Did you know what you eat can make you more beautiful? Here’s the scoop on enhancing your beauty routine with the foods you eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Look Younger
Almonds have amazing anti-aging properties. Not only do they contain a lot of vitamin E (you know, the vitamin that’s often listed as an ingredient in anti-wrinkle creams), but they also contain high amounts of fatty acids (which help keep skin plump and supple), as well as the antioxidant selenium. Just don’t eat too many of these crunchy beasts. They have great beautifying properties, but they also contain a lot of calories. A handful is plenty!
Strengthen Nails
Keep your nails strong and moisturized by eating lots of protein. Protein is what builds up keratin, the substance nails are made up of. Skinless, boneless chicken breast, lean turkey, tuna, and beans are all good, tasty sources.
Shiny Hair
Foods rich in vitamin B are fantastic for making dull hair shinier. You can get a lot of “The B” from eggs, milk, green veggies, and poultry. Silica is also very important for keeping hair elastic, shiny, and healthy. Raw oats, cucumber skin, onions, and bean sprouts are all major sources of this mineral.
Banish Dry Skin
Faced with dry, flaky skin? Have fish for dinner! Fish (especially oily fish like salmon and sardines) contains omega-3 fatty acids, which are great for hydrating and nourishing skin.
Eradicate Zits
Move over, Clearasil. Zinc and calcium might be challenging your position as the best pimple annihilators. In one Swedish study, acne-prone patients who added a zinc supplement to their diets had an 85 percent reduction of acne in just three months. Some great sources of pimple-pummeling zinc are oysters, turkey, seafood, eggs, and milk. As you know, calcium is good for bones. But it’s also great for clearing skin. Calcium-rich foods like skim milk, low-fat cheese, and yogurt can help keep your skin pimple-free. No zits? Good times!
Banish Wrinkles
Collagen-building vitamin C is a real wrinkle-buster! Kiwis are a perfect summer food if you want to avoid pesky lines, one small kiwi contains more than 100 percent of the recommended daily intake of the vitamin. Vitamin C offers up tons of health benefits, including helping your body to build collagen. When you have more collagen, your skin retains more elasticity, and wrinkles are slower to form. Other great sources of the vitamin are oranges, mango, honeydew, and papaya.
Soothe Sunburn
Got a little carried away in the summer sun? Just reach for some peaches or blueberries. Turns out these sweet, seasonal treats contain tons of vitamin E. Vitamin E is known for easing the redness and swelling associated with sunburns. And by preventing swelling, it also prevents stretching of the skin that can lead to wrinkle formation.
Whiten Teeth
We all know that sodas, coffee, tea, and sugary foods can stain and discolor teeth. But did you know that certain foods can actually help to whiten your teeth? Crunchy foods like apples and celery help clear stain-causing substances off tooth enamel.
Bye-Bye Dark, Puffy Eyes
No one wants luggage under their eyes. If you have them, up your intake of vitamin C and iron. Iron plus vitamin C equals a great way to attack dark under-eye circles. Try pairing up sliced, boneless, skinless chicken breasts (high in iron) with some of those sliced red, yellow or orange peppers. Sauté them together, with some onions and garlic, in a nonstick pan spritzed with nonfat cooking spray. The result? A delicious, low-cal, under-eye, circle-erasing feast!
Get the Glow
To get skin looking fresh, dewy, refreshed, and healthy, guzzle down lots of H2O. It may sound cliché, but it’s definitely true. Water flushes out toxins, and keeps you hydrated, so it really does keep skin looking fresh and supple.
Prevent Skin Cancer
Tomatoes kick ass. They contain three skin-cancer-fighting antioxidants: beta carotene, vitamin C, and lycopene. Tomato it up with stewed tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, and tomato sauce! And if you want to maximize your body’s absorption of lycopene, cook your tomatoes slightly in a small amount of olive oil.
