What you eat affects the way your skin looks and feels. Having healthy looking skin makes you feel younger, can boost your self-confidence, and can also signal that your body is healthy, too. As you age, you have to deal with skin changes—such as the appearance of wrinkles and lines and the increased elasticity of your skin—and it can be difficult to realize that the face you’ve spent decades looking at in your mirror has changed.
Your skin is your body’s largest organ, and it’s also the first surface on your body that is exposed to toxins in the air, pollution, chemicals, harmful sun rays, and anything else that you might encounter on a daily basis. That makes your skin prone to getting damaged, which is definitely something you want to avoid, and why it’s so important to have proper skincare rituals. After all, keeping your skin free of blemishes and damages makes you look and feel younger.
One of the best ways to keep your skin looking young and healthy is to eat foods that promote healthy skin. Your skin needs certain vitamins and nutrients to maintain that healthy glow you had in your youth. That’s why what you eat affects your skin’s appearance, and why we recommend you eat these five foods to get healthy, young-looking skin.
Food Remedies for Skincare
1. Oysters
This is definitely an important food for healthy skin; after all, oysters are high in zinc, a mineral that helps get rid of old, dead skin cells and produce new ones. You want to discard the dead cells so that your skin is fresh and clean.
2. Almonds
Add almonds to your diet—not only because they’re so healthy for you, but also because they should be a part of your skincare plan. Almonds contain almost 50% of your daily recommended value of vitamin E and act as an antioxidant, protecting your skin from free radical damage caused by the sun’s UV radiation and harmful toxins in our environment. Regularly exposing your skin to UV radiation can speed up the skin’s aging process, and that’s why we believe this powerful antioxidant is an important food for healthy skin.
3. Citrus Fruits
If skincare is your top priority, then make sure you’re eating enough citrus fruits that are high in vitamin C. As you age, your basic skin structure, called collagen, starts to break down. That’s what contributes to your skin’s aged appearance—and why you need vitamin C to counteract it. Your body cannot make its own vitamin C, so you have to ensure you’re getting vitamin C naturally in the foods you eat. Vitamin C helps your body produce and rebuild collagen, so make sure grapefruit and other citrus fruits are on your list of foods for healthy skin. Vitamin C is also important for skincare, because heavy exposure to sunlight and environmental pollutions actually depletes your storage of vitamin C from your skin.
It’s better to get vitamin C naturally from food rather than supplements because the shelf life of ascorbic acid, the nutrient that makes up vitamin C capsules, is very short. Another added benefit to vitamin C is that it also acts as an anti-inflammatory; in one recent study, patients undergoing laser resurfacing took vitamin C before and after undergoing surgery and it significantly reduced redness in the skin.
4. Sweet Potatoes
The next important food for healthy skin is sweet potatoes. They’re high in beta-carotene, which can prevent cell damage and stop premature aging. Once consumed, beta-carotene gets converted into vitamin A; too much vitamin A can be damaging, but the good thing about eating foods high in beta-carotene is that the body will only convert as much beta-carotene into vitamin A as it needs. Beta-carotene is also an antioxidant, which protects your body from damaging free radicals, so getting enough beta-carotene is important for your skin.
5. Probiotic Yogurt
Improve skincare by eating probiotic yogurt. Probiotics have been studied to treat skin conditions like eczema, so researchers think that the same way it can reduce inflammation in eczema patients, it can also reduce inflammation, redness, and sore spots on your skin. Add a probiotic food for healthy skin—your skin will thank you.
Sources:
Marini, A., “[Beauty from the inside. Does it really
work?]” Hautarzt, Aug. 2011; 62(8): 614-7.
Dayan, S., et al., “A phase 2, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial of a novel nutritional supplement product to promote healthy skin,” Journal of Drugs in Dermatology. October 2011; 10(10): 1,106-1,114.
“Nutrition and skin: lessons for anti-aging, beauty, and healthy skin,” (New York: Springer, 2011).
“Vitamin E,” Office of Dietary Supplements web site; http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminE-HealthProfessional/, last accessed April 15, 2013.
Muizzuddin, N., et al., “Physiological effect of a probiotic on skin,” Journal of Cosmetic Science 2012; 63(6): 385-395.
“Beta-carotene,” University of Maryland Medical Center web site; http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/beta-carotene-000286.htm, last accessed April 16, 2013.