Beauty From The Inside-Out: Eat your way to healthier, more beautiful skin!

At Skin 2 Skin® Care, we talk about topical treatments to improve skin texture and tone, reducing wrinkles and fine lines and anti-oxidant and anti-swelling. Skin 2 Skin® natural anti-aging  creams and serums that will effectively bring the skin to a more healthy youthful and radiant appearance.  But…what we also talk about is what we put in our bodies in conjunction to what we put on our bodies.  Just by eating skin-smart foods we can have great results in terms of anti-aging skin, beauty and wellness.  After all, the skin is the largest organ of the body and what we eat affects the skin so it makes sense to be conscientious of what we consume in addition to what we put on our skin in respect to our skin care regimen.

Along with the ever-important exercise, beauty is and does come from the inside-out, our diet.  Our diet is as much a part of how our skin exudes heath and beauty as the Skin 2 Skin® Natural anti-aging and age-defying products that we use for our face, our look, our appearance that we put forth every day.  So…having said that, what do we eat?  How do we eat our way to healthier, more beautiful skin?  Does that mean a strict diet of rare and unusual vegetation and herbs or some other un-ingestable bounty?  Absolutely not. The vitamins and minerals that promote great-looking skin are found in a variety of palatable, and yes, enjoyable foods.

What you need and where to get it is not complex.  The foremost and largest groups of anti-aging foods are the ones that contain antioxidants.  As we get older our skin begins to exhibit damage created by free radicals which are renegade oxygen molecules created by external forces such as environmental and man made pollution and UV rays.  Since free radicals are always being produced in our bodies, anti-oxidants are needed to remove free radicals before they have a chance to do damage.  A diet loaded with antioxidant-rich fruits, vegetables and whole grains can help neutralize the damage in the body while Skin 2 Skin’s Aging Intervention Cream with its powerful 33 anti-oxidants including Alpha Lipoic Acid is an intense age-defying and age-repairing component for the skin.  There are few foods that are astonishingly high in these beneficial anti-aging molecules but some foods come close.  Sometimes boring, but effective, prunes are the highest on the USDA list of “super foods” that make up the ORAC or Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity a scientific rating scale of antioxidant content.  Berries, red kidney beans, cranberries, kale, broccoli or most green leafy vegetables round out some of the top food items chalk full of antioxidant power.

Although whole fruits and vegetables are the anti-aging food stars, fortified eggs, milk, salmon, tilapia, cod and flax-seed and flax-seed oil are examples of very important supporting costars.  The eggs and milk along with leafy greens are rich sources of vitamin D which boosts production of protective compounds in the skin and ultimately prevents skin problems like infections.  The fish, flax-seed and fortified eggs are excellent foods that are steeped in Omega-3 fatty acids which are crucial for bolstering the skin barrier-that’s the layer of lipids that keeps moisture in and irritants and bacteria out of the skin.

A conversation about skin and diet is not complete until you talk about what not to consume or at least what to consume in moderation which is really the key to any diet and wellness program.  Dairy, poultry and red meat should be kept to a minimum so try to get those vital proteins from beans, tofu, nuts and seafood.  New research suggests that an excess of dairy foods may exacerbate skin issues like breakouts while spicy foods have shown to aggravate redness in sensitive skin.  As we finish off this segment of foods that are bad for our skin we have to bring up alcohol and sugar.  Alcohol in excess, which we all know is harmful for our internal organs like the kidneys and liver, is also problematic for the skin’s tone and texture and can lead to such issues as broken capillaries and may even worsen skin sensitivity.  A bright spot in the studies done on alcohol consumption is one on red wine and a component in it called resveratrol which is a natural antioxidant.  The study shows that red wine and resveratrol is actually good for you – healthy benefits, so cheers, when it comes to moderate red wine consumption. Now, the last word on bad foods for the skin… time to skip the pastries and donuts at the morning corporate office meetings. I know this is not what we all want to hear but refined sugar has been scientifically proven to cause the skin to age more quickly which means that even with moderate sugar consumption the skin gets drier, thinner and more prone to wrinkles.

For many people adopting a diet of anti-aging foods may seem like a drastic and daunting task but most people quickly discover a feeling of increased well being with an improvement in overall skin appearance.  So go out for lunch, skip the dessert but have the Omega-3 fatty acid grilled salmon over the bed of vitamin D field greens with the antioxidant laden pomegranate vinaigrette and when you are ready to retire for the evening cleanse your face with Skin 2 Skin® Care’s Oatmeal and Pomegranate Face Scrub which is a therapeutic antioxidant exfoleant cleanser that nourishes and moisturizes the skin against aging.  Food for thought…think twice about what you consume because a healthy youthful appearance and life is from the inside-out and what you put in your body is as important as what you put on your body and most importantly, beauty at any age is beauty.

by Kenneth Simpson, Skin 2 Skin® Natural Anti-Aging Skincare