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Nutrition - What to Feed your Skin
As already discussed, helping your skin from within is important, and not least with nutrition. Anti-aging is a big subject these days. The baby boomers want to stay young! Nothing gives away our age more than our skin and there is a lot that can be done to keep it looking young with nutrition. Anti-wrinkle, anti aging creams are one thing, but as usual, the most significant work is done from within. Apart from slowing skin aging, there are other skin conditions that have related nutrient deficiencies and there is a lot that can be done about that.
Nutrition for the Skin can be divided roughly (perhaps not a good choice of word here!), into 3 categories of nutrient.
1) Oils, 2) Antioxidants, 3) Vitamin and Minerals.
OILSThe essential fatty acids (EFAs) are essential for healthy skin (amongst other things, e.g. the anti-inflammatory effect of Omega 3). Most importantly the BALANCE between the Omega 3 and Omega 6 EFAs. An imbalance can result in dry skin, dandruff, cracking and early skin aging. EVERY eczema and Psoriasis sufferer should be addressing this aspect of nutrition, especially as both of those conditions are inflammatory in nature. Most people have an imbalance of in the ratio of EFAs in their diet and the easiest way of correcting this is by supplementation with a good oil like Omega Nutriton's Essential Balance, Flax Seed Oil or Udo's Choice.ANTIOXIDANTSThis is one of my favourite subjects. It is considered that the most important anti-aging measure you can take is supplementation with antioxidants. Free radicals damage all the organs of the body and the main effects of them on the skin are skin aging (wrinkles) and skin cancer (overexposure to sun). Poor diet, pollution, smoking and stress are the main causes of free radical build up. As some of those things are unavoidable for most of us, supplementation with free radical scavengers is advised.For many years Vitamin A,C and E were considered the best antioxidants. More recently there have been breakthrough discoveries about plant substances that have greatly increased our knowledge of what the best antioxidant, anti cancer and anti aging foods are. In short, its the colours that are important. Eating as wide a range of coloured fruits and vegetables on a daily basis is essential. Black grapes and blueberries are right at the top of the list of powerpacked fruits to have as regulars in your diet. Always try and get organically grown fruit as the pesticides and fungicides can often cause more problems than the fruit can prevent. I have done considerable research into plant based antioxidants and nutrition and that eventually gave birth to a supplement that I am very proud of called SUPERPHYTE. I have devoted a separate page to it. Some of the other most powerful antioxidants to think about are lipoic acid, grape seed extract, pine bark extract, astaxanthin, oregano and rosemary extract, curcumioids from turmeric, and lycopene from tomatoes. Drinking black grape juice and blueberry juice is a good source of antioxidants but always get the organic variety as not only are the antioxidant levels higher, but the fungicides are are definitely best avoided.
Vitamins and MineralsAs already stated vitamin C and E are very important for skin health - mainly as antioxidants. Vitamin A is one of the most important skin vitamins. A shortage will result in dry, flakey and cracked skin. It is contained in a wide variety of foods including cereals, fruits and vegetables.The most important B vitamin for the skin is biotin. It forms the basis of skin, nail, and hair cells. A deficiency can cause itchy, scaly skin and hair loss. Biotin is found in bananas, eggs, oatmeal, and rice. Copper, selenium and zinc are the most important minerals for the nutrition of the skin. Zinc and copper help the production of elastin, the fibres that support the skin structure. Zinc deficiency can be a factor in psoriasis and acne. Selenium has been implicated in the prevention of skin cancer. Multi mineral supplements are a good idea for many people because vegetables in some areas are grown in mineral deficient soil.
For great prices and range in online nutritional supplements I recommend AVIVA.Click here to visit the AVIVA website In Europe, without doubt the best place to go for quality supplements is Higher Nature. Click here:
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