You’re currently on a conquest to improve your health. Exercise and eating the right foods are top priorities. But there’s another goal in mind—you’d like your skin texture to improve!
Some of the foods you’re eating are likely already helping your skin. But it doesn’t hurt to learn about more foods that have positive effects on the skin!
Whether you have oily or normal skin, there are all sorts of healthy foods that can make your skin glow. Let’s find out which ones you should be eating more of starting today.
Here’s a list of nine foods to add to your diet. If you haven’t been eating these foods, you may want to start eating them pronto!
1. Fatty Fish
If you haven’t been eating enough fish, try adding fish like salmon and herring into your diet.
Our bodies can’t produce fatty acids, so we have to get them from food. Eating enough fish is an excellent way to add the right amount of omega-3s to your diet.
Start by eating fish like salmon, and the omega-3 fatty acids will keep your skin supple and moist.
2. Watermelon
Believe it or not, watermelon is an excellent choice to eat for skin health. Plus, it’s also a refreshing and tasty fruit, so that’s a nice benefit!
If you’re concerned about sugar, don’t be. Watermelon has low sugar compared to other fruits.
Too much water retention results in puffiness, especially around your eyes. Well, you’ll be happy to learn that the water from watermelon reduces water retention.
Make a point to eat more of this refreshing fruit. You’ll experience less skin inflammation, and your skin will start to glow too!
3. Sweet Potatoes
With the high UV rays, it’s easy to get sunburned. Sunblock, of course, is vital to preventing skin cancer. And there are other natural ways of preventing further sun damage to your delicate skin.
For some natural sunblock, eat sweet potatoes! Now, I’m not recommending eating sweet potato fries, but you have to admit they make a tasty snack!
Sweet potatoes contain beta carotene, an antioxidant that protects the skin. It’s not a substitute for applying SPF. But it’s good to know it provides an extra sun protection barrier.
4. Green Tea
Green tea is tasty and does an excellent job at keeping you awake on those late nights. Besides providing caffeine and great taste, green tea has a wide variety of skin benefits.
It just so happens that green tea treats acne and improves scars! It has polyphenols, which reduce skin inflammation and flush out toxins.
So if you’re struggling with acne and want an added skin health boost, try drinking more green tea!
5. Broccoli
Keep your body and skin healthy, don’t be afraid to eat plenty of broccoli! Broccoli is packed full of vitamins such as zinc, vitamin A, and vitamin C.
All these vitamins improve the skin. Plus, broccoli has Lutein, which prevents your skin from getting dried out.
Another unique compound broccoli has is sulforaphane. Besides combatting digestion and promoting heart health, it may also fight against cancer. It does this by providing your skin extra protection against sun damage.
6. Ginger
Ginger offers a vast amount of benefits. You may know of it from a popular drink — Gingerale! Ginger indeed eases nausea, but it also can help the body in other ways.
Whether you like the taste of ginger or not, it works wonders on the skin. It has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. And these properties calm the skin and keep puffiness away.
Try to sneak it into your diet here and there to keep your skin from flaring up. You’ll love seeing it work its magic!
7. Dark Chocolate
If you’ve been trying to cut out sweets, you may want to make an exception for dark chocolate. Besides being tasty, dark chocolate adds skin moisture!
If you need proof, participants in a study ate dark chocolate for 6-12 weeks. Afterward, they had thicker and more hydrated skin!
Hydrated skin means there’s healthy blood flow, and the sun won’t dry out your skin as much. Since chocolate helps skin maintain its moisture, it better withstands UV radiation. And thus, it takes a lot longer to get sunburned.
(That doesn’t mean you should test the waters and sunbathe more frequently, though!)
8. Chia Seeds
Have you ever had chia seeds before? These little guys are perfect to add to your breakfast and it just so happens they keep your skin healthy too!
With their omega-3 fatty acids, chia seeds prevent wrinkles and keep skin supple.
As well as eating chia seeds, try making a chia face mask! It’ll soothe inflammation and reduce your acne. If you’re struggling with any scabs, it’ll also speed up the healing process.
Who knew chia seeds had so much power to protect the outer layer of skin! Consider making these seeds a regular part of your diet.
9. Walnuts
Assuming you’re not allergic to nuts, walnuts can have magical effects on the skin.
Like other foods I’ve mentioned, they have omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s boost up the production of collagen, and you know what that means. Your skin stays youthful and firmer longer!
It’s good to know that walnuts help with anti-aging. That should motivate you to put them in a salad or grab a handful of them for a quick, easy snack.
Plus, they have other nutrients like zinc which keeps away inflammation and bacteria.
Conclusion
Who knew that by eating the right foods, you’d hold so much power to transform your skin? It makes sense, though.
You may not have been aware that so many healthy foods have positive effects on the skin!
Now that you know which ones offer many benefits, you’ll be likely to eat them more often. (And yes, that includes eating more veggies like broccoli!)
Author Bio
Adam Marshall is a freelance writer who specializes in all things apartment organization, real estate, and college advice. He currently works with The Reserve at Greensboro to help them with their online marketing.
