A healthy diet supports good health in countless ways, just as poor choices challenge us to maintain balance and wellbeing. Our skin, as our largest organ, reflects our state of health on the inside and can fluctuate just as our diets do. Increases in sugars (simple and complex), unhealthy fats, processed foods and artificial ingredients create acidity, inflammation and imbalance that effect our skin, hair, nails, and of course, the rest of our body and its “systems”.
Are there any foods that can actually help with acne?
A balanced diet rich in vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants is your skins best friend. Eliminate processed and refined foods, and strive to eat foods that are minimally processed and come in a rainbow of colour. Switch from processed grain products to whole grains such as quinoa and brown rice. Increase your vegetable intake with extra emphasis on greens such as kale, broccoli, collard greens, watercress and sea vegetables that provide essential minerals and support nearly every bodily function. Strive to bring in non-animal sources of protein and healthy fats from legumes, nuts and seeds. Fill in with foods high in antioxidants such as berries and add some lemon or apple cider vinegar to your water to alkalinize and support overall health. The more you focus on bringing in the foods that serve you, the sooner the foods that don’t serve you will fall by the wayside, or will at least move to a healthier place in the mix.
When it comes to aging, any foods that speed up the process? Processed foods, sugar, artificial ingredients, partially hydrogenated oils and any foods that you can’t translate in your mind you’re likely not to be able to translate in your body either. These combined with a sedentary lifestyle can wreak havoc on your skin and your health.
How about foods that slow down the ageing process? Our food choices together with lifestyle can help slow the ageing process. Antioxidant rich foods that neutralise free radicals and the damage they do to cells and membranes are a great addition, as are super foods such as blueberries, broccoli, oats, quinoa, pumpkin seed, walnuts and more. Keep your food clean – minimally processed for maximum nutrition – and eat foods that come from the green kind of a plant as opposed to a processing plant. Combine a healthy diet with vitamin D from the sun, fresh air, clean water, ample sleep and exercise, and you’re apt to be feeling and looking younger in no time. If there was one food everyone should eat to make our skin look its best, what would it be? I always recommend that people start with greens! Many consider green to be the colour of healing, and it happens also to the colour most missing in the standard British diet. Dark leafy greens like kale, collard greens, cabbages, romaine lettuce, watercress, mustard greens, dandelion greens … provide a wealth of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that benefit everything including your liver and heart to your bones and eyes. Greens are known to reduce inflammation, and can even help reduce risk for diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
The Vitamin A Rich Green Smoothie. A collagen protector that is tasty and beautifying! Serves: 2
Ingredients:
2 cups spinach
½ cucumber
1 small avocado
½ cup mango fruit or 1 orange (+ zest – makes it really orangey!)
1 lime
2 cups coconut water (or water) to cover
1 Tbsp chia seeds
1 Tbsp flax seeds (ground)
2 Tbsp pumpkin seeds
Method:
1. Put spinach into the blender first, followed by all the other ingredients.
2. Note: the orange zest is really worth adding – it creates a really zingy mango-orange flavour.
3. Blend everything for about 1-2 minutes until smooth
4. Drink!
Greenie genie: a juice to help acne or problem skin. Alkalising green juices are especially beneficial for improving acne. Go for ingredients such as asparagus, celery, parsley and watercress, and don't overload on high-fructose fruits. Carrot juice, rich in beta-carotene, is also a useful addition, but try to keep the juices mostly green. This is a deliciously light juice with a refreshing ginger tang. The grassiness of the green ingredients is slightly sweetened by the apples.
Makes one large glass:
2 medium apples
2 medium carrots
2cm (1in) cube ginger, unpeeled
4 small asparagus spears
small handful parsley
small handful freshly cut wheatgrass, or 1 level tsp of powdered greens, such as wheatgrass, chlorella or spirulina
Method:
Juice together all the ingredients, in their entirety, stirring in your chosen powdered greens (if using) just before serving.
Juice together all the ingredients, in their entirety, stirring in your chosen powdered greens (if using) just before serving.
