TOP 5 FOODS FOR BEAUTIFUL SKIN
With people all over the globe spending billions of dollars on skin-care
products every year, you’d think cosmetics companies had replicated the
fountain of youth in the laboratory. In fact, skin creams have gotten
more and more expensive and less and less based on real science.
According to most experts who aren’t hawking half-ounce jars of $200
youth serum, the science behind skin care is simpler than most of us
think.
As with most health benefits, it comes down to lifestyle,
rather than how much you can afford to spend on products. The things you
can do to beautify your skin are remarkably similar to what you can do
to strengthen your heart, control your weight, lift your mood and live
longer and better: Get regular exercise, sleep enough and eat well. Of
course, what you can eat to improve your skin tone, texture, evenness
and clarity might be different from what you eat to avoid, say, heart
disease.
So what are we looking at when it comes to a
beautiful-skin diet? In this article, we’ll find out what you want to
throw in your shopping cart to improve your skin, why those foods work
on traits like smoothness and tone, and whether skin-healthy foods are,
in fact, different from the foods you’d eat to promote overall health.
5. Seafood
Active components: Omega-3 fatty acids, zinc
Benefits: Smooth, clear and glowing skin
Most
of us have heard that fish can be really good for your overall health —
it’s a primary component in what’s known as the “Mediterranean diet.”
Many types of fish and shellfish can also work wonders for the skin,
especially oysters and fatty fish like salmon.
The primary
nutrients that make fish so good for your complexion are zinc and,
especially, omega-3 fatty acids. Increasing omega-3 intake can reduce
dryness and inflammation. Inflammation can cause skin to age faster, and
research shows that getting too little omega-3 may contribute to
inflammatory disorders like eczema and psoriasis [source: UMMC]. Omega-3
fatty acids can also help keep the heart’s arteries clear and so
improve circulation. Good circulation is crucial to skin health.
Zinc
can help fight acne because it’s involved in metabolizing testosterone,
which affects the production of an oily substance caused sebum, a
primary cause of acne. Zinc also assists in new-cell production and the
sloughing off of dead skin, which gives the skin a nice glow [source:
Self].
You’ll also find these benefits in flaxseed oil and walnuts.
4. Citrus Fruits
Active component: Vitamin C
Benefits: Smooth and taut skin
Vitamin
C is a prime skin-care ingredient in tons of beauty creams. This
vitamin aids in the body’s production of collagen, a protein that forms
the basic structure of your skin [source: Discovery Health]. Collagen
breakdown, which starts speeding up significantly around the age of 35,
can leave your skin saggy [source: RealAge]. Consuming extra vitamin C
in foods like oranges, grapefruits, Acerola cherries (a single Acerola
has 100 percent of your vitamin C for the day) and tomatoes can help
tighten the skin and prevent wrinkles.
Vitamin C also may fight
inflammation, and its antioxidant properties can neutralize the free
radicals (highly reactive oxygen molecules) that damage cells and can
prematurely age your face.
In case you get tired of eating all that fruit, hot peppers, bell peppers and sprouts also have good amounts of vitamin C.
3. Red and Green Vegetables
Active components: Vitamin A, beta-carotene
Benefits: Bright and smooth skin
Skin
is the body’s largest organ. It makes sense, then, that what’s good for
your whole body is also good for your skin — and as far as food goes,
it doesn’t get much better than vegetables. You’ll especially want to
look for red-orange and green vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes
and spinach.
Orange-red vegetables are full of beta-carotene. Our
bodies convert beta-carotene into vitamin A, which acts as an
antioxidant, preventing cell damage and premature aging. In the case of
vitamin A, you also get anti-acne benefits — vitamin A has been used in
acne medications (think Retin-A) for many years.
Spinach and
other green, leafy foods provide tons of vitamin A, too, which helps
your skin produce more fresh new cells and get rid of the old ones,
reducing dryness and keeping your face looking bright and young.
Mangoes
are also a great source of vitamin A. It’s best to get this vitamin
from food and not from supplements, though, since too much vitamin A can
cause health problems
2. Nuts
Active component: Vitamin E
Benefits: Young and soft skin
As
with many of the skin-healthy foods on our list, the good stuff in nuts
— especially almonds — has to do with antioxidant activity. Vitamin E
combats skin-aging free radicals, especially protecting skin from sun
damage due to UV-sunlight-generated free radicals [source: Self].
Vitamin E also tends to help skin hold in moisture, relieving dryness
and making skin look younger.
Pairing vitamin E with selenium can
enhance its antioxidant abilities, so go ahead and throw some almonds
into your cottage cheese (great source of selenium) for a
skin-revitalizing snack [source: LifeScript].
Almonds, pistachios and walnuts also provide a nice supply of omega-3 fatty acids, another great skin nutrient.
1. Whole Grains
Active components: Rutin and B-vitamins
Benefits: Clear and moisturized skin
The “whole food” movement has whole-body advantages, not the least of which is great-looking skin.
Whole
foods are basically unprocessed — whole wheat bread instead of white
bread, for instance. The whole grain buckwheat is a good source for the
antioxidant rutin, which helps combat inflammation-related skin damage.
Wheat germ provides the B-vitamin biotin, which assists cells in
processing fats. If you don’t have enough biotin in your body, your skin
can become dry and scaly.
In general, whole grains instead of
processed carbohydrates can improve your complexion. Processed (or
refined) flours can cause an insulin spike, which in turn can encourage
acne. Replacing your refined-flour pancakes with buckwheat pancakes is a
good acne-reducing move. Incidentally, this would also help reduce your
risk of developing diabetes.
