Does Diet Affect the Skin ?
What Should I Eat for Optimal Skincare ?
Fruits and Vegetables
Hydration
Exercise and Weight Loss
Food Preparation
The Bottom Line
Proper nutrition can make a difference in the quality and appearance of your skin. What you eat affects every organ in your body, and your skin is no exception. Eating a balanced diet that contains the appropriate vitamins and minerals is important for maintaining healthy skin.
It would be naïve to believe that changing your nutrition is going to wipe out all of your wrinkles. However, it is just as absurd to think that you can eat (or neglect to eat) whatever you want without any effect on your skin. Proper diet may not produce striking rejuvenation, but neglecting it will make your skin age considerably faster. All of the cells in the human body need various nutrients and metabolites. Some, like vitamins, minerals and essential amino acids need to come from food. A solid nutrition plan should be part of an overall skincare (and healthcare) program.
What Should I Eat for Optimal Skincare ?
In general, the best diet for optimal skin care is essentially the same as that recommended for overall health. Balance is the key. Nevertheless, there are certain foods that can have a more dramatic impact on the appearance of your skin. For most, the simplest way to adhere to a balanced diet is to follow the recommendations of the Daily Food Guide developed by the US Department of Agriculture. Adults are advised to consume daily:
- 6 to 11 servings of breads and cereals
- 3 to 5 servings of vegetables
- 2 to 4 servings of fruits
- 2 to three servings of meat and meat alternatives (fish, poultry, eggs, dry beans, nuts)
- 2 servings of milk and milk products
Fruits and vegetables are particularly important for preventing premature skin aging because they contain a wide variety of antioxidants. Antioxidants help protect skin cells from damage by free radicals which are especially rampant in the skin due to environmental exposure. To ensure that your fruits and veggies have all their antioxidants intact, make sure they are fresh and uncooked (heat inactivates most antioxidants). TIP: Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants per day. Carrots, Broccoli, Butternut Squash, and Citrus fruits are a good place to start.
Drinking plenty of fluids throughout the day ensures proper hydration of the body and helps reduce skin dryness. Coffee and sodas are not a good substitute for water because they contain caffeine, which is a diuretic. Also, do not drink too much fluid 2-3 hours before going to bed. This may cause morning puffiness and excessively stretch your skin. TIP: Drink 6-8 glasses of water every day.
Besides frying yourself in the sun, the quickest way to get wrinkles is to put on a lot of weight and then lose it. The degree of skin sagging after weight loss varies with your age (it tends to be worse the older you are), genetics and other factors. Let the desire to retain youthful skin be another incentive for you to watch your calories and avoid weight gain. A moderate exercise program will also help promote circulation and general health, which will impact the look and feel of your skin.
When you cook food, increasing the temperature causes exponential increases in the rate of chemical reactions. These reactions rob food of many essential nutrients and antioxidants and increase the content of oxidative by-products (free radicals). As a result, you consume less essential nutrients and more aging-promoting free radicals. For starters, reduce cooking time and avoid deep-frying, grilling and cooking in large amounts of oil or fat.
The Bottom Line
Your overall health is an essential part of skin care. Deficiencies of certain nutrients, such as vitamin A, B-complex, and essential fatty acids are known to cause various forms of dermatitis and other skin conditions. Mild deficiencies, which are very common and often go unnoticed, may not cause clinical manifestations but clearly impair the skin's ability to heal and renew itself. Improving nutrition in a person with subclinical nutrient deficiencies often results in a younger looking skin and partial reversal of some signs of aging. On the other hand, "cutting-edge" skin rejuvenation treatments are likely to be far less effective or even completely fail if your skin is deficient in one or more essential nutrients.