Which food makes skin younger? 5 Food Tips for Younger and Glowing Skin
What you eat can have a profound impact on the health and appearance of your skin. In this topic, I’m going to go over five food tips for healthy and youthful skin. It is a fallacy that eating fat is bad for you. Now, there are some fats that are not good for you, like trans fats. But there are some fats that are actually great, great for you and for your skin. These fats are anti-inflammatory and they can help soothe your skin from the inside out. And in general, they come in two varieties. They’re monounsaturated fats, and these are fats that are found in olives, olive oil, avocados, almonds, hazelnuts, and macadamia nuts. The other group of healthy fats that can be great for your skin is omega three fatty acids. And these are the fats that you find in wild-caught cold-water fish like salmon and tuna. But you can also find a plethora of omega-three fatty acids in chia seeds, flax seeds, and seaweed. Milk is the perfect food if you’re a growing cat. We certainly have. While a lot of people believe that milk does a body good, the reality is that it does not.
Did you know that upwards of 70% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant? So for them, drinking milk can really create havoc on their GI tract.
But even more than that, commercial milk contains estrogen and progesterone. And there are some studies that do link dairy intake with acne. One study found that women who drank two glasses of milk per day were 44% more likely to have acne than women who didn’t drink milk. Now, one reason for this could be the protein casein. This consists of 80% of protein and milk, and some holistic health experts believe that casein is inflammatory. That’s almost worse. So if you have got an issue with acne or inflamed skin, then try reducing your dairy intake and see how your skin reacts to it. One of the reasons that our skin ages prematurely is free radical oxidation. Now, free radicals are molecules that can damage our DNA. Now, they’re produced in normal metabolic processes of your body, but you can also get them from the outside world through the food that you eat, by pollution in the air, and by different chemicals that you may be exposed to. Smoking can also expose your body to high levels of free radicals. And when your body is being attacked by so many free radicals that it cannot naturally fend them off, we say your body is in a state of oxidative stress.
So what is your body’s defense against free radicals? They are antioxidants. Antioxidants can neutralize free radicals, and they are found mostly in colorful fruits and vegetables. Now, the interesting part about this is that the antioxidant is in the actual pigment of fruits and vegetables. So if you eat, let’s say, a red apple and a yellow banana. You’re getting different antioxidants than if you ate, let’s say, an orange pumpkin. So it’s the actual pigment in the fruits and vegetables that are the antioxidants.
So by eating the rainbow of colorful fruits and vegetables, you’re going to be getting a plethora of antioxidants to fight those free radicals and to reduce the DNA damage to your skin. Have you ever thought about taking collagen supplements but weren’t sure about whether they actually worked to support your health and improve the appearance of your skin? Collagen is the building block of our skin and one reason why our skin ages are due to the loss of collagen. A recent meta-analysis of over 1100 participants found that taking a daily hydrolyzed collagen supplement improved the appearance of aging of the skin. And it did this by reducing wrinkles and improving skin elasticity and hydration. For this reason, I believe that taking a daily collagen supplement is a great way to support your skin’s appearance and health. And my favorite one is my Yune health. Supplemental collagen. It’s taste-free and easily dissolves into your hot coffee or tea. I like to mix it with smoothies or into my acai bowl.
Did you know that the health of your gut is directly connected to the health of your skin? We are learning that the health of the gut microbiome and which are the trillions of bacteria that line the inside of our gut that this microbiome can exert a significant influence on the health of our skin. Studies are connecting an unhealthy gut microbiome to certain inflammatory skin disorders like eczema and rosacea.
The only real fermented food that we eat in the American diet is yogurt. Fermented foods basically contain beneficial bacteria that are great for a gut microbiome. And so by eating more fermented foods, foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, miso, kombucha, and tempeh, can help to supply your gut microbiome with healthy gut bacteria. Sugary foods are the absolute worst foods for your skin. And sugar causes premature aging of your skin through two processes glycation and chronic inflammation. Glycation is a process where the sugar molecules will actually bind to the collagen and the elastin proteins in your skin and can cause the collagen and the elastin to become deformed. This can cause premature aging of your skin. Eating large amounts of sugar can lead to sugar spikes in your blood that can lead to insulin spikes and then that can cause chronic inflammation, inflammation, and granular swelling. We meet again. Half of all Americans drink at least one can of soda pop every day. And the average person who drinks soda pop drinks an average of two glasses per day. And we all know those people that, Drink several cans every day as well.
Now, reducing the amount of soda pop you drink, let’s say by switching it to kombucha or even green tea, is a great way to reduce the amount of sugar your body is exposed to. So these are five simple dietary tips. I got one last one that can make a big difference, and it is to try intermittent fasting. Autophagy is a term given to a process of intracellular renewal where your body’s cells will actually use damaged organelles, proteins, and cell membranes, and is a process that can help increase longevity. There are studies that suggest that intermittent fasting is a great way to stimulate the process of autophagy. Now, how do you do that? Well, The practice of 16/8 intermittent fasting involves limiting your intake of foods and calorie-containing beverages to a set window of 8 hours per day. And most people who do intermittent fasting will limit it to eating from noon to 08:00 p.m. And then from 08:00 P.M. Until noon the next day, you don’t eat any food, although drinks like water, tea, and black coffee are perfectly fine. So intermittent fasting is a great way to stimulate autophagy and reverse aging from the inside out. While making these types of dietary changes I talked about in this topic can reap huge benefits for your skin.
I know sometimes it’s hard to change your diet significantly, so one other way that you can do that is with nutritional supplements. Now, nutritional supplements are not a substitute for a good, healthy, nutritious diet, but I do believe that they can definitely help overall. And I have a topic right up here where I give you my recommended antiaging supplement protocol. The topic is only three and a half minutes long, but it gives you everything you need to know about supplements and healthy skin. And remember, eat real food, use clean skin care, and only consider actual plants’ and plastic surgery as a last resort.