Nutrition For Skin Care
What you eat can have a big impact on your skin, various nutrients can help combat a variety of skin ailments; from acne to age spots, dry skin to fine lines and wrinkles. As a bonus, many of these nutrients will also help with dry, damaged hair or weak and brittle fingernails.
Reservatrol is found in red grapes and red wine. It can help with dry/rough skin as well as fine lines and wrinkles. Unfortunately, it’s impractical to eat enough grapes or drink enough wine to get a useful dose, but there are supplements available.
Vitamin A found in many vegetables including carrots, spinach and other dark leafy greens can help with acne, dry skin, fine lines, dry hair and weak fingernails.
Vitamin B Complex can help with all of the above. You’ll get different B Vitamins from different sources, so making sure you get a variety of vegetables as well as some nuts and seeds, eggs, fish and meat can help you get these nutrients.
Vitamin C and Zinc are also great for all of the above ailments. Citrus fruits of course will give you vitamin C, but bell peppers, broccoli and leafy greens are other good sources. You’ll get Zinc from high protein foods; meat, fish, nuts, and legumes.
Vitamin D from cod liver oil, salmon, mushrooms, eggs and fortified dairy can help with acne, dry skin, fine lines and weak finger nails. Supplementation of Vitamin D is important to get a decent amount, especially in the fall and winter months.
Vitamin E is another good booster for all of the above except the weak fingernails. Sunflower seeds and almonds are great source, but dark leafy greens, asparagus and bell peppers are also all good sources of Vitamin E
Omega-3 Essential Faty Acids will help out with all of the above except for the age spots. Fish such as tuna, salmon, and sardines are some of the best sources of Omega-3s, but flaxseed and chia seeds are also good sources.
And of course one of the most important notes to make about skin care is drinking water! Here’s a quote from F. Batmaghelidj, M.D. to help put some perspective to this.
“Every function inside the body is regulated by and depends on water. Water must be available to carry vital elements, oxygen, hormones, and chemical messengers to all parts of the body. Without sufficient water to wet all parts equally, some more remote parts of the body will not receive the vital elements that water supplies. Water is also needed to carry toxic waste away from the cells. In fact, there are at least 50 reasons why the body needs sufficient water on a regular, everyday basis. Without sufficient water to constantly wet all parts, your body’s drought-management system kicks into action. The histamine-directed chemical messenger systems are activated to arrange a new, lower quota of water for the drought-stricken areas. When histamine and its subordinate ‘drought managers’ come across pain-sensing nerves, they cause pain.”
Thanks for the skin care tips. Thanks for the reminder that what you eat can have a big impact on your skin.
Check out the podcast from our show on Skin Care - The Wake Up Call