Best Foods for the Skin

The best foods for great skin complexion and health comprise a combination of certain vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other nutrients. These include all those which contribute towards keeping the liver clean, regulating normal digestion, and purify the blood by flushing out all pollutants and toxins. Let's take a look at the various nutrients that count as the best foods for healthy skin.

Lean Proteins: Foods like lean meat, eggs, soy, beans, legumes, and low-fat yogurt are excellent sources of healthy proteins that help in the skin's cell renewal process, and rejuvenates the hair and the nails.

Antioxidants: Found in nutrients like vitamins A, C, E, selenium, manganese, and zinc, foods rich in these substances are the chief anti-ageing foods, which prevent and reverse the damage caused by free radicals to our skin, and keep it looking younger and healthier.

Food items such as berries, red and black grapes, Brazil nuts, carrots, broccoli, green tea, raisins, papaya, prunes, tomatoes, hazelnuts, red wine, bright-colored vegetables, etc., fall under this category. Nowadays, several anti-aging supplements containing these nutrients and collagen are commercially available.

Essential Fatty Acids: There are two kinds of EFAs―Omega 3 and Omega 6. The former is essential for skin health. These substances help keep our skin smooth, soft, and supple, and are not produced by our bodies. EFAs are prominent constituents of an anti-aging diet plan.

Hence, we must derive them from dietary sources such as fish, seafood, soybeans, nuts, and seeds, etc. For the EFAs to work their beneficial effects, intake of saturated fats must be reduced, as the latter stunt the performance of the former.

Iron: Deficiency of iron leads to anemia, leading to a haggard appearance, dark circles under the eyes, and a pale, patchy complexion. Proper intake of iron is essential for healthy hemoglobin formation, which shows by way of rosy blushes on the cheeks. Good sources of iron are red meat, eggs, sea food, red or dark-colored vegetables such as beetroot, spinach, etc.

Fiber: Fibers help keep the stomach clean by ensuring regular bowel movements. This prevents constipation which is a root cause behind blood and skin impurities that give rise to skin disorders like acne, pimples, boils, rashes, discolored skin patches, etc. Green, leafy vegetables, chicken, and fibrous fruits like mango, guava, pineapple, papaya, etc., are good stomach cleansers, and must be added in moderate quantities to one's daily diet.

Fluids: Last but not the least, drinking lots of water, juices, etc., helps keep the skin hydrated, besides assisting dietary fibers to flush out all the wastes and toxins from the body. Drinking lot of fluids flushes the kidneys regularly, ensuring regular blood purification.

Also, adequate fluid intake helps maintain the skin's moisture reserves, preventing dry skin conditions and helping balance skin's oil content to tackle oily skin problems. However, caffeinated and carbonated beverages are excluded from this list, as these act as diuretics and dehydrate the body.

True to the axiom, what you eat is what you are! A closer scrutiny at these foods would reveal that, by far, these are also the best foods for overall well-being. It can be said in conclusion that the skin is the mirror of one's inner health―how healthy the skin looks depends upon how healthy the entire body system is.