How Eating Habits Affect Your Skin

Although the skin is your body's largest organ, it can be easy to take it for granted or neglect it. On the other hand, maybe you're the type of person who invests in expensive creams, lotions, and treatments to keep your skin in good shape. Either way, you may be overlooking one of the biggest influences on your complexion: the foods you choose to put in your body.

Can what you eat affect whether you have wrinkles, acne, or other skin problems? Although your genes influence a lot of this stuff, it's also susceptible to environmental factors, including your diet! Although there is no magic food that will guarantee you a healthy, luminous complexion, making dietary changes is an excellent way to complement your skincare routine.

Avocado

Foods That Nourish Your Skin

Although you may have seen some DIY facial mask recipes that are made entirely of edible ingredients, some foods help your skin when you eat them. One type of food that has benefits for your complexion is anything with healthy fats, including omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. Think fatty fish, flax meal, and avocados. Both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids contribute to healthy, glowing, moisturized skin.

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Another type of food that is great for your skin is anything that improves digestion. Proper digestion removes toxins from your body and helps nutrients get absorbed. When your body can use nutrients effectively, it shows it by giving you glowing skin and lustrous hair. Probiotic foods and beverages, such as yogurt and kombucha, as well as warming spices such as ginger and turmeric, have been shown to aid digestion.

Candy

Foods That Contribute to a Troubled Complexion

Although many people claim that eating fatty foods leads to breakouts, a bigger culprit is sugar. All refined carbohydrates act like sugar in your body, so they can all be blamed for a sudden bout with acne, even in older adults. Too much sugar can lead to inflammation, which your body expresses in many ways, including by giving you bad skin. Some people find that consuming dairy products leads to acne flareups, possibly due to the hormones in cows' milk. If this is a problem for you, avoid dairy. If you prefer to eat yogurt because of its probiotic properties, try a dairy-free version.

Glasses of Water

The Question of Hydration

Your skin needs to be well-hydrated to keep its glow and not start peeling or cracking. Although intensive facial moisturizers do wonders during the winter and light moisturizers do the trick in summer, there's another way to keep your skin moist all year long. You need to drink plenty of water every day, no matter what. Remember, your skin cells, like all other cells in the body, are primarily made up of water. Even your blood contains quite a bit of water. As you lose moisture through respiration, sweating, and so on, remember to replenish and rehydrate by drinking water. If you don't like the taste, add a squeeze of lemon or a mint leaf. Don't reach for sugar-laden sodas or energy drinks.

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What you put in your body is as important as what you put on it. You could have all the fanciest serums and night creams in the world, but without proper nutrition and hydration, you aren't likely to get the results you want. What foods have you noticed either clear up your skin or do the opposite? Share your tips and tricks in the comments.

3 Replies to “How Eating Habits Affect Your Skin”

  1. Very interesting info. Do most of what you wrote for us, but do drink semi skimmed organic milk and enjoy feta and goat’s cheese. All dairy. I dislike the other non dairy milks, but I do suffer badly from very dry skin.

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