What can be as thin as a millimeter and can bleed, ooze, burn, tear, swell, wrinkle, hurt, itch, sag, stretch, scar, regenerate, heal, blister, and peel? Yep, your it’s skin.
Is there some magical elixir that can make it all better? Turn back the clock to earlier days, or get rid of your acne, rosacea, dark circles under your eyes, heal your scar or stretch marks….
Drum roll… it all starts with food.
Today, on EAT THIS from the scarred to the acne’d, and the wrinkled, let’s talk about skin.
That magical elixir that I mentioned before… yes, food. While we can’t turn back the clock, it most certainly has an impact.
So let’s talk about food.
Real food. Vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, legumes… in other words PLANTS. And lots of them. Add in oily fish like salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines, and herring which are all excellent for your skin and homemade meat or bone broth are packed with that protein collagen I mentioned is lacking in wrinkled skin.
The food you eat… or don’t eat can truly show on your skin. If you listened to episode 7 and 8 where I talked about the evils of sugar, you have to know that it’s going to come up in this episode too. Sorry folks, we can’t get away from it. Don’t plug your ears and say LA, LA, LA, LA, LA, LA and tune me out now. We’ve come so far, let’s keep going.
If your diet has refined sugar in it, from candy or chocolate bars, cake, donuts, cookies, crackers, and any of those foods that you might not realize are packed with sugar like pasta sauce and canned soup, all those foods, in any quantity can lead to excessive insulin spikes which, in turn, triggers inflammation in your skin. As a result of that, elastin and collagen – that’s the stuff that makes your skin look plump and glowy – look damaged and even lead to premature wrinkles, sagging skin, acne, and even rosacea. All is not lost though because guess what??? Reducing your sugar intake will do just the opposite!
YES, your magic pixie dust that’s going to give you glowing skin is NOT sugar – if you seriously look at that sugar that you’re eating, reduce it, you can improve your complexion no matter what’s going on. You can strengthen the elastin and collagen and REDUCE inflammation in your skin and maybe even help your sore knees, hips, back, neck or even fingers feel better. How’s that for magic?!
Specific skin issues and what to do about them:
Rosacea
This angry, inflamed, red and sore situation has sufferers doing what they can to hide it with makeup offering the MOST coverage possible to even out skin tone. In my experience there’s a huge gut connection here and taking probiotics can like my TAKE THIS Bio Boost is non-negotiable.
Think back if you’ve ever taken antibiotics for a period of time in your life? Even if it was for the rosacea… I have found that garlic can help tremendously in some and it flares up in others. The thing is that with the gut connection, garlic helps to kill off yeast and fungus, which is often associated with rosacea.
Acne
Whether this is you, your teen or tween or anyone you know, acne can hit at any age. Acne, in my experience, can heal before your eyes with a diet full of fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds, protein like chicken, fish, and eggs with very little sugar, wheat, and dairy. Yep, I’m sorry that means no pizza, pasta, baked goods like bagels, drive-thru burgers, fries, and all the usual fast food and junk stuff that a typical teen eats.
But what you can eat are oats, salads, soups, brown rice, quinoa, amaranth, barley, have a meal of protein and vegetables, topped with nuts and seeds, eat apples or bananas with almond or peanut butter, make muffins that have grated carrot and zucchini in them for extra nutrients and fiber. You’ll find a ton of recipes in my book Sprout Right Family Food, no matter what stage you’re at. Head over to SproutRight.com for that.
Dull, sallow, grey and lifeless skin
First, how’s your sleep? Are you getting close to 8 hours a day? If not, you might be living on coffee to get you through your day. In clients that I consult with, it’s a vicious cycle. They don’t sleep well, so they’re tired. Then coffee and refined foods like coffee shop muffin, a bagel, and cream cheese start off their day. Or maybe nothing. They just hit start on the coffee maker and off they go… This is where the food you eat or don’t eat shows.
Water is the number one recommendation for improved skin.
Then colourful fruits and vegetables. I sound like a broken record here, but it all starts here. Superfoods with the most vibrant colours like berries, beets, goji berries, acai berries all help as well as the more common carrots, beets, peppers, avocado, broccoli, spinach, and sweet potatoes.
Dark circles under your eyes
This can often be genetic, but if you can give your liver a helping hand in its detoxification process and effort to rid your body of what it doesn’t need, it can help. Your kidneys play a part here too, so every morning, when you wake, drink a massive glass of room temperature laced with lemon juice – I usually do half a fresh lemon, and see if there’s a change.
Scars and stretch marks that are still red
This is all about elasticity and those nutrients include vitamin A, C, and E, and the mineral zinc (all found in ADULT BOOST). Vitamin C, is the real hero here because it supports connective tissue by synthesizing the collagen that gives strength and structure to skin and all tissues throughout the body. Sure you can take collagen in a supplement form but you first need vitamin C (TAKE THIS ALKA C is perfect for this).
So in a nutshell, skin health can be influenced positively or negatively by your diet. And you’ve heard me say the same foods throughout this episode and it may be boring to hear, but eating those plants, yes in balance with your occasional wings and beer or pizza and red wine on a Friday night, making changes to your diet will without a doubt show up right on your face, and that lovely reflection in the mirror will be glowing right back at you!
Body Boost of the Week – SKIN BOOST
You now know that inflammation is mostly at the root of any skin issues, so putting out that fire where to start to have any hope of vibrant, clear, glowing and supple skin that can heal itself and heal quickly. The best place to start is with the most brightly coloured foods.
In my TAKE THIS supplement line, I created SKIN BOOST a superfood powder to provide all those colourful foods that aren’t easy to eat every day. When was the last time that you ate beets, goji berries, pomegranate, kale, spirulina and spinach in the same mouthful? How ‘bout in the same day??? Well, lucky for you I put all that and went even further with schizandra berry juice powder, broccoli sprout, barley grass, parsley, and of course blueberry juice powder so you can stir in water, and easily down it. I called it SKIN BOOST because let’s face it, we all need a boost when it comes to the most colourful foods. Some days, you’re lucky if you get a veggie in, let alone one that’s green or red. I get it. That’s why this is a part of my supplement line. Even with the best of intentions, we all have days when it doesn’t come together and before you know it, it shows.
This doesn’t get you off the hook for eating spinach and kale salad, no, no, no – and what about those blueberries, and if you have yet to see what a goji berry looks like let alone put one in your mouth, you’re forgiven. You won’t find them in your local corner store… but you have no excuse now! I take this every day and the number one thing I get asked is about my glowing skin.
The foundation of nutrients from superfoods help to make your cells work better, replicate better, heal better, and all that means for you is that your skin glows from the inside out.
SKIN BOOST is also found in my Vibrant Skin Trio and BOOST BOX.
