SKINFOOD: How What You Eat Affects Your Skin
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Food can have a bigger impact on the health and condition of your skin than any anti-aging product.
While a varied diet is the best way to ensure you are getting all the nutrients your body needs, there are also key beauty nutrients that directly benefit your skin, hair, and nails. On the flip side, there are foods that do the exact opposite!
I don't know about you, but I find the older I get, the healthier I get. My diet was appalling in my 20s and early 30s. But, after getting into the skincare industry ten years ago I became more and more aware of the impact food has on the aging process.
Nowadays, I consider my diet to be just as (if not more) important as my beauty regime.
In her book, Younger Skin Starts in the Gut, Dr. Nigma Talib uses a combination of nutrition, naturopathy, medical aesthetics, and Traditional Chinese Medicine/Chinese Face Mapping to connect the dots between diet and premature skin aging... Or "digest-aging" as she brilliantly terms it!
Dr. Nigma has identified specific skin aging symptoms for wine, gluten, sugar, and dairy; Wine face: shows signs of fine lines around the eyes and mouth, dehydration, enlarged pores. Gluten Face: puffiness, dark circles, pigmentation marks/age spots. Sugar Face: forehead wrinkles, dark circles, saggy skin, breakouts, pasty skin. Dairy Face: dark circles, undereye bags, swollen eyelids, pimples on chin spots.
'Younger Skin Starts In The Gut' is an educational insight into how the skin is affected by the foods we consume on a daily and weekly basis. This book makes you realize that no matter how much time and money you spend on skincare products and your beauty regime, your skin will never fully reap the rewards if your diet is poor.
Studies show that the gut microbiome is also a major contributor to common skin disorders like acne, atopic dermatitis, and psoriasis
Eat Beautiful, by Wendy Rowe
Another great book on the topic —Eat Beautiful, by makeup artist and nutritionist, Wendy Rowe beautifully conveys the importance and relation between diet and skin health. She helpfully organizes the book by season, listing seasonal foods with detailed nutritional values, plus recipes. This book comes in especially useful when making your shopping list!
BEAUTY NUTRIENTS
In this skin food series, we're diving deep into how a beauty-nutrient-rich diet can lead to glowing skin, glossy locks, strong nails, and overall better health.
Beauty nutrients come in the form of both micro and macronutrients, such as trace minerals, vitamins, amino acids, proteins, and healthy fats.
There are numerous essential fatty acids (omegas) that play a critical role in improving the function and overall appearance of the skin, including dermatitis-related skin disorders.
According to a 2005 study EPA, a type of omega-3 found in fish oil helps block the release of ultraviolet-induced enzymes that damage your skin’s collagen, causing elasticity loss and wrinkles.
First on the list are phytonutrients —also known as phytochemicals. Plants use these chemicals to grow, stay healthy and protect themselves from environmental hazards.
Research shows, however, consuming phytonutrients can influence the chemical processes within your body in all very helpful ways.
References
1. Salem I, Ramser A, Isham N, Ghannoum MA. The Gut Microbiome as a Major Regulator of the Gut-Skin Axis. Front Microbiol. 2018;9:1459. Published 2018 Jul 10. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2018.01459
2. Kim HH, Shin CM, Park CH, et al. Eicosapentaenoic acid inhibits UV-induced MMP-1 expression in human dermal fibroblasts. J Lipid Res. 2005;46(8):1712–1720. doi:10.1194/jlr.M500105-JLR200
3. Ziboh VA, Chapkin RS. Metabolism and function of skin lipids. Prog Lipid Res. 1988;27(2):81–105. doi:10.1016/0163-7827(88)90006-9
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