If your New Year’s resolution is to get healthier and to look and feel better, then improving your health on the inside will radiate through to your skin on the outside.
Your skin is the largest organ in your body and nourishing it from inside is just as (and maybe even more!) important as using creams and lotions. When you eat sugary foods, your skin responds to the increased inflammation by looking more damaged and more withered. When you eat foods rich in antioxidants and vitamins, your skin responds by having a glowing, soft look, as inflammation is minimized.
For glowing skin, try incorporating some of these foods into your everyday meals to get beautiful skin in 2012!
Beta carotene: found in orange and dark-green fruits and vegetables like dried apricots , yams, cantaloupes , and even dandelion greens, spinach and kale.
- Suggestions: Both of us often eat an orange with lunch or toss one in a salad. We also tend to eat sautéed spinach or kale with a bit of garlic many evenings with dinner. Give it a try!
Vitamin C is an important component of collagen which keeps your skin elastic and looking young. One of the many reasons smokers tend to get wrinkles is because smoking depletes your vitamin C stores. Fruits that are delicious and rich in vitamin C are kiwis, black currants , berries and guava. For vegetables, vitamin C is found in Brussels sprouts, kale and raw parsley.
- Kiss those smokers lips good-bye and start your day with a vitamin-C rich fruit like strawberries, kiwis or guava. Stir them in your yogurt or add them to your cereal.
Other antioxidant-rich foods for beautiful skin: EGCG in green tea, selenium in brazil nuts and omega-3s found in flaxseed oil and fatty fish.
- Try Salmon or tuna for dinner and finish your meal off with hot green tea.
Pay close attention to what you put in your body for the New Year and try to incorporate some of these foods into your meals. Beauty is truly from within, so feed your skin right with these beautifying foods!
What are your favorite skin-nourishing foods?