smartskin101

As discussed in other posts, what you eat undoubtedly makes an impact on your overall skin health.  Today I want to continue to address how food actually feeds your skin.  If you want a healthy body and beautiful skin, you need to focus on having a well balanced, nutritious diet.  And with the way our eating habits have evolved due to cheap and convenient foods, it makes it ever more a challenge to nourish our bodies the right way.  However, if you’re going to be serious about feeling and looking your best, you need to minimize your intake of processed foods and maximize your intake of unprocessed foods.  Period.

Fruits and veggies are loaded with vitamins, antioxidants and enzymes, all essentials for optimal skin health.  And unless you’ve been living under a rock these past few years, you’ve heard loads of cosmetic companies boasting products’ inclusion of these essential antioxidants.  We are being told these antioxidants are good for us, but do most of us understand why?  What exactly are antioxidants, and what benefits do they serve?

Without going into an overly complicated chemistry lesson, let’s first address the problem: free radicals.  Formed from chemical reactions in the body, which are caused by both internal and external factors (e.g. metabolism; pollution; sun exposure; etc), free radicals are highly reactive, unbalanced particles in the body.  What does that even mean?  Well, if you can remember some high school chemistry, you know that an atom contains both protons and electrons.  An atom needs to have a balanced/even number of paired electrons to be stable.  And when these chemical reactions split up atoms leaving their electrons unpaired/uneven, you develop a free radical.  The free radical then runs rampant (think: bull in a china store) trying to steal an electron to gain stability.  Then, the molecule which lost its electron becomes a free radical, looking to replace its lost electron, and so on and so on in a detrimental domino effect.  What you are left with are free radical waste products that have weakened and damaged the skin’s cellular structure. The solution: antioxidants.  Antioxidants are chemicals that are capable of donating one of their electrons to a free radical, without becoming unstable themselves, thereby balancing/neutralizing the free radical.  Whew, hopefully that wasn’t too painful.  What it comes down to is, free radicals are the bad guys wreaking havoc, and antioxidants are the superheroes that come to save the day.

As the mayor of your body, it’s a good idea to have those superheroes’ info in your rolodex.  The most common antioxidants are found in vitamins A, C, E and B complex, as well as in minerals.  And while using topical products with these antioxidants can benefit the skin (discussion for another series), getting your daily dose of antioxidants internally will have stronger benefits for your general health.  Some examples of fruits and vegetables* high in antioxidants are as follows:

• Berries (blackberry; strawberry; raspberry; blueberry; etc)
• Pomegranate
• Grapes
• Grapefruit
• Tomatoes
• Carrots
• Spinach
• Brussels sprouts
• Kale
• Artichoke
• Beets

* Antioxidants are also found in foods, other than fruits and vegetables, such as in grains and dairy.

While vitamins A and C are loaded with antioxidants, they are also particularly useful in other significant ways.  Vitamin A is essential in repairing tissue and producing new skin cells, which keep your skin soft while supporting its elasticity.  A lack of vitamin A can cause the skin to look dull, unhealthy and aged.  Some of my favorite foods with high amounts of vitamin A are sweet potatoes, cantaloupes, spinach, carrots and asparagus, just to name a few.  Vitamin C boosts the production of collagen—protein fibers that contribute to the external structure of cells, providing form and firmness to skin.  As we age, our bodies produce less collagen, resulting in wrinkles and loose skin.  Absorbed orally, these vitamins are super foods for the beauty of your skin and will help you to maintain youthful looking skin when supplemented with a good skin care regimen.  (In a later posts, I will go over the skin health benefits of vitamins A, C and E when applied topically.)

Thought beautiful skin came in a bottle?  Good topical skin care products can definitely make a difference in the radiance and the appearance of your skin, but you might be better served spending a little more time and money in your local grocery store’s produce aisles.