You probably think about how nutrition affects your internal health and your weight, but eating the right foods can also improve the quality of your skin. “You can look at food as the raw materials for a factory,” says Ian Koo, a naturopathic doctor based in Mississauga, Ont. “The better the quality of the raw materials we have to start with, the greater the chance that we’ll end up with a good durable product.” Here are what to add to your diet to improve the health of your skin.
Tomatoes: Eating any tomato-based foods such as sauce and tomato juice may help clear up acne. Lycopene (the phytochemical that makes tomatoes red) may lower an acne-promoting hormone.
Green tea: Green tea fights acne based on its ability to lower levels of an acne-producing hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT). This power drink is also packed with antioxidants, which will help your skin look younger and healthier overall.
Berries: Deeply coloured berries such as blueberries and cherries are loaded with antioxidants, which help your body fight off blemishes.
Fish and seafood: An international study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that people who ate diets high in fish and seafood had less skin wrinkling. That might be because the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and seafood slow down the wrinkling process. Furthermore, omega-3 fatty acids have mood-regulating benefits, which can help with the stress component of having acne.
Brown Rice: Check the packaging of your skin products and you are likely to see ceramides in the list of ingredients. These lipid molecules, which help your skin maintain its moisture, can also be found in foods such as brown rice. When you eat naturally occurring ceramides, they get incorporated into the outer layer of your skin and help it maintain its hydration.
-With The Daily Star input