6 Nutritionist Tips for Ultimate Skin Health
Looking for ways to enhance that dewy glow and get rid of red pigmentation? There are ways to ramp up skin cellular matrix health with specific nutrients, foods, and lifestyle interventions. Skin glows from the inside so diet is vital for supporting healthy skin. It’s really all about consistency when aiming to achieve ultimate skin health so here are six nutritionist tips that can help.
1. Avoid overeating
First things first – you must retrain your mind and biochemistry if you’re a binge eater. Skin health is tightly intertwined with the gut, so having healthy meal portions and eating slowly are vital to sustaining healthy skin and digestion. When you eat excessively in one sitting, it puts immense pressure on the digestive organs to secrete enzymes, bile, hydrochloric acid, and so forth. Simply put, if you can’t digest your food properly, you may not be absorbing and utilizing nutrients. This can contribute to food intolerances as the intestinal wall pressure exceeds its limits. As a result, food proteins travel straight to the blood, inducing an auto-immune reaction.
This is by far one of the hardest, yet most effective long-term health strategies you can do for yourself. If you can focus on mindful eating as your #1 goal, you’ll have started a HUGE healing part of your journey. Often binge eating occurs due to underlying mental health issues, poor gut microbiome diversity, and insufficient B-vitamins.
Tips: Keep your servings to one plate, eat slowly, remember to thoroughly chew your food, don’t eat past being 80% full, and mix some apple cider with water 30 minutes before a meal – wallah!
2. Increase collagen-rich foods
Okay, if you want to get your glow back, collagen-rich foods like organic bone broth or a collagen peptide supplement are your new best friend. Collagen is constructed from amino acids and they’re excellent for supporting skin hydration, elasticity, and pigmentation. Moreover, collagen helps with that luscious dewy glow! As an added bonus, you’ll also be healing your intestinal lining (perfect if you’re suffering from food intolerances) and even improving mood, wound healing, scarring, and anti-aging. You’ve probably heard about all these so it’s worth giving collagen a try!
Collagen food sources: Well-sourced animal bones (chicken, fish, and beef broths or soups), gelatin, and collagen peptide supplements. Aim for 1- 2 servings per day for the ultimate glow. Avoid pre-made broths as they’re packed with high sodium levels to sustain shelf-life. Fresh is best!
3. Have half of your plate filled with green vegetables
Yup, half your plate! Green vegetables are low in sugars and carbs but rich in skin-loving vitamins and minerals. Green vegetables are excellent for detoxifying the body–they’re packed with antioxidants that are vital for supporting a healthy gut. Adding in a daily organic green juice with cucumber, celery, ginger, turmeric, and watercress/green leafy veg can do wonders in helping to cleanse the blood and skin matrix. Spirulina, chlorella, and chlorophyll powders can be added to smoothies and juices, or mixed with lemon water first thing in the morning to cleanse the digestive tract. You don’t want to skip this tip as you’ll notice it also helps with energy, weight management, immunity, and lymphatic congestion. This will also significantly help lessen blood sugar spikes that can cause inflammation in the body.
Tip: Try to keep your greens as organic as possible – this is the perfect opportunity to support local growers or start your own veg patch!
Top Foods: Spirulina, chlorella, chlorophyll, celery, cucumber, sprouts, beans, kale, spinach, watercress, fresh herbs, cabbage, collard greens, asparagus, globe artichoke, bitter cucumber, rocket, dandelion leaves, bok choy, capsicum, zucchini, Brussels sprouts, choko, kohlrabi, mustard leaves. The more bitter – the better!
We also recommend you try out our Happy Greens formulation which is a great source of readily available plant-based nutrition.
4. Drink body-cleansing herbal teas throughout the day
Herbal teas are just another wonderful gift from nature to heal and nourish our bodies. They work in a myriad of different ways to promote detoxification and provide systematic antioxidant support within the body. Choose naturopathic-approved teas that are excellent for skin nourishment, wound healing, and other problematic conditions, or just to give your body a nutrient hit! Herbal tea blends are high in vitamin C, A, B-vitamins, silica, zinc, and even iron – that’s not to mention they’re also loaded with their own flavonoids.
Tip: Drink 2 – 3 cups per day, 30 minutes away from meals (you can also add your collagen peptides to your teas).
5. Don’t forget about Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs)
EFAs are foods that are often overlooked but are integral to skin health. Your skin is made up of fat – the cellular membranes which protect the external environment are synthesised by lipids. This structure needs to be well kept to defend against UV exposure, pollution, chemicals, oxidation, and internal stress. If you have hyperpigmentation, dry skin or are vegan, it’s important to get your daily doses of omega-3s. Wild-caught oily fish are the best sources of omega-3 EFAs as they provide EPA and DHA, whereas plant-based sources provide ALA. ALA needs to be converted to EPA and DHA for nutrient utilisation. Omega-3s are potent antioxidants excellent for mental health, neuronal signaling and skin integrity.
Tip: You can skip your chemical laden moisturisers and get a gorgeous skin glow directly with Happy Skin. They’re formulated specifically to nourish, hydrate and reduce inflammation in the skin.
Food Sources: Wild-caught oily fish (mackerel, salmon, herring, sardines), cod liver oil, nuts, seeds, plant-based cold-pressed oils (avocado, flax seed, apricot, olive).
6. Last but not least – fermented foods!
Gut health 101 – we need fermented foods to maintain a healthy gut microbiome. These cultures are vital to pretty much every single aspect of your overall health. They help to digest food by converting nutrients, synthesising digestive enzymes, digesting insoluble fibres, reducing inflammatory processes and keeping bad bugs at bay. Fermented foods also work wonders for acne and are super easy to make on your own. If you’re histamine intolerant, however, it’s better to avoid fermented foods until your mast cells have been regulated with a specific protocol.
Food Sources: Kimchi, sauerkraut, pickled vegetables, miso soup, kefir, plant-based kefir, organic free-range yoghurt, tempeh, and apple cider vinegar with the mother.
Some final thoughts
By adding these foods into your diet you’ll have less room for the skin nasties (sugars, processed foods, refined carbohydrates, poor quality/excessive animal products, dairy and poor-quality wheat). If your skin is out of balance, remember that it’s only trying to tell you something is off and you need to correct it from the inside!
It’s best to nourish internally, so you can glow externally.
It might be easier said than done, however, you can do this! Try incorporating the above tips every single day for a minimum of six weeks and blend in our high-quality skin nurturing products for optimal results.
If you’re still not seeing progress, there might be an underlying issue that needs to be addressed by a health professional. That’s the main reason I’m here to help support you in your health journey. If you’d like to book an appointment for a nutritional consultation, just click on the button below.
“Life doesn’t always go to plan. Being imbalanced is physically and mentally draining, I truly understand this without judgment. We have every right to be happy and healthy.” – Renee
