Best Foods for Beautiful Skin
Our board-certified dermatologists in Jupiter, Florida, have many ways to enhance the natural beauty of your skin, as well as to correct damage and flaws.
But the best way to ensure healthy skin is to avoid the sun and choose a dermatologist-approved diet. Dermatologists agree certain foods can best promote clear, radiant, healthy skin.
How diet affects skin
If you want healthy-looking skin, one of the worst foods you can put into your body is sugar, in all its forms. This not only includes the usual sweets, but foods that raise the body’s glycemic index, such as white flour and rice. This is because sugars bind with collagen, the protein that gives skin strength and elasticity. When this happens, the vital collagen hardens (known as “glycation”), and can no longer support the skin. This encourages premature wrinkles and lines.
In addition, both sugary and fatty foods cause inflammation throughout the body. A certain amount of inflammation is necessary to enable the body to repair itself. Too much chronic inflammation, however, is detrimental to the body.
Inflammation has been linked with many adverse health effects, from cardiovascular disease to severe illness and death from COVID-19. The inflammation resulting from sunburn, for example, is readily apparent on the skin’s surface.
Conversely, a healthy diet helps the body—including the skin—repair the cellular damage. We experience cellular damage daily from such factors as pollution, injury, and stress.
Food as medicine
While it’s never been proven that food by itself can reverse harmful medical conditions, the right diet can certainly help maintain overall health. And when it comes to the skin, foods rich in essential antioxidants, polyphenols, vitamins, and fatty acids can provide a solid foundation for healthy, beautiful skin.
For example:
- Omega-3 essential fatty acids help to nourish and hydrate skin. Because our bodies don’t produce fatty acids naturally, we must obtain them from food. Find these essential nutrients in: olive oil; any kind of nuts, especially cashews and almonds; avocado; flax, chia and hemp seeds; and oily fish like salmon and tuna.
- The beta-carotene. It’s prominent in red and orange fruits like apricots, mangoes and papaya, and vegetables. Kale, carrots, pumpkin, spinach and turnips contain the necessary antioxidants to help repair skin tissues and protect against sun damage.
- Vitamin D helps control production of natural oil by the sebaceous glands, and also boasts anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. It can be found in eggs, mushrooms, salmon, tuna, and fortified soy products.
- Lycopene, another potent antioxidant, can also help protect skin from UV damage. Tomatoes are the best source of this nutrient.
- Look to citrus fruits and berries and dark green vegetables like broccoli and spinach for Vitamin C. It supports collagen production, which plumps skin and reduces wrinkles.
- Vitamin E is known as a powerful antioxidant, as well as helping skin retain moisture. Find it in olives, almonds, sunflower seeds, avocados and sesame oil.
- Zinc is known to reduce inflammation and promote cell division. Find it in sesame seeds, cashew nuts, pumpkin seeds, lentils and quinoa.
Prefer food over pills
One final word: If you’re considering using supplements to improve your skin, please check with us first.
Consider Nutrafol which combines a proprietary blend of vitamins, nutrients and oral collagen for healthy hair, nails and skin. Mention this blog and get 20% off a three month supply.
Lose the COVID-19 “19”
Incidentally, if your diet over the last year has consisted of more “comfort” foods than the lean protein, fruits, and vegetables recommended above, ask us about our new Emsculpt NEO device.
Studies have shown the average American gained between 15-19 pounds during the height of the pandemic due to stress, forced inactivity, and the desire to experiment in the kitchen. The Emsculpt NEO is the only non-invasive body shaping procedure that provides fat elimination and muscle building in a single 30-minute session.
Best of all, these changes happen while you’re lying down, with no effort on your part, but they provide the same effect in days that would take six months of hard work in the gym.
