Your skin is an organ like your heart, stomach, and liver. Just like those organs, your skin’s health and function are affected by what you eat.
Can you eat your way to better skin? A healthy and balanced diet that includes nutrients your skin needs to function well may improve strength and look. But diet isn’t a cure-all.
At Legacy Pain and Regenerative Medicine, our skilled and experienced chiropractor and nurse practitioner, Dr. Trace Alexander, specializes in nutrition and skin health.
In this month’s blog post, we want to talk about nutrition and skin health and what you can eat to improve your body’s largest and most visible organ.
Your skin is the body’s largest organ. It protects your internal organs from germs and injury, controls body temperature, and provides sensory information about your environment. Your skin consists of protein, water, fat, and minerals, all essential nutrients you get from food.
Your skin can serve as a reflection of your overall health and lifestyle. Healthy skin is smooth, soft, and vibrant. Like your internal organs, what you eat affects the health and function of your skin, as well as its appearance.
Eating a balanced diet and drinking plenty of fluids is important for skin health and function. Specific foods and nutrients, however, may offer more benefits and protection.
Your skin needs a healthy dose of protein, essential fats, and minerals to maintain structure and function. It also needs antioxidants to protect against oxidative damage, one of the main drivers of the aging process.
To eat your way to better skin you need:
Protein is an essential nutrient involved in making, regenerating, and repairing your skin. Choose healthy proteins like poultry, fish, and beans so you get the nutrition your skin needs without unhealthy fat.
Nuts, seeds, vegetables, and whole grains also provide some protein.
Omega-3 fats may reduce skin inflammation and improve protection from sun damage. Sun exposure causes areas of hyperpigmentation and increases risk of skin cancer.
Foods rich in omega-3s include:
Eat fatty fish a couple of times a week, snack on walnuts, drizzle flaxseed oil on your salad, or add chia seeds to your oatmeal.
Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants. Eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables varies your antioxidant intake, giving you the most benefits. Nutrients in fruits and vegetables also reduce inflammation and protect against sun damage.
You also want to include fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C like tomatoes, oranges, and broccoli. Your skin needs vitamin C to make collagen, a structural protein that keeps your skin strong and resilient. The layer of collagen in the skin diminishes with age, leading to fine lines and wrinkles.
Eating more foods rich in vitamin C may help your skin to fight against wrinkles.
In addition to diet, you also want to take steps to protect your skin from the sun. Excessive sun exposure speeds up the skin’s aging process by accelerating the breakdown of collagen. Protect your skin by applying sunscreen daily and covering up with clothing, hats, and sunglasses.
Don’t smoke. If you do smoke, quit. Smoking also accelerates skin aging by damaging collagen, decreasing circulation, and causing skin discoloration.
When it comes to diet and skin health, now is always the right time to start. However, diet alone can’t reverse permanent skin damage. If you’re unhappy with the look of your skin, we can help with our aesthetic services. We provide cosmetic injections, skin laser treatment, microneedling, and more.
Whether you need help with nutrition or you’re looking for nonsurgical options to reverse the visible signs of aging, we have what you need. Call us at 972-899-9797 to schedule a consultation with Dr. Alexander at one of our offices in Plano or Addison, Texas.
