Most people know that a healthy diet prevents many diseases and helps maintain a healthy body. What is not so well known is that a diet rich in beneficial foods can help our skin look and act younger for longer. Combined with a good skincare routine and being sun-smart, an anti-wrinkle diet can play a big part in achieving the skin you want!
Inflammation: from the inside out
If you use well-formulated skin care products, you’re already doing a lot to avoid inflammation-causing ingredients in the skin that damage collagen and elastin. Eating unhealthy processed foods can cause inflammation in the body, and you will eventually see the effects of this on your skin.
Chronic inflammation, whether from your diet or other sources, floods the body with stress hormones, stimulates pain receptors, destroys healthy collagen, limits cell turnover, slows down your body’s ability to heal itself, and can even trigger acne.
Many of the foods that people eat regularly worsen chronic inflammation, especially when combined with other unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as unprotected sun exposure, smoking, and lack of sleep. Because of this, it’s easy to see why using great skin care products is only part of the plan to keep your skin soft, younger looking and healthier, regardless of your age.
Eliminate chronic inflammation
An anti-wrinkle diet to minimize foods that trigger inflammation is an anti-aging MUST-HAVE. The following foods are the worst offenders that promote inflammation:
- Excessive consumption of sugar, especially refined sugars such as high fructose corn syrup,
- Trans fats (any oil listed as “partially hydrogenated” qualifies),
- Processed or cured meats, including bacon, which contain nitrites and nitrates,
- Red meat; if you can’t put it down, choose the leanest cuts and avoid grilling, roasting over charcoal, or cooking until dark brown or black,
- Highly processed foods, including most menu items at fast food restaurants and many prepackaged meals and snacks, and,
- White flour,
- Salty foods cause bloating, bloating, and tired-looking skin. Consider using sea salt – it has more minerals and is thought to have more flavor, so you’ll use less.
The best anti-wrinkle diet foods
The next time you’re writing your grocery list, be sure to add these anti-inflammatory, appearance-boosting foods:
- green, black and red tea,
- coffee,
- Brightly colored berries, such as blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries,
- Deeply colored vegetables, especially leafy greens and red cabbage,
- All kinds of hot and mild peppers,
- Salmon and other fatty cold-water fish; choose wild-caught instead of farm-raised.
- walnuts,
- Grapeseed oil, walnut, rice bran and canola oils,
- whole grains,
- Spices such as ginger, turmeric, cardamom, curry, cumin, garlic, oregano, basil and tamarind,
- Flax, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
The bottom line
Start taking an anti-wrinkle diet now! Eating an anti-inflammatory diet is one of the best things you can do for your skin. Routinely eating the right foods can create a more radiant complexion, reduce the number of wrinkles, and give your skin greater elasticity, so you look younger for longer.
This dietary approach complements the right skin care products!
