So often we look for quick fixes in lotions and potions that promise to help us look younger and more beautiful. But nothing is more effective than approaching beauty from the inside out. Our skin is a reflection of what’s going on in our bodies, says health coach Christine Gonzalez. Certain foods are said to heal and protect skin; while others can contribute to breakouts and wrinkles (yes, wrinkles). Here is a guide to some great beautifiers and some things you may want to rethink.
Beautifiers. Here are some things Gonzalez recommends for beautiful skin and why they’re so helpful.
- Whole Foods. You can heal your skin by eating plenty of whole, unprocessed, organic foods to provide your body with more nutrients and fewer toxins, says Gonzalez. Fruits and leafy greens like kale and spinach are especially good.
- Omega-3s. You can prevent fine lines and wrinkles with Omega-3 fatty acids. These beauties keep skin hydrated and more elastic. You can find them in oil-rich fish (like salmon), flax seeds and walnuts.
- Antioxidants. Load up on antioxidant-rich foods like blueberries, red grapes and pomegranate to prevent wrinkles because they protect skin from damaging free radicals brought on by exposure to the sun and pollution.
- Fiber. Get your daily dose of fiber to heal skin by flushing out toxins. The daily recommendation is about 25 to 35 grams per day. Most people only get about half that, according to the American Heart Association. Beans, whole fruits and whole grains are all chock full of fiber.
- Hydrate. Drinking plenty of water also helps flush out toxins. The daily recommendation is 64 ounces, or about five 12-ounce glasses. If you get bored with water, try tea as long as it’s free of caffeine, which is a diuretic.
Things to Avoid. There are also quite a few things that aren’t doing your skin any favors.
- Stress. OK, it can be nearly impossible to avoid stress; but you can find ways to manage it. And that will get you on the road to clearer skin. “Stress is one of the leading triggers of acne,” says Dr. Katie Rodan, one of the dermatologists behind the popular Proactiv line. To manage stress, she recommends getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, practicing yoga and taking time out for calming activities like a relaxing bath.
- Fats. If pimples or rosacea are a problem for you, it will be helpful to cut back on fatty foods, especially ones with saturated fats, which can be found in things like whole dairy products, fatty meats, and coconut and palm oils. Fats promote inflammation, which in turn makes rosacea worse and encourages small bumps and pimples.
- Sugar. Sugar contributes to wrinkles, acne and rosacea. It stiffens the skin and leads to fine lines and wrinkles by breaking down collagen density. Just like fats, sugar promotes inflammation, which exacerbates rosacea and leads to bumps and pimples. It also stimulates the growth of a certain kind of fungus, which promotes acne. Who knew a cute little cupcake could launch such an assault on the face?
- Processed Foods. When you eat processed foods, like white bread and chips, you get the same effects as when you eat sugar, because these foods lack nutrients and quickly convert into sugar in our bodies.
Reality Check. Now don’t get me wrong; I’m no food saint and I’m not into extremes. In fact, I have found that when I have tried to cut something out of my diet altogether, I found that I just wanted it more and then overindulged later so I will eat the occasional cheeseburger and slice of deep dish pizza. And I will totally nosh on awesome appetizers at a party. BUT I try to indulge in moderation and find a balance by making sure I’m nourishing myself with plenty of good options as well. For instance, if I get a burger, I’ll make sure to drink plenty of water with it and pair it with salad. And if I’m going to a party, I’ll have one or two green smoothies chock full of fruit and veggies beforehand so I don’t arrive starving and I will have filled up a bit on good stuff first (you can learn more about green smoothies and get recipe ideas on Hello Beauty).
I also find that knowing the information above is a good incentive to limit the offenders and indulge in more of the good stuff; and my skin thanks me for it.
photo by drubuntu
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Already Pretty contributor Sonja Shin is a beauty and wellness writer, TV reporter and producer and on-camera talent based in St. Louis. She has appeared as a beauty expert guest on Fox News in St. Louis and has reported general and health/medical news at TV stations in San Francisco, Seattle and St. Louis. Her blog Hello Beauty focuses on beauty and wellness with many reviews, tips and tricks, and how to videos.
{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
I appreciate most of the recommendations, and particularly agree about sugar, but strongly disagree about fats- Eating lots of high quality fats (including Omega 3s, as well as saturated fats from grass fed fatty meats, ghee, and coconut oil) are a key to improving many people’s skin, hair, and nails.
I understand avoiding hydrogenated oils and typically fatty takeout food (french fries, deep fried items, curries), as many of these have inferior quality fats, and are often high in sugar and grain products (which break many people out). Grains in these products cause inflammation, but the idea that fats promote inflammation is downright untrue.
The 64 oz of water/day is a myth put forward, mostly, by the bottled water industry. Study after study debunks it, but it does keep cropping up in mysterious passive voice (“it is recommended that….) If you’re thirsty, drink. If you’re not, don’t. That is what is healthy.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/no-you-dont-need-to-drink-64-ounces-of-water-a-day/
An expert panel at Harvard still supports drinking about 64 oz of water a day as a general guide. You can get more information about healthy drinking at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks-full-story/.
Per Harvard: “… the Institute of Medicine has set an adequate intake of 125 ounces (about 15 cups) for men and 91 ounces for women (about 11 cups). (5) Note that this is not a daily target, but a general guide. In most people, about 80% of this comes from beverages; the rest comes from food. As for the oft-repeated nutrition advice to “drink eight glasses of water every day,” there’s little evidence to support it, but this would be one excellent way to fulfill most of a person’s fluid requirement.”
I’m so disappointed to see this nonsense on one of my favorite fashion blogs.
Me too! Scientific nonsense, I expected better!
Reply to my own post! Anyway…
I would be more likely to accept these tips and tricks if they were presented with any science to back them up. Peer reviewed studies in reputable scientific or medical journals.
I feel similarly… antioxidants have not held up in double-blind studies as having any sort of health effect, so it would be nice to stop seeing them touted everywhere as some sort of miracle cure.
Listen, a good deal of this doesn’t make sense if you think of it from a Biology 101 perspective. Take “get your daily dose of fiber to heal skin by flushing out toxins.” Fiber helps the digestive system move along smoothly. It is not about flushing “toxins” – which no one who talks about them ever defines, these mysterious toxins that we also need things like juice cleanses to get rid of.
And to be frank, what do healthy bowel movements have to do with “healing” the skin on your face? I am far from convinced here.
Toxins are flushed out of your system as long as your kidneys are working. Fiber doesn’t play into it!
I’m glad to see these comments, as I was coming here to post in much the same style. I very much wish the water thing in particular would go away. I read some really embarrassingly titled book (Look Five Years Younger Now) or something by a dermatologist who even debunked the water thing. It doesn’t “flush” and your skin isn’t affected by it. You can’t really heal it from the inside out like that. I won’t say more as I’d be speaking w/out full knowledge but simply, yes, it doesn’t make sense from a Biology 101 perspective, as the above poster said. I see these comments as positive thing. Women not buying the information put forth in women’s magazines without citation or with sketchy citation.
This is a topic that is very close to my heart. From my experiences in talking with friends and reading blog posts of this nature (in other words – I’m not an expert AT ALL – just someone who’s into skincare) there are many women and men out there that will swear up and down that by cutting out dairy, or sugar or whatever they vastly improved their skin, which makes me think this can’t all be a load of bunk. But it’s also important to remember that these aren’t hard and fast rules and that NO ONE’S skin and body are the same. I’ve struggled with adult acne here and there and I remember at one particularly low point tearfully exclaiming to my husband “I don’t know what else I can cut out!!” which is a pretty pitiful state to get in over skin. For me, my complexion issues were really a result of stress, and quite literally what I was putting ON my skin – NOT putting in my body.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I’ve asked Sonja to swing by and respond.
Oy vey. Cutting out fats? Our bodies need saturated fats, as long as the source is a healthy one. Coconut oil is certainly considered a healthy fat, with it’s medium-chain fatty acids. It helps in weight loss, thyroid function, fights infection, and a host of other benefits. Dairy, consumed in it’s natural form (not homogenized or pasteurized, with full fat) from a grass fed cow is high in many vital nutrients. Of course, if you are allergic you should avoid it, but that goes for any food. And grass fed meats? Full of vitamin D3 and CLA that we need. Sugar should be avoided, certainly, and so should white bread and other heavily processed foods. But the fats? If they are natural, don’t knock ‘em!
Just wanted to add-It’s not fat that causes inflammation. The culprit is sugar.
Agree with above commenters. This “information” is available everywhere, generally comes without citation to any scientific bases (in contrast to “what people claim happened” when they cut out dairy/wheat etc etc etc), and is not useful. Thank you for asking for a response from the writer but … I have cup of coffee waiting to share my morning stop off at Already Pretty and now we have to go drink elsewhere!
Please, please, please don’t lump coconut oil and palm oil in the same lot! They are NOT the same thing and so different! I’m surprised at the “outdatedness” of this post. Coconut oil (unprocessed) is excellent for your body, but it is high in calories.
I disagree with the posters above “against” drinking water. Most of us go around semi-dehydrated, and it IS good for your skin.
Also, chia seeds are an easy way to get some Omega 3 fatty acids, too! Most of us eat too many foods with Omega 6′s and not enough Omega 3′s to balance them out.
**Sigh** These type of recommendations just make me sad. I have not-great skin (truthfully, I think it’s awful). I am 31, I have acne, I have tried every product under the sun for the past 12 years (when it started), and nothing works. I drank 64 oz of water a day for years. I invested in Omega-3 fish oil pills for 6 months. I take vitamins every single day and I am the queen of fiber (for reasons not related to my skin). I eat white sugar and bad fats rarely. Nothing works. I still have acne.
I think the reason why posts like this make me sad (and a little angry too) is because they feed into the assumption that if something is wrong with you physically (or just not model perfect) than you are unhealthy, or doing unhealthy things that cause these imperfections. I am fat and I get crap all the time from people telling me to eat better foods or work out more. I hike 15 miles a week and I have been on a diet since I was 15. I’m still fat. I’m also big-boned. But I know people look at me and assume that I must be an unhealthy mess because I am fat. That is not a compassionate or realistic assumption to make. It’s also not compassionate or realistic to assume that I must be unhealthy if I have pimples or wrinkles.
My issue with posts like this is that they perpetuate the idea that if something is wrong with us physically, it must because we’re not healthy. Some people have bad skin and no amount of water will fix it. Some people are fat and they exercise and they are still fat. How about instead of judging each other and creating arbitrary rules about what you have to do to be healthy, we just try acceptance? Instead of telling people how to fix their skin, how about we give them the benefit of the doubt, assume that they have read a magazine or watched TV in the past 15 years, and acknowledge that they have the right to make choices about their personal health without any one else’s approval?
Amen to all that.
Another disappointed reader here … although I’m glad to see many others being sensible in the comments!
I know there will be teething troubles as you start having more guest posts, but this one made me particularly sad for several reasons:
(1) As many others have commented already – ugh, pseudoscience. In particular, comments about “toxins” – whatever they are, as Colleen said – and effects of antioxidants, as Kat said. This blog is usually a haven of good sense!
(2) Like Sarah pointed out above – feeding this “follow these steps and you’ll get these results” myth (with its counterpart of “if you are not perfect in way XYZ it is because you aren’t working hard enough”). I don’t imagine this was Sonja’s intention, but messages like these do feed this idea.
(3) Moralising about food. To be fair, this post is by no means the worst thing I’ve read in this regard – but it still expresses notions of some foods being good (e.g. green smoothies), and some foods being bad (e.g. cheeseburgers) which is just rubbish.
Food is bad if its production involved cruelty and exploitation. It is not bad because it is full of sugar, or full of fat, or not green enough, or too calorie-dense. It might be more or less appropriate for a particular situation. (Going up a mountain? You might want to pack some pretty calorie-dense food. Sick and unable to keep much down? You might want fatty fast food you associate with comfort because it makes you feel better and gets enough calories into you.) But it is not inherently virtuous or inherently evil.
(4) Class/money issues … this blog is usually so great at giving suggestions that could apply to anyone, on any budget, with (just about!) any lifestyle. This post really is not. I suppose water is free, but if you read through the recommended/rubbished foods with an eye to price and likely consumer demographic? … yeah, there are things going on there that aren’t pretty. (NB I don’t think this was Sonja’s intention. I do think that all of this type of advice about ‘wellness’ and ‘beauty through food’ is entrenched in class/money/elitist assumptions.)
I’m sure it was well-intentioned … but good intentions don’t make up for bad/harmful content. Particularly here, in a place that’s usually so helpful and full of good content!
Pseudoscience is a personal pet peeve of mine, and supposed healthy lifestyle magazines often lead the way with this type of junk. I’m so pleasantly suprised to see so many people speak up against it. There is hope for humankind yet!
Agree! What a great batch of informed responses. Very heartening!
Lots of great comments. While a healthy diet (which will be different for different people) can change the way you feel and look, it is not the whole story for body type or skin type, as Sarah so beautifully and poignantly pointed out.
The people I know with the best skin have moms and grandmothers and aunts with great skin (i.e. hello, genetics). I was surprised not to see cigarettes and sun on the list of ‘to avoids’–not foods (I get that), but two of the major lifestyle factors that can have a huge impact on one’s skin.
Thank you, Ms. Shin, for starting a good discussion (even though many of us disagree with your points), and thank you, commenters, for restoring my faith in rational thought.
I too was disappointed by this post, but at least the comments make me feel like I’m in smart and informed company when I read this blog. And that’s something, right?
I don’t think anyone is against drinking water. But we don’t need to drink 64 ounces a day. I vaguely recall the myth originating from some throwaway line in a paper about something else and it somehow took off. And that 64 ounce recommendation includes the water in the foods you eat.
Sonja, the author, didn’t mention this but I also get a little frustrated with the recommendation to always drink water even before you feel thirsty because by then it’s too late and you’re already a bit dehydrated. It feels like we’re being told yet again to ignore and distrust our natural body signals that have served us well for thousands of years.
I think it depends though. I do better if I make water available to myself all day, by keeping around a glass of it or a water bottle, because I’ll find myself absentmindedly drinking it just because it’s there.
If I don’t, by the end of the day I’ll suddenly be horribly thirsty and feel like dumping three glasses of water down my throat at once. (bad idea right before bed)
No where in the article does anyone advocate ignoring and distrusting your natural body signals. Please don’t read into what isn’t there.
As for the general guideline on 64 ounces a day, as I mentioned to someone else, an expert panel on nutrition at Harvard still supports drinking about 64 oz of water a day as a general guide. You can get more information about healthy drinking at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks-full-story/.
Per Harvard: “… the Institute of Medicine has set an adequate intake of 125 ounces (about 15 cups) for men and 91 ounces for women (about 11 cups). (5) Note that this is not a daily target, but a general guide. In most people, about 80% of this comes from beverages; the rest comes from food. As for the oft-repeated nutrition advice to “drink eight glasses of water every day,” there’s little evidence to support it, but this would be one excellent way to fulfill most of a person’s fluid requirement.”
I rarely comment, but I had to add how disappointing it is to see this blatantly incorrect information posted here. I enjoy this blog for fashion tips and its body-positive mentality, not for meaningless talk about “toxins” and misleading dietary information.
the comments on this post pleasantly reminded me why i come here everyday – it’s because of the smart and thoughtful readers/commenters almost as much as it’s because of Sally herself!
<3
Wow, I never expected so much hostility on a blog that provides so much positive, helpful information or in trying to share a non-extreme article with credible information. I’m not going to engage with rants but want to add that this information comes from a credible source. Gonzalez is a highly trained, knowledgeable health coach who has exhaustively studied nutrition and does not subscribe to pseudoscience. She is very grounded in traditional science with a pharmacy degree from UCSF and has worked as a respected pharmacist for years but has also aimed to take a more holistic approach to health. She rigorously and thoughtfully keeps up on studies and does not jump on unsupported new age nonsense. I have also received nutrition and healthy living advice from her that has most definitely made a positive impact on my health, which is reflected in my skin. Furthermore, the information in the article was meant to provide general tips and never advocated doing anything extreme.
Hi everyone. Just wanted to say that I have worked with Sonja for years and trust her judgment, and knew that she would only use credible, carefully vetted sources. I read this article multiple times before publication, and have personal experience with several of its suggestions that have led to clearer skin for myself. I understand that there is disagreement within the expert and scientific community about many of these recommendations, but bear a couple of things in mind:
1. Disagreement is part of discourse, and what experts believe is healthy for us changes constantly. Although certain recommendations here may not work for some, they may work for others. None of them are complete, unsubstantiated bunk or pseudoscience.
2. These are merely recommendations. No one was being judged here, no one was being told that they must adhere to these tips or suffer consequences. The message here is not meant to be “do all of these things and you, personally, are guaranteed improved skin,” but instead, “experimenting with these additions and subtractions might be helpful to your skin.”
I didn’t expect such a forceful response to this post, or I would’ve said what I always say in advice posts: None of the advice posts on this website should be considered gospel, including this one, and I fully expect you to read them with a grain of salt. I trust you to use your judgment. And I trust you to take what applies to you, discard the rest, and assume positive intent.
I appreciate your input, but am surprised by your vehemence. We will reconsider how to move forward.
I really think that commenters are responding to not only the questionable science, but also to the general feel of this article. I know I don’t comment much, but I have been reading this blog for years. And the joy of coming here is that it is a forum for smart and thoughtful women, and Sally, you treat us like an intelligent and engaged audience.
This article felt like one of hundreds of articles just like this that one could find by googling skincare – overly generic, superficial, and non-reflective – an article that was produced for the masses, and treats the reader as though she is not an engaged, thinking person. And I have to say, that the author’s response only reinforced this feeling. By refusing to engage in what she calls “rants” (and not considering what people are trying to say in their long and thoughtful responses!), and really providing no sense of reflection or responsibility regarding what went wrong here, she is sending the message that she is an expert and we are simply too irrational/uninformed to understand. Speaking for myself, that does not feel good on this blog, which I have found to be a wonderful space of support, solidarity, and exchange.
As an avid reader of this blog and professional beauty/wellness writer who has interviewed dozens of derms, allergists, estheticians and naturopaths alike, I’m shocked and disappointed by the hostility and ignorance behind most of these comments. Sonja’s and Sally’s intentions are not only 100% positive, but come from personal experience as well as research. It doesn’t take a doctor or scientist to connect the dots (though the good ones will agree): What we consume and our body’s ability or inability to process it often manifests on our skin. So does stress. This isn’t “pseudoscience,” it’s one of the most basic principles of how the human body functions. Yes, every body is different and responds differently to certain foods, stress, etc., but as a general rule of thumb all of Sonja’s recommendations are spot on. She makes a case for good fats vs. bad fats (which cause inflammation, heart disease, diabetes). She recommends water and fiber as a means for flushing out toxins because they help with proper elimination (yep, I said it). If waste builds up in your liver or intestines, it can cause a whole host of problems when the toxins look for someplace to go — often through your skin (hello acne, rosacea, psoriasis). Finally, I hear a lot of fear in these comments, which is often the case when a) someone challenges traditional medicine/science/religion or b) your way of life —in this case, diet. Food is very personal for people. And those who aren’t comfortable opening their minds and entertaining that everything their parents/doctor/teacher/TV taught them might not be true, are going to react negatively. I hope that instead you’ll get excited about how empowered we all are to treat ourselves and our bodies like queens. You don’t need to read a blog or a medical journal to know what’s good for you. When feel at truly peace in body and spirit, then you’ll know you’re giving yourself the TLC you deserve. Good luck on your journey!
Respectfully, I think the disagreement has been very civil and informed, not hostile. Hostile to me is words like “stupid” or “useless” – insults. Saying something is not supported by science isn’t hostility in my book. If the author responded with citations for all the statements people are challenging I would be happy to read them. I am open minded but when it comes to biology I want citations – I’m a scientist, it’s how I’m trained and the media has proven SO untrustworthy at reporting science that I think skepticism is more than called for.
I’m with you, Colleen. I think the comments reflect true frustration with the lack of hard evidence behind most of these claims, not closed-mindedness. On the contrary, commenters are asking for more info: Where’s the evidence. What are “toxins”? Specifically, what molecules? (Yes, we are exposed to toxic substances, such as air pollution, pesticides, etc. but there is no evidence that drinking water gets rid of these substances, many of which are deposited in fatty tissue.) Where is the science backing up her assertion to drink 64 ounces of water? All of us know that what we eat/drink/breathe affects our health, but that is not the whole story. Being at peace with yourself and nourishing yourself is great, but it won’t necessarily give you great skin.
Here’s what has worked for me, take it or leave it.
1. Go cold turkey from skincare products. My acne was out of control in my 20′s, even going on the pill didn’t help. What helped was going completely off of all skincare products, but most especially soaps and cleansers and anything “Medicated.” This meant only rinsing with water am and pm.
I still only rinse with water in the am. If I wear cosmetics, I need something a little stronger. But no cleansers, detergents, or soaps. I use one of the below, depending on my needs that day:
Option 1- Oatmeal wash- super gentle way to cleanse, it calms skin very quickly. Just make some plain baby oatmeal, let cool, then wash your face with it.
Option 2- Oils. You can do your own oil mixtures, there are hundreds of combinations. I like a mixture of apricot kernel oil and grapeseed and seaweed that I purchase commercially, but you can easily make your own. This takes off my heaviest theatrical makeup.
Option 3. Honey- you can mix it with your oil, you can mix with milk, it hydrates and soothes.
Exfoliation- my skin doesn’t like alot of exfoliation, maybe once a week. I either mix honey and cornmeal OR oil and baking soda and use it as a scrub. Be gentle.
Treatment- a little tea tree oil if I have a monster zit can help, but I find honey works better. You can also use coconut oil to treat pimples.
This is what worked for me, your mileage may vary.
I agree with the whole foods, the stress, and the sugar, but the rest are completely opposite to my personal experience.
I don’t drink much water. I drink a lot of coffee & sometimes orange juice. I eat quite a bit of (grass-fed) saturated fat, a little fiber in the form of potatoes & white rice, and I get a lot of compliments on my skin. I also love ice cream several times a week and chocolate almost every day.
However my skin can turn from great to terrible after eating a few processed foods like candy bars, french fries, or cheap ice cream. Once and I’ll just get a pimple or two, a few times and my skin will be splotchy, dry, and just look not very nice. My husband gets breakouts from cheap ice cream also.
Eating bad food generall comes coupled with stress due to traveling, but the last time I ate a candy bar it was a movie treat for my husband’s birthday and I still got a pimple.
When I start seeing or feeling the effects, I usually make some bone broth. It’s great for your hair, skin, and nails and it also helps heal your guts.
I think self-experimentation is great. I encourage others to pay attention to what affect different foods have on them.
I’m glad this site has such a great community of commenters who can disagree without bashing.
I really enjoy reading at the beautifier tips. It is very well said and true!
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