ave you ever wondered if eating certain foods can affect the way your skin looks? While myths abound about chocolate causing acne and cottage cheese causing cellulite, there are certain dietary practices and lifestyle modifications you can adopt to improve the health and appearance of your skin.

Before we explore how nutrients affect our skin, we need to understand that food does not have a map when it enters our bodies. It may seem to some of us that sweets stick to our hips, but they really don't. That's the good news. The bad news is that you can't necessarily eat healthy foods to burn the fat off your hips or diminish wrinkles on your face. But don't give up hope! Put down that cookie and pick up that salad because there's plenty of evidence that healthy skin requires proper nourishment-from the inside and the outside.

Skin Stressors

There are three major factors that contribute to the appearance of our skin: aging, sun exposure, and smoking.


With age, gravity takes its toll, skin loses its elasticity, and collagen production slows down, all contributing to wrinkles and sagging skin. Collagen, the skin's major structural protein, acts like glue that holds skin cells together. Elastin, as you may guess from the name, contributes to skin's elasticity and firmness. Skin also loses moisture as it ages, making it drier and less vibrant.


Sun exposure plays a major role in the rate at which our skin ages. Aging caused by the sun is called photoaging. Ultraviolet rays from the sun damage collagen and elastin fibers that, under optimal circumstances, contribute to firm, youthful skin. The weakening of collagen and elastin accelerates the aging process and contributes to the appearance of cellulite. Additionally, UV rays can cause skin discoloration, spots, and dryness. Most importantly, sun exposure increases the risk of skin cancer.


Smoking is another contributor to unhealthy skin. Aside from causing various cancers, cigarette smoke has been shown to stunt the production of new collagen and increase wrinkle formation. Smoke is also believed to dehydrate and constrict the flow of blood and oxygen to the skin.

Respect yourself to protect yourself

The most effective way to protect your skin is to prevent the damage caused by aging, sun, and smoke. While you can't stop the clock, you certainly can slow it down by doing the following:

• Eating a diet that is high in antioxidants is a good place to start and we'll talk more about that later.
  

• Protecting yourself with a good broad-spectrum (UVA and UVB) sunblock all over your body, even when you're not going to be directly in the sun, is imperative. Zinc oxide is a good ingredient to look for. Slathering on a moisturizer with sunscreen, like Neutrogena Healthy Defense and Lubriderm Daily UV lotion, should be part of everyone's morning ritual.
  

• Moisturizing with topical serums and creams that contain antioxidants such as genestein from soy and vitamin C from citrus fruits also seems to be effective in improving the appearance of the skin.
  

• Avoiding exposure to cigarette smoke and quitting smoking if you do smoke are both important for protecting your skin from free radical damage and wrinkles.

Feed your face

Nutrient deficiencies can contribute to undesirable skin appearance. We've all seen the haggard, gray, and parched skinof an anorexic or other malnourished individual. The way our skin looks can be a very good indication of our nutritional status, since certain nutrients play a direct role in the production and maintenance of healthy skin.

• A deficiency of essential fatty acids, like omega-3 fats and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), a rare form of an omega-6 fatty acid, can contribute to dry, scaly skin.

• Vitamin-A deficiency can cause keratinization, in which skin becomes dry, rough and scaly as skin cells secrete lumps of keratin around the hair follicles.

• Vitamin C is one of the most abundant antioxidants in our skin. Since our skin is our first line of defense against environmental stressors like UV radiation, smoke, and air pollution, the vitamin C can easily become depleted. Vitamin C deficiency, though uncommon, causes pinpoint hemorrhaging (little red spots) to appear on the skin, as well as dry, rough, brown, and scaly skin.

• Dietary vitamin C, iron, and copper contribute to the growth and regeneration of collagen. When any of these nutrients are depleted, collagen production is slowed or faulty.

• Vitamin E is another important antioxidant that is believed to contribute to skin health by inactivating free radicals that can cause wrinkles and photodamage. It also seems to help improve skin texture.

• Selenium, a mineral and antioxidant that works in concert with vitamin E, is effective in fighting off cancers, including skin cancer, and may help slow the aging and hardening of skin. Selenium is also believed to help skin retain its elasticity.

• Our skin comes into contact with oxidative stressors every day. These stressors can dry, age, and damage our skin unless they can be stabilized by antioxidants like vitamins A, C, and E, as well as selenium.

Feed your body

By now you're probably wondering if you should put your food on your face or in your mouth. The answer is definitely in your mouth-but you could probably save a little for your face. Research has indicated that diet can play a role in the wrinkling and aging of skin. A diet based on plenty of leafy green vegetables, beans, olive oil, nuts, and multigrain breads is associated with less wrinkling than a diet high in butter, red meat, and sugar. Based on the functions of the nutrients previously described, this makes sense. An antioxidant-rich diet provides the skin with the defenses it needs to fight off the causes of aging. This type of diet can also help you maintain a healthy weight-another factor in healthy skin. With large fluctuations in weight, skin gets stretched out and begins to sag and wrinkle. Choosing healthy fats, like those found in olive oil, flax seeds, walnuts, and salmon, seems to help promote the growth of supple, healthy skin. Drinking plenty of water helps flush waste and impurities out of your cells to make skin look clear and hydrated.

There are many factors that determine the appearance of our skin, heredity being an important one. However, taking care of your skin from the inside and the outside can make a big difference. It's important to have a skincare routine that's tailored to your skin type but generally includes cleansing, exfoliating, moisturizing, and sun protection. You may never have the skin you had when you were a child, but taking the steps suggested above can, at the very least, help improve your health and reduce your risk of disease in the process. If you did save a little food for your face, you may want to try one of the mask recipes below.

Facial Masks Keep on for 15-20 minutes then rinse off with cool water Vitamin E and Selenium mask: whisk together one egg yolk and one tablespoon corn oil and apply with a cotton ball. Vitamin C and E mask: mash together half an avocado and juice from half of a freshly squeezed orange. Genestein: Apply soy milk (not fat free) with a cotton ball.

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The nutrition recommendations found in our newsletters are general in nature and are not tailored to specific health problems. Talk to your physician or other qualified health care practitioner concerning particular health issues or before beginning any nutritional program.