Best Way to Eat for Healthy Skin

Here are the delicious, complexion-boosting foods that should be on the menu for every organic beauty, helping to deliver healthy, vibrant-looking skin for a lifetime.

Creams, conditioners, and lotions can all help in the quest for soft skin, shiny hair, and smooth pink fingernails, but organic beauty needs a two-way approach, with diet playing an important role, too. Skin, hair, and nails all contain proteins – including elastin, keratin, and collagen – which respond to nutrients. Vitamin A, vitamin 136, and zinc must be included in the diet for healthy skin texture, strength, and moisturization. Although “fat” has (wrongly) become the enemy of many weight-conscious women, essential fatty acids (EFAs) support the body oils that keep the skin and scalp in good condition.

Essential Fatty Acids

Many people resist fats of all types, but your body and skin need some fat to operate healthily. Experts suggest increasing the intake of essentials tatty acids (EFAs), such as omega-3s and omega-6s, since they lubricate from the inside. Skin all but shouts for this essential nutrient: dry, flaky skin and hair and cracking nails are common signs of EFA deficiency. The trick is to consume beneficial fats and minimize harmful fats. Flax seeds, linseeds, and oily fish are high in EFAs. High on the banned list should be hydrogenated fat, found in a range of mainstream foods. It is not permitted in organic food, so you automatically cut out this ingredient -thought to interfere with healthy fat metabolism – if you eat organic.

Getting the right balance of omega-3s and omega-6s is complicated, but there are premixed blends on the market, such as Udo’s Choice Maximum Nutrition and Spectrum Oils Essential Max. Ask in your natural food store for others. Alternatively, start sprinkling flax seeds generously on your food. Every day (the mixture needs to be kept very fresh), place one to two tablespoons of flax seed into your herb mill or blender and whizz them into flax meal. Throughout the day, sprinkle a generous portion on all types of food – cereals, sandwiches, stews, casseroles.

If you eat well, it isn’t hard to get the optimum dose of these skin vitamins and nutrients, but if you’d like to supplement your diet with vitamin pills and capsules, most natural food stores have an in-house expert. Don’t “self-medicate” with vitamins; in excess, some are harmful. Try, wherever you can, to get as many vitamins as you can from food.

To keep your digestive system in good order, eat at least an ounce of fiber daily and, to eliminate toxins, hydrate skin, and flush out your system, drink plenty of water.

To clear up problems

Acne responds to a wide range of nutrients. Vitamin A, for instance, has been found by some doctors to clear it up, partly because it helps reduce the production of pore-clogging sebum. If you feel you need to take a supplement, you could try – after consultation with your doctor or a natural health professional – taking vitamin A supplement daily. Women who are pregnant, however, or trying to conceive should not take high doses of vitamin A, because it is linked with an increased risk of birth defects.

Low levels of zinc have been observed in some acne sufferers, so try increasing your intake. EFAs also seem helpful at relieving inflamed skin, because they increase the skin’s resilience and “good” lubrication.

Vitamin B6 may be helpful for FMS-related flare-ups, because it helps to balance hormone levels. It can be found in oily fish, yogurt, eggs, legumes, peanuts, bananas, avocados, cauliflower, and liver. Whenever possible, try to get these nutrients from foods.

The basics rule

Eat a balanced, varied, organic diet that incorporates plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables, and whole grains. If you’re not vegetarian, boost your intake of oily fish and shellfish and eat brown rice, bananas, yogurt, potatoes in the skin, pumpkin seeds, sea vegetables, green leafy vegetables, fresh fruit, sauerkraut, apples, and sheep’s milk products.

Throw a handful of seeds into cereals, salads, and stir-frys. Your skin will love you for it.