 40 young), want to be slim AND keep your face from sagging, work at it now. Don’t wait. One of the best bits of advice came from the dermatologist Dennis Gross: “It is far better to get your weight loss over with in your twenties and thirties while your skin is still elastic enough to snap back into shape.” Got to make sense, that.
Then there is the usual list of things that those who would look their best should steer clear of — yo-yo dieting, extreme low-fat diets, smoking (it causes those nasty little vertical lines around the lips and makes the skin look sallow). And then when you’re not so young, take it easy. Enjoy life. Take some exercise — but not too much. Eat a little of what you fancy — but not too much. If your genes didn’t give you a stick-thin body, don’t try to distort biology. Do the best you can, then stop worrying about it.
WHAT YOU SHOULD EAT
Full-fat, runny cheeses
Creamy pâtés
Oil-packed nuts, especially almonds
Red meat, especially prime rib of beef
Dark, bitter chocolate
Red wine, which is full of flavonoids and increases blood flow
All of the above should be taken in moderation
THE NATURAL (CHEAP) APPROACH TO BEAUTY
Can’t afford Anne Robinson’s cosmetic surgeon? Try the “council-house facelift”, a high, tight ponytail that makes the face and neck so taut that even posture is improved.
Get a cheap trout pout by mixing Vaseline with sugar and massage it into the lips.
Forget expensive laser whitening for teeth: bleach them naturally by rubbing strawberries over them.
Age spots: instead of laser treatment and expensive creams, dab vinegar on them daily until they fade, or rub them with the inside of banana skins.
Youthful complexion: no need for microdermabrasion. Use the inside of mango or papaya skin to exfoliate.
Forget seaweed wraps: massage cellulite with coffee grains while in the shower.
Face or figure : which would you plump for
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