Most of us want beautiful, glowing healthy skin. But how do we achieve that? Our skin is part of our first line of defense and to keep up that part of our immune system it needs to be a strong barrier in order to protect us from pathogens, so we must keep it healthy. Here, Australian Nutritionist Karen Fischer has answered a few questions on how we can keep our skin healthy and looking its best. Karen aims to help her clients and others work through their skin issues in her award-winning book The Healthy Skin Diet: Your Complete Guide to Beautiful Skin in Only 8 Weeks!. I highly recommend this book to anyone with skin troubles. I hope you enjoy this Q & A and I hope it gives you a few tricks and some inspiration to help you achieve healthier skin.
HFL: How can diet affect your skin?
K.F.: If you’ve ever lamented about inheriting crap genes cause your skin isn’t as good as your friend’s (who can eat chocolate ice-cream for breakfast and still look like a supermodel), then you know that genetics play a role the appearance of your skin. However, your diet influences your genetics – you can literally compensate for poor skin genes by making good meal choices on a daily basis. The typical western diet contributes to skin problems and chronic tiredness, if you don’t have supermodel genetics (which most of us don’t). For example, if you eat processed breakfast cereal with milk in the morning; have a coffee and white bread sandwich for lunch; and pizza or risotto for dinner, you have just consumed the types of fats that make skin cells rigid and prone to premature ageing and cellulite, plus large amounts of acids that your kidneys, skin and lungs have to work overtime to bring back to alkaline; and you have made it harder for your bowels to remove toxic wastes. However, a diet rich in beauty foods supplies the right ratios of good fats; keeps your blood sugar levels steady; and offers alkaline-forming substances to keep the blood pH and bowel health optimal and your skin quality can improve greatly within a matter of weeks.
HFL: Which foods are really good for your skin (a.k.a beauty foods)?
Dark leafy greens such as baby spinach, rocket and parsley; rolled oats, soy lecithin granules, omega-3 rich fish, linseeds (flax seed), avocado, almonds, lemons and limes to name a few. Variety is important unless you have eczema, which has a very specific regime that is a bit restricted. For other skin conditions, begin by choosing mostly unprocessed and un-packaged foods that are fresh and in season. However, I believe that healthy food needs to be served in a delicious way so you want to be healthy for the rest of your life, without feeling deprived in any way, which is why I design my own recipes. Desserts can even be good for you if you choose the right ones.
HFL: Which foods are not so good for the skin and why?
High GI, packaged foods such as pastries, biscuits and white bread and processed oils such as margarine, soft drink, processed deli meats, ice cream and other dairy products as they can promote premature ageing of the skin, cellulite and other skin ailments. These foods disrupt the pH balance of the blood, because spikes in blood sugar, contribute to poor bowel health and don’t supply the enough of the right nutrients for healthy skin. However, some unhealthy foods can be consumed in moderation, depending on your specific skin ailment.
HFL: What does the skin needs to replenish itself?
It’s vital to prioritize sleep (eight hours each night), learn to truly relax and stop worrying so much, and of course, eat well. Virtually every vitamin and mineral is necessary for drop-dead gorgeous skin, as well as oils rich in omega-3 and foods that promote healthy bowel flora. You can greatly improve your skin’s appearance as its moisture content, its smoothness and its ability to recover from conditions like acne – by choosing low GI (glycemic index) foods such as rolled oats for breakfast; grainy bread sandwiches or a tasty salad for lunch (it’s what’s in the dressing that counts) and protein such as fish or free-range chicken for dinner with alkalizing vegetables and low GI rice.
About Our Guest
Karen Fischer is a former model, nutritionist and mother of two fussy kids who have been the inspiration for her research into skin health (her daughter had severe eczema as a baby). Karen’s first book, The Healthy Skin Diet: Your Complete Guide to Beautiful Skin in Only 8 Weeks!, is a bestseller and was winner of the 2008 Australian Food Media Award for the Best Health, Nutrition or Specific Diet Book; her second book Don’t Tell Them It’s Healthy was the inspiration for a Hansel and Gretel style musical in Queensland (Mighty Foods The Musical) and her third book Healthy Family, Happy Family has just been released. Karen believes that laughter and a sense of humour about life are just as important as eating healthy food and she finds time to be lazy because relaxation is also great for the complexion! Karen’s website is Health Before Beauty.
Thanks Karen!
photo credit: suzaned & shared at: pennywise platter
Michelle
Health Food Lover is Michelle Robson-Garth. Michelle is a degree-qualified Naturopath (BHSc) and Massage Therapist. She is also a passionate writer, recipe-creator and all-round foodie from Melbourne, Australia. © Copyright: 2009-2012 Michelle Robson-Garth. Please ask permission first when using any text or images on healthfoodlover.com. Read the disclaimer here. Have a look at the recipe index for more health food lovin’ recipes. Join the Facebook page & follow Health Food Lover on twitter.
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I got tons of tips and advice and I take good care of my skin so serious. If only someone could find a magic pill for young, healthy looking skin they would become a very rich man or indeed woman lol.Unfortunately, no such miracle tablet exists but there are several steps you can take to help keep your skin supple, youthful and blemish free…thats why we need to treat our skin like a queen :)
Wonderful information! I used to have horrible acne on my back (gross!) until I cleaned up my diet! Now my back (and face) is very clear and I rarely ever have blemishes.
Hey, thank you for the information. Healthy foods choices are really crucial for our diet.
Every woman wants a beautiful and perfect skin. They must read this article!
This is very good information. What do you recommend for removing or lessening age spots?
perfect work, Michelle, thanks! It`s simple and easy to understand. Healthy skin is a really great problem for the most women (I`m among them). I taking into accounts your advice and try to make it come true to get the desirable effect
Thanks for the helpful information
(I have a dry thin skin)
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