When Skin Care Is An Inside Job

For skin protection and just healthier skin all around, everyone knows the standard advice: apply sunscreen, wear light clothing, a hat, and avoid being out in the sun for long periods of time during mid-day.

But there’s something else you can do for your skin that takes a different approach – instead of protecting it from the outside, you can protect it from the inside, through diet!

Many nutrients are just as powerful for heart protection, blood sugar control, and cancer protection as they are for skin health.

These include foods with lycopene, carotene, lutein, vitamin C, resveratrol, and omega-3 fatty acids.

And don’t worry, you don’t have to remember these nutrients, and there won’t be a pop-quiz, lol. To help you out, throughout this month, incorporate the foods listed below at your meals to support your skin health, help prevent skin cancers, and even reduce wrinkling in the process!

Tomatoes

Lovely red tomatoes are an excellent source of lycopene, and one study found that sunburn was significantly lower for those who consumed a about 3 Tbsp of tomato paste every day for 10 weeks.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to spoon down this amount of tomato paste. This study only shows that the lycopenes in tomatoes CAN help protect your skin. The bottom line is that every time you eat tomatoes, or sauce, you’re adding to that protective effect.

Carotene Foods

Orange foods, like sweet potatoes, mangoes, apricots, and carrots are super rich in carotene. But there are some NON-orange foods that boast just as much, like spinach and kale. If you consume foods with carotenes, studies show that it protects the skin from the damaging effect of UV light.

Grapes and Berries

You may have heard of the importance of resveratrol for heart health. It was popularized because it’s found in red wine, and was offered as an explanation for the “French Paradox”.

But resveratrol is so more than just a bonus to having a Cabernet with your meal. First of all, you can also find this important polyphenol in raspberries, grapes, and strawberries. But even better, these fruits offer sun-protective effects as well.

Check out this review about the positive effect of resveratrol for your skin.

Vitamin C foods

Foods high in vitamin C, like citrus, kiwi fruit, and even broccoli, protects against free radical damage from the sun. And if skin health weren’t enough, this study found that higher intakes of vitamin C were associated with fewer skin wrinkles and less dryness.

Fatty fish

Omega-3 fatty acids found is fatty fish like salmon, trout, and sardines, can help protect your skin from sunburn. More importantly, this research shows that these same fatty acids may also help prevent the development of skin cancer.

Sipping your sunscreen

And while you’re having your skin health salad of salmon, spinach, sweet potato, with orange slices on the top, if you have a coffee you just add to your culinary skin protection.

In this research, four cups of coffee was associated with a whopping 20% reduction in risk for malignant melanoma. Again, if even the thought of 4 cups of coffee per day sends you into a heart racing fit of anxiety, don’t worry.

You don’t have to drink that much coffee. This research in the lab just shows that coffee can have a positive impact for your skin health. If you include coffee (or plain dark tea, in fact) you will add to the cumulative effect overall.

Bon Appetit!