Eating for Beautiful Skin
Skin care is my specialty. As a licensed esthetician, I see and work on the skin of women of all ages, races and conditions. Skin care starts from the inside out. This is not as evident in women in their teens and 20′s. But once you hit your 30’s, 40’s and upward, you can see a direct link between how what you eat and drink one day will affect your skin the next day. The clearest example of this is the way one looks after a late night of partying and drinking alcohol. In your 20’s, your skin can recover quickly and you won’t be wearing your hangover so to speak. Try the same thing in your 40’s, and you could be looking bad for a few days! But just as certain activities can make your skin look worse, other activities can make your skin look good.
The first way to improve the condition of your skin is to drink at least 64 ozs. (or eight 8 ozs. glasses) of water each day. I have many clients I see on a bi-weekly basis. I can tell as soon as my hands touch their face if their skin is hydrated. Try squeezing lemon and lime wedges into your water, as both are also good for the skin. This is probably the single best way to improve the health of your skin (assuming you are not dealing with another condition such as acne or rosacea).
Eating certain foods is also good for your skin. I’ve found from years of research that cantaloupe, cucumbers, strawberries, red bell peppers, and salmon are especially good for your skin. Try eating a salad of greens, cucumbers, strawberries and red bell peppers a few times a week. A cup of cantaloupe as a snack is a great treat for your skin. Two thirds of your body’s cell regeneration occurs at night, so try to get at least eight hours of sleep each night. And give your body the tools it needs to work best at night.
Before bed, drink an 8 oz. glass of fresh fruit or vegetable juice. These are available at your local grocery store’s produce section if you are not able to make your own fresh juice. This has yielded great results in experiments I have performed. I also take my vitamins at night instead of the morning. I never feel nauseous from my vitamins, and I just feel like this is the best time to give my body nutrition since it has so much work to do while I am sleeping.
A couple years ago I gave up tanning beds. But I felt so pale and unhealthy looking in the winter, so I performed a self-experiment. Each day I ate fruits and vegetables from four color categories… red, orange, green and blue/purple. I ate foods like sweet potatoes, carrots, strawberries or red bell peppers, spinach or kale, and blueberries or blackberries. On days I wasn’t able to eat all the food, I used fresh juices of the colors I needed. This really did make a difference in my skin tone. In the winter I was usually so pale that I felt like I looked sickly. But within a week or starting this experiment, my skin tone looked healthy and not pale. And I was able to supplement with a spray tan for special occasions when I wanted more color.
