Fantasia Salon / Spa and Wig Specialists

In another post, we talked about everyday items you probably have in your kitchen that you could apply topically to help with your hair. This time, I’d like to talk about what you eat and what it can do for your skin. Clearly fancy lotions, creams and sunscreens can help keep your skin beautiful. But, since beauty is more than skin deep, good skin is an inside job. You need to eat the right antioxidants, vitamins and fats. As we have discussed before, what you eat affects your skin.

With that in mind…here is some food for thought. (and good skin)

• Tomatoes- Think of them as sunblock. In Germany, researchers say people who ate 1 1/2 ounces of tomato paste daily for 10 weeks had 40% less artificially induced sunburn than those not eating the tomato paste. Researchers credit the tomato paste’s 16 milligrams of the antioxidant lycopene with fortifying the skin against sun damage.
• Marmalade as a cancer antidote. The University of Arizona researchers were amazed to find that eating orange and grapefruit peels once per week or more, which 37% of the subjects did, cut the risk of squamous cell skin cancer by a third. They suspect it is the high concentrations of the antioxidant d-limonene in the oil of the peel that migrates into the eater’s skin.
• Prunes fight wrinkles. A large group of elderly Greeks, Swedes and Australians found that those who ate the most prunes, apples, vegetables, olive oil, fish and legumes, had fewer wrinkles and less sun-damage skin than those who ate lots of meat, butter, margarine and milk products. Prunes have a higher concentration of protective antioxidants than any other fruit.
• Salmon as a face-lift. Nicholas Perricone, MD and author of the Perricone Prescription advises eating 8-12 ounces of fish per day, primarily salmon as part of a nutritional face life. Perricone says salmon’s Omega-3 oil combats wrinkle-promoting inflammation and “plumps up the skin.” Fish oil does look promising for the skin. In British research, taking 4000 mg of Omega -3 per day for three months reduced sunburn damage by 30%. This dose is equivalent to eating 12 ounces of salmon per day.
• Tea against skin cancer. Studies show that tea-drinking mice have fewer skin cancers. Even rubbing tea extract on their skin keeps cancers away. Green and black tea appear equally effective, and caffeine may help as well. In one study decaf tea was less effective than caffeinated tea in the mice.
• Antioxidants save skin. Several studies suggest that antioxidant supplements help protect skin from sun damage. German researchers found that dose of 1000 IU vitamin E and 2000 mg of vitamin C daily for eight days, boosted resistance to sunburn by 20%. Other research found that a mixture of beta carotene, lycopene and lutein taken for three months also reduced mild sunburn.
• Alcohol promotes skin cancer. Men and women who consumed three or more alcoholic beverages per day were 30% more likely to have basal cell carcinoma- the most common skin cancer than non-drinkers, according to Harvard research. The main causes of wrinkled, damaged, cancer-prone skin are aging, sun exposure, smoking and excessive alcohol.

So, it truly does matter what you eat!