Beneficial Foods for your Skin

 We have all heard that eating a good diet is beneficial to your body. Did you know that the vitamins and minerals that are in the foods we eat also impact our skin? Growing up our parents always said to "eat your vegetables, finish your meat", or my favorite, "stop eating all that candy!" As we get older, our body starts to show how our diet and exercise choices affect us. Here are some helpful tips on what foods will help slow down the aging process and help keep the elasticity and glow in your skin.

1. Drinking water is the best things you can do. It keeps your skin moist. Making fine lines and wrinkles less noticeable. It also helps your cells take in nutrients and get rid of toxins. By increasing your blood flow, it keeps the skin glowing. Eating many fruits, veggies, juice, and milk that contain water to help make sure you are getting at least 8 glasses a day.

2. Food like Brazil nuts, button mushrooms, shrimp, lamb, and fish like snapper, cod, halibut, tuna, and salmon will all help your skin. Cooked beef, light turkey, oysters, sardines, crab, and whole-wheat pasta have selenium. This mineral may help protect your skin from cells from free radicals which cause signs of aging like wrinkles and dry skin, tissue damage, and may even lead to some diseases. Antioxidants are important for slowing and preventing free-radical damage. You can find them in all kinds of foods, especially colorful fruits and vegetables like berries, tomatoes, apricots, beets, squash, spinach, sweet potatoes, tangerines, peppers, and beans.

3. Nobody wants dry, flaky skin. So grab an orange, carrot, or slice of cantaloupe. They're loaded with vitamin A that help with wrinkles and brown spots. You can also find it in leafy greens, eggs, and low-fat dairy foods.

4. Vitamin C can help undo sun damage to collagen and elastin, which firm up your skin. You can get vitamin C from red bell peppers, citrus fruits, papayas, kiwis, broccoli, greens, and brussels sprouts.

5. Another antioxidant that may help save your skin from sun damage and inflammation is vitamin E. Get it from vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, olives, spinach, asparagus, and leafy greens.

6. Essential fatty acids from olive and canola oils, flaxseeds, walnuts, and cold-water fish like salmon, sardines, and mackerel, leave your skin smoother and younger-looking. Omega-3s and omega-6s are good fats that help make your skin's natural oil barrier, keeping away dryness and blemishes. Some oils have more than essential fatty acids. Good-quality ones like extra-virgin olive oil and cold or expeller-pressed oil may have more nutrients that are good for your skin. These oils may also help lube up your skin and keep it looking and feeling healthy.

7. Get glowing with chocolate. Cocoa hydrates your skin, making it firmer and more supple. Dark chocolate contains high levels of flavones, a potent type of antioxidant. It's important to eat chocolate that's at least 70 percent cacao. A couple of squares a day should be enough to improve luminosity. It has also been found that caffeine in chocolate may temporarily reduce skin puffiness.

Seeing how what we eat can really help with our skin and our body at the same time. Next time your at the supermarket maybe you will decide to try something new. Let us know how you liked it and if you noticed a change in you health because of it. Maybe it just gave you energy and brought a smile to your face. If anyone has a favorite fruit smoothie idea or recipe feel free to share that as well.

Thank for reading and stay healthy!