Real foods are probably the very best natural prescriptions for beautiful skin! The key to getting a gorgeous glow is consistency. Eat these foods for beautiful skin often and you'll reap the rewards.
Let's not forget that there are a whole slew of processed foods that work against your natural beauty, so let's dig into what you should avoid, too.
There are so many things we're just learning, including how nutrients in food improve the quality of our skin! While I'm not one to put low quality creams or serums on my face, I do firmly believe that what we eat is so much more important that what we put on our face - especially as it relates to long lasting skin care.
Good looks aside, caring for your skin is important. Our skin is the first line of defense. It takes a beating, so the least we can do is repay it with a little love from the kitchen. Below are a few foods that are loaded with phytonutrients. These phytonutrients help to reinforce the development of collagen and diminish the destruction of existing collagen. Not bad.
Eat Foods with Vitamin C for Beautiful Skin
Vitamin C is sort of the superpower of the antioxidant world. Sure, vitamin C helps keep our immune system in check and offers a great line of defense from the common cold, but this nutrient is an amazing asset to our skin, too.
There is no doubt that eating foods with plenty of vitamin C helps our body from the inside out, putting the final touches on our skin. Two of the strongest skin benefits of vitamin C include protection from too much sun exposure and the regeneration of collagen.
Vitamin C Protects Against Damage
I'm a big fan of the sun. It's a great way for our bodies to get additional vitamin D. A little bit of sun exposure also helps to lower blood pressure and kill harmful bacteria on the skin. Excessive sun exposure, however, can damage the skin by affecting elasticity - or your skin's ability to snap back.
Other things, like environmental pollutants, smoking, drinking and even stress all wreak havoc on our skin - causing our fresh face to oxidize. "Oxidize" is just another way of saying all of these things make our skin age. Vitamin C is the first line of defense in that battle.
Vitamin C is also helps to regenerate your body's own natural collagen, which is tremendously helpful to maintaining a healthy complexion. This is especially important if you're a vegan or vegetarian as collagen supplements are only animal or fish-based.
There's no need to go overboard on vitamin C, though. You body can only absorb small amounts of vitamin C every few hours. Getting plenty in your diet each and every day should be enough. You can also apply vitamin C topically to your skin, which has also shown to be beneficial. My favorite topical vitamin C serum is InstaNatural.
As for getting vitamin C in your diet, these are the absolute best foods you should eat for beautiful skin.
- Strawberries
- Broccoli
- Bell Peppers
- Blueberries
- Oranges
- Red Grapes
- Cranberries
- Pineapple
- Kiwi
- Brussels Sprouts
- Grapefruit
- Cantaloupe
- Cabbage, cooked
Antioxidant Foods for Beautiful Skin
Similar to the antioxidant power of vitamin C, these foods are the top of the list in terms of protecting your body on a cellular level, ensuring that your skin stays healthy and looks great from the inside out. Essentially these foods slow the ticking of Father Time, making you look younger longer.
These foods have nutrients within them, beyond vitamin C, that have the highest levels of antioxidants. These powerful antioxidants not only help us look great, but also help our mind stay sharp, too. Foods rich in antioxidants are especially helpful on memory.
Additionally, antioxidant foods help to prevent inflammation. One of the most obvious places chronic inflammation is noticeable is on the skin. Eczema, psoriasis and chronic acne are just a few inflammatory skin conditions. While there are definitely other reasons for unhealthy skin, these foods can help get inflammation under control,
- Prunes
- Berries
- Plums
- Oranges
- Cherries
- Kale
- Spinach
- Beets
- Red Peppers
- Onion
- Eggplant
- Dark Chocolate
- Cranberries
- Cilantro (add some to this Detox Guac)
- Pecans
While you're at it, be sure to avoid these inflammatory foods that do nothing by crush your body and make you age faster.
Improve Circulation for Healthier Skin with These Foods
You need blood to move through your body, carrying all those nutrients you're eating, to get to the skin. Improving circulation has a lot of benefits you need to know. When you get blood flowing, you help to bring oxygen-rich blood to your muscles, to your brain, and - you guessed it - to your skin.
I'll get to the foods you should eat in just a minute, but a few other things you can do are exercise, practice yoga and stretch. You don't need to spend hours in a gym. If you've only got time for a 15 minute walk, that's better than nothing.
Here are a few foods for beautiful skin you need to get on your shopping list to help you give your circulation a boost.
- Green Tea
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids like Nordic Naturals
- Fatty Fish
- Cayenne Pepper
- Cinnamon
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Turmeric
- Pomegranate
Eat Foods with Collagen for Beautiful Skin
Collagen - quite possibly one of the most popular foods for beautiful skin - is something our body naturally produces up until the age of about 18 where it starts to drop off. It slowly continues to drop off until the age of 40, where it does another swan dive south again! When collagen drops, we start noticing fine lines and achy joints.
Collagen literally helps to keep out skin tighter and our joints stronger.
Collagen is simply a protein made up of a unique combination of amino acids that can't be found in any other protein. Supplementing with collagen, or eating collagen-rich foods help your body replenish what's been lost.
Making a homemade bone broth is one of the healthiest ways to get more collagen in your diet. Since making true broth takes days, supplementing with it might be easier. There are a lot of companies that sell collagen now, and really the decision is based on what works best for you.
Ancient Nutrition, Vital Proteins and another brand I really like, Orgain all offer collagen.
A few benefits of collagen include:
- Improves the elasticity of skin
- Reduces joint pain, and improves joint and bone health
- Improves strength and quality of hair and nails
Variety is always great, so eat different combinations of these foods regularly. Drink plenty of water, get lots of rest and be good to your skin!
