Healthy Skin & Food

Each of us wants to have beautiful skin, and a healthy, balanced diet is one of the main keys to success. There are nutritional components and specific foods which can help you with your complexion and overall skin appearance. This is the biggest organ, exposed to everyday elements such as air pollution, free radicals, smoke and other toxins that necessitate a special care for it. If you want to help your skin to look better, you should limit preservatives, processed foods, and sugar, and increase specific types of foods.

Here are several foods with antioxidants, vitamins and essential fatty acids which help your skin to look beautiful. They are also some of my favorites!

- Blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, grapes, apricots, dark green leafy veggies, broccoli, red peppers, and carrots are oxidants that help to fight against free radicals, including those that damage your skin. By including all of these benefits to your diet, you will protect your skin cells which can slow the aging process. Yay!

- Essential fatty acids provide metabolites which are vital to membrane structure, cell functions, and maintaining the impermeability barriers of the skin. Fatty acids can be found in oily fish (herring, black cod, fresh tuna, rainbow trout, and salmon) and pressed oils (safflower, sunflower, canola, corn).

- Vitamin A is important in maintaining and repairing your skin tissue, and it can be found in (low-fat!) dairy products, sweet potatoes, tomato sauce, liver, eggs. The insufficiency of vitamin A can make your skin dry and itchy skin (and can even lose some of its elasticity, yuck!)

- B vitamins are suggested for stress, and consumption of it can help reduce dry and flaking skin. Grains and breads, rice, oatmeal, fish, eggs, all these contain vitamin B.

- Another quite significant key that help you to have a beautiful skin is Vitamin C. It is important for fighting sun damage, skin infections and healing wounds. You can drink orange or grapefruit juice or slice them up for a snack, and cook up some broccoli for dinner. MMMmmmmmhhh..

If I have said it once, I will say it again, the most important in all these factors is to not forget about hydration. Drink as much water as it possible!!! Ans there you have it...

Essential Vitamins

We need vitamins to keep our skin healthy and beautiful. Vitamin A is the most important wrinkle enemy we can put to use in order to have supple skin. Vitamin A deficiency is associated with thick, itchy and dry skin. B vitamins helps dull skin, while Vitamin C helps in manufacturing collagen, the basis of connective tissue that holds skin cells together. Vitamin E is an oil that can soften our complexion, and also acts as an antioxidant that protects against cell damage.

We also need vitamin D and if we spend 15 minutes in the sun every day, our skin absorbs the amount we need. However, the sun can also dry the skin and cause damage especially by speeding the aging process. Moisture is important in order to prevent the damage that sun, wind or cold can cause to our skin. In addition to drinking plenty of water, which is vital for the regeneration of cells, we can use a moisturizer.

Know Your Type

It is essential to know the kind of skin you have as proper care can help reduce, and sometimes cure, any condition. There are mainly 5 types of skin;

Normal: As like most things in this world, 'normal' is not a common skin type. You will have soft, smooth and evenly textured skin, with no flaky dead cells and no pores visible. Almost velvet like! There is a balanced distribution of oil and moisture enabling a clear complexion free from blemishes.

Sensitive: Change in environmental conditions, cosmetic procedures, makeup and other external applications can affect this skin's wellbeing. Symptoms can include redness, dryness, blotching, puffiness, etc.

Dry: If skin is dry it may appear patchy, reddened and flaky, especially around eyes and mouth. As we age dry skin may cause formation of fine lines on cheeks, under eyes and corners of mouth. These conditions happen when oil or glands are not supplying enough nourishment and lubrication to the skin. With proper care of dry skin, we can avoid the initiation of wrinkles in early age.

Oily / Greasy: This skin type is thick with perhaps "dull" like colour and shiny in appearance. Over secretions of oils can makes skin pores open and becomes sticky, which can then attracts dirt and dust from the environment. These particles can block pores which are already widely open, leading to the ever annoying issues of black head, white head and acne.

Combination: Commonly seen combination being some of the skin area is dry and some of the area is oily. Usually it follows the pattern of a "T". The greasy part is usually runs vertically around the nose, mouth and chin area, and horizontal on fore head (referred to as "T-Zone"). The cheeks are comparatively dry.

Our Skin

Many people don't know that our skin is the largest organ in the human body. Our skin separates us from the outer environment, protecting our internal organs from climate exposure, and acting as a filter by absorbing harsh toxins. Any problem or infection in our skin causes threat to not only our internal organs, but our overall wellbeing.

More importantly though; our skin provides the sensation of touch. Keep your skin healthy and respect it! After all, it is our outside window to the world.

Clean & Flirty

To Start... Inspiration.