Love the Skin Your In – Top Nutrition Tips
Acne – Eczema – Rosacea – Wrinkles
The Inflammation Connection
Whether autoimmune or age related most skin conditions are associated with high levels of inflammation. Foods that decrease inflammation, balance out hormones, and prevent or repair skin damage, can go a long way to making your skin looking youthful and beautiful.
TOP FOOD HACKS FOR SKIN
- Increase Antioxidant Foods
Antioxidants in food can help prevent free-radical damage like aging skin, brown spots, and wrinkles. Antioxidants are abundant in fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, garlic, cocoa, and green tea to name a few.
Cruciferous veggies such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and kale are special in that they can help the body detoxify excess estrogen. In fact, sulforaphane, found in cruciferous vegetables, is a powerful antioxidant and anti-cancer agent that also stops brown spots on the skin. Compounds in cruciferous vegetables are also known for helping reduce acne.
Image source: Interview with Kelly Greer BAScRD
- Increase Good Essential Fatty Acids
While I prefer a fatty acid supplement that contains both omega-3 fat and a special omega-6 fat called GLA some people prefer to get their omega-3 fats from fatty fish like salmon and vegetarian sources such as flax, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds. The problem with this is twofold; it is very difficult for your body to utilize vegetarian sources of omega-3 fats; and fish sources of omega-3 are often contaminated due to the rising levels of mercury and other toxins. As long as my client is not taking a blood thinner I recommend she take a fish oil supplement. It would be reasonable to think that fish oils are polluted as well but for the most part they are not. By supplementing with fish oils you can now get all the benefits of eating fish without the possible toxicity.
In a recent study conducted by the Globe and Mail in conjunction with CTV, it was found that: “A person would need to consume as many as 312 fish oil capsules to be exposed to the amount of polychlorinated biphenyls in a single serving of farmed salmon. Even the cleanest serving of farmed fish had as much PCB’s as 63 fish oil capsules. A serving of wild salmon, which is much less contaminated than farmed fish, had the same PBC content as about 20 capsules.”
The special omega-6 fat that can only be found in supplement form is called GLA and is known for anti-inflammatory effects.
Image source: Interview with Kelly Greer BAScRD
- Avoid Inflammatory Foods
- Processed, packaged, or prepared foods. And fast food is at the top of the list of inflammatory foods due to the harmful oils, sugar, artificial sweeteners, food additives, and a whole host of nasty ingredients.
- Hydrogenated and trans-fats found in margarine, shortening, lard, and products made with these oils. This includes baked goods, cookies, pies, and buns.
- Fried foods such as french fries, onion rings, potato chips, nachos, and hamburgers.
- White sugar and sweets, including soft drinks and sweetened juices. Newer research shows that sugar is one of the most addictive substances and it is also highly inflammatory.
- Synthetic sweeteners such as Nutrasweet, Splenda, saccharin, aspartame, AminoSweet, and others. Research links these nasty substances to many serious health conditions.
- Gluten-containing grains. Gluten is found in most grains and is highly inflammatory. Choose grains or seeds like buckwheat, quinoa, or millet for your baking.
What can you do for glorious skin? Clean up your diet and follow a low-glycemic, hormone focused, food plan. My upcoming Body Beautiful Weight Loss and Nutrition program is all about hormone balancing and reducing inflammation. The program is not only good for weight loss but also for your skin and a number of other health issues related to inflammation such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and other auto-immune conditions. Contact me today for more information.
