My top nutritional tips for beautiful, younger looking skin!

Considering I spent years baking my skin in the sun with zero protection my whole life, I’m pretty lucky my skin is as good as it is (Thanks, genetics!)

It wasn’t until about five years ago when my skin got even better, and my skin was already good! Suddenly I was getting compliments on a weekly and sometimes daily basis on how nice my skin looked. This change was thanks to a change in..you guessed it – my diet!

Whether you suffer with acne, rosacea, excema, premature aging or dry skin –  they can all be improved by making some simple changes to your diet and lifestyle. These changes can have a huge impact on the health of your skin in a short amount of time.

Get rid of offending foods

A lot of skin disorders are due to the foods we eat that cause an inflammatory reaction or a hormonal reaction. One of these top offending foods for skin disorders is dairy in all forms.  Yogurt, milk, organic or raw, cheese etc.  It’s estimated that there is over 60 different hormones in one glass of milk even in the organic raw form.  Milk comes from lactating cows which produce high amounts of hormones that can wreak havoc on your skin. Casein, which is the protein found in dairy is one of the most common food intolerances – and when your body can’t tolerate a food it will cause inflammation including inflammation of the skin. This can be in the form of acne, rosacea, excema etc.

Other top offending foods are gluten, eggs and sugar – all of which are very inflammatory and common food sensitivities.

A sure fire way of finding out if dairy or other top offending foods are the culprit cut them out either one at a time or all at once for a month a see what happens to your skin. If you do notice a difference be sure to add them back in one at a time, once a week to narrow down which ones are effecting the skin.

Eat the right fat

Now here is the big one that changed my skin, I started eating the good fats and cut out the bad fats. Bad fats are extremely inflammatory and we want to rid the body of inflammation as much as possible. Bad fats include seed and vegetable oils like Canola, shortening and margarine aka spreadable, edible plastic! Increase your intake of good fats like omega 3 fatty acids from fish and or supplements, coconut oil, avocados, olive oil, grass fed butter or ghee and 100% grass fed protein including beef and wild game.

Heal your gut

By now most of you have heard of leaky gut, a condition that means the junction in the walls of your intestines are leaking food particles into the blood stream. Well there is also leaky skin which is directly related to leaky gut! When these food particles enter the blood stream your body sets up an attack to defend against these foreign invaders. This attack usually results in systematic inflammation and like I mentioned above acne can be a form of inflammation. In order to prevent this leaky skin A.K.A. acne, rosacea or eczema, you need to heal the gut lining and improve the gut flora. You can do this by following a Paleo based diet which also eliminates many of the high food sensitivities like dairy. It also removes foods most likely to destroy the gut lining and provides the body with good fats and nutrients. You can also improve your gut flora by taking a high quality probiotic.

Besides changing your diet, which I feel makes the largest impact on the health and look of our skin, there are a few key supplement recommendations for healthy looking skin.

My top supplement recommendations for healthy skin are;

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is one of the most commonly known vitamins for problem skin. Vitamin A, retinol is effective in preventing the formation of comedones that cause the most common forms of acne. Food sources for vitamin A are liver, grass fed butter, cod liver oil and pastured egg yolks.

DIM

DI-Indoly Methane, is a phyto-nutrient found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. This magical little supplement helps our body to metabolize excess estrogen in the body. Excess estrogen can be the cause of hormonal acne.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C has been shown to be one of the most crucial nutrients for the skin. The antioxidant properties and it’s role in collagen synthesis has been shown to help reduce wrinkles and improve skin health. Food sources of vitamin c can be found in bell peppers, dark Leafy greens, broccoli, strawberries and citrus fruits.

Probiotics

The benefit of probiotics is that they introduce healthy bacteria to the gut and create a barrier to reduce inflammation, which can trigger certain skin conditions. Probiotics have been shown to improve skin conditions such as rosacea and acne. Probiotics can be found in fermented foods such as raw sauerkraut, kombucha, yogurt and kefir. Supplementation of probiotics is also recommended for added support my favorites are Perscript Assist and Probiotic Supreme from Designs for Health.

Omega 3 Fatty Acids

Omega 3 fatty acids may lead to smoother, younger-looking skin with visible reduction in inflammatory skin conditions like acne and psoriasis.   Eating cold water fish like salmon and tuna can help raise levels of omega 3 in the body. Supplementation with a quality fish oil or krill oil can also be a great source of omega 3’s.

This past year I hit the big 40 and I definitely have noticed my skin beginning to change alongside my hormones. I am trying my best to embrace these changes and do all that I can to keep my skin looking healthy and young. I wash my face at the moment with nothing but soap and water and use a very simple homemade cream for moisturizer. Instead of using expensive creams and treatments I spend my money on good quality low inflammatory foods that feed my skin! You can start making these simple changes today and you will quite quickly see the benefits and may even be able to wind that clock back a few years.