Skin Food: What to Eat for Amazing Skin

Skin care junkies, this is for you! No matter how fantastic your skin care products may be, if you’re not nourishing your body with the right nutrients you won’t see the results you crave! Here’s how to nourish your skin from within with a diet and supplements that take your skin to a new level of amazing!

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A healthy diet is key to having amazing skin. If we’ve got a diet based on coffee and take-out, chances are we’ve got some nutritional deficiencies. The eyes may be the window to the soul, but the skin is definitely the window to our nutritional status! Pale, dry or itchy skin, redness, pigmentation and wrinkles are all signs that we may be missing some essential nutrients.

What vitamins and minerals do we need for healthy skin?

B vitamins help to improve dry, flaky or itchy skin
Vitamin C is needed for collagen synthesis
Zinc aids in healing and repair
Magnesium helps to lower inflammation
Copper is needed to create elastin and reduce pigmentation. Elastin is a protein that gives the skin its structure.
Protein helps to create collagen and elastin.
Antioxidants help to protect our skin from oxidative stress and prevent skin ageing.
Omega 3 helps to improve dry skin due to its anti-inflammatory effects.

Where can we find these nutrients?

In the Nordic diet, which is one of the healthiest diets in the world! It’s a diet similar to the Mediterranean diet, but Nordic style! This means it’s based on vegetables, fruits, berries, whole grains, legumes, potatoes, nuts, seeds, rye breads, proteins like fatty fish and seafood, low-fat dairy, and rapeseed oil. It contains twice the fiber and seafood than the Western diet and has an abundance of vitamins, minerals and omega 3 fatty acids needed for optimal skin health.

Tips:
• Besides eating the healthy Nordic diet, you can top up with a daily multivitamin containing vitamins and minerals essential for healthy skin.
• If you’re feeling uncertain about if you need a multivitamin, read this! Remember, it should never be taken in place of a healthy diet, but used to supplement it with additional nutrients.

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Antioxidants
Antioxidants are powerful nutrients that protect our cells from damage. The Nordic diet is rich in antioxidants which are found mainly in colourful fruits, veggies and berries. Load up your plate with the colours of the rainbow – make it as diverse as possible!

Tips:
Click here to find our recipe for a delicious antioxidant-rich treat. (Yes, it’s got chocolate!)
• Supplement with a powerful antioxidant such as astaxanthin, which has been shown in scientific studies to have a superior effect against damaging UV rays, thereby reducing skin ageing.

Gut health
Skin issues such as acne, rosacea, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and dermatitis hepetiformis are all linked to poor gut health. Fiber is the silent saviour of our gut health! Fiber feeds the healthy bacteria in our gut which are vital for digesting nutrients, strengthening the gut lining and assisting in making certain vitamins.

Tips:
• You can find fiber in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and legumes.
Click here for five creative ways to add more vegetables to your diet.

Nutraceuticals
Nutraceuticals or dietary supplements with ingredients such as collagen, hyaluronic acid, vitamins or ceramides are very hot right now, and we understand why! Taking a dietary supplement is a convenient way to boost your beauty routine with minimum effort and add an extra glass of hydration every day.

Hydration is incredibly important for our overall health and of course - for beautiful glowing skin. Ceramides are lipids in the skin’s top layer that help lock in moisture and ensure that your skin barrier remains strong. They’re critical when it comes to keeping your skin hydrated! To maintain naturally smooth, healthy-looking skin we need to maintain the level of ceramides in the skin.

Tips:
Drink up! 8 glasses of water a day keeps the dryness away.
• Read all about our supplement with dietary ceramides here!

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