Foods for Healthy Skin

Many of my students and blog followers ask, “What foods can I eat for healthier skin”?  There are many topical beauty products one can buy for healthier skin but eating healthy foods should be a first step.  Eat This, Not That! has a great article, 25 Healthy Foods That Give You Glowing Skin.  Besides eating healthy, keeping the sun off your face by wearing a hat and using sunscreen are also wise ideas. 

The article makes the point that having healthy, “hydrated skin starts from within” by eating healthy foods.  Healthy foods can help build up collagen in your skin, and help strengthen your skin. Collagen is important as one New York dermatologist says, “It’s the glue that holds the body together.  “Collagen makes up about 75% of the dry weight of your skin, providing volume that keeps skin looking plump and keeps lines at bay.” 

What are some foods that promote healthy skin and what is in these foods that works that magic?

• Tomatoes – plants have chemicals in them that help protect the plant.  These chemicals are called phytochemicals.  Research have found that phytochemicals are not only good for plants but also good for us.  Tomatoes have the phytochemical, lycopene, which acts as a potent antioxidant.  (See Antioxidants and good health.)  Lycopene helps strengthen the collagen in your skin.  Interesting, lycopene also helps your skin fight off the harmful rays of the sun which can age your skin, even helping to prevent sunburn.
  

• An interesting thing about tomatoes is that cooking tomatoes makes the lycopene even more absorbable.  Don’t like raw tomatoes? No problem. Enjoy salsa, tomato sauce on your spaghetti, tomato soup, tomato juice, gazpacho, and even ketchup.

Full of healthy lycopene.

• Carrots – some people eat carrots for good eyesight and carrots do help your eyes.  But carrots are also great for your skin because the orange color is loaded with carotene which your body turns into vitamin A.  Carotene is another antioxidant that helps your skin appearance and health and may even help protect your skin from the harmful rays of the sun.  We buy the baby carrots in the bags and I eat a few baby carrots for lunch every day.  This is to be sure that every day, I get some healthy carotene in my diet.

Full of carotene, so good for your skin.

 

• Sweet Potatoes – many restaurants offer baked potatoes but fewer offer baked sweet potatoes. If sweet potatoes are on the menu, they are a healthy choice as like carrots their orange color means they are loaded with carotene.  Not going out, then buy some sweet potatoes and pop them in the microwave.  An interesting study in the journal of Evolution and Human Behavior found that people who ate more foods with carotene and who ate more fruits and vegetables had a “healthier, more attractive, and more radiant glow than you would get from sun exposure”.  
• Turmeric – not really a “food” but a spice.  Many people now take supplements of turmeric as it is an anti-inflammatory. (See Anti-inflammatory foods.) Turmeric provides the antioxidant called curcumin.  Researchers have found curcumin to be a powerful anti-inflammatory.  NIH reviewed 234 articles on turmeric and concluded that turmeric “may provide therapeutic benefits for skin health”.
• Salmon – always very popular on the menu at restaurants. Who knew salmon would promote healthy skin?  Why?  Salmon provides a healthy fat, called omega-3’s.  It also contains DMAE – a substance you may never have heard of but it promotes healthy skin and protects your skin cells.  “Strengthening the cell membranes guards against their deterioration that causes premature aging”.  This is some substance as DMAE also helps your skin look more toned and firmer.  So, if salmon is on the menu when you are going out to eat, order the salmon.  And find some ways to incorporate salmon into your home menu.
• Eggs – not hard for me to add eggs to my day as I love boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, egg salad sandwiches, and deviled eggs.  What is so great about eggs?  Not only do eggs provide a high-quality protein but they provide a B vitamin called biotin.  Some people take biotin supplements for healthier hair and fingernails. But biotin also protects the skin and helps prevent dryness.  Some other food sources of biotin include dairy products (real dairy, not fake dairy), whole wheat bread, whole grain cereals (any General Mills cereal), peanuts, salmon and chicken.
• Green Tea – a favorite during cold days of winter.  Green tea provides antioxidants called catechins.  These have “anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties”.  Drinking green tea can actually help protect your skin from sun damage and help your skin repair damaged cells. 

This week plan on adding some foods that promote healthy skin to your diet.  Make them a habit.  Almost every day, I have those baby carrots at lunch and a handful of peanuts.  A few times a week I have some hard-boiled eggs or a fried egg sandwich with cheese.  Enjoy some Green Tea on those cold winter days.  Have some salsa and corn chips for a snack.  So many easy ways to eat for healthier skin.

Sources:  25 Healthy Foods That Give You Glowing Skin , dermatologist , potent antioxidant , Antioxidants and good health, cooking, skin , Evolution and Human Behavior , vegetables, Anti-inflammatory foods , NIH , cells , biotin , catechins, protect Image sources: Tomato soup, Baby carrots  , Green Tea