Many women seem to believe that having a smooth, healthy, and glowing skin requires an expensive skin care regimen. Sure, some of those products provide excellent results, giving your skin a beautiful tone and complexion. However, you don’t have to break the bank to get a glowing skin.
Beautiful skin is not only about your favorite cream or treatment. It’s also about eating the correct balance of food which nourishes the skin from within.
When regularly used over an extended period, the five foods listed below, and which are locally available can feed your skin with the vital amount of nutrients it needs not only giving it a glowing look but soft, supple and infection free touch as well.
Cooked Tomatoes
Tomatoes are simply some of the most common foods. While you might take them for granted, they play a vital role in giving your skin the nutrients it deserves to look healthy and radiant.
What makes tomatoes red is a phytochemical called Lycopene. But coloration of the tomato fruit is not all it does. Lycopene also helps strengthen collagen – a protein that makes your skin taut and gives it a youthful structure.
Lycopene also fights UV rays’ oxidizing effect by eliminating the free radicals that cause skin-aging. According to a study conducted by the British Journal of Dermatology, it’s found that women who eat tomato paste daily have a higher level of protection against sunburn.
It is, however, advisable to eat cooked tomatoes because cooking enhances the levels of lycopene. Tomato sauce, ketchup, and even gazpacho are, therefore, better options compared to raw tomatoes.
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are not only naturally sweet, delicious and low in calories; they are also one of the healthy foods that fight sun damage to your skin.
By eating sweet potatoes, you provide your skin with the greatest natural sunscreen ingredients including carotenoids, beta carotene, and lycopene. All these protect the skin against UV rays.
Carotenoids, which act as antioxidant, are responsible for reducing the negative effects of UVB radiation. Beta carotene, on the other hand, naturally slows down skin aging process and protects the skin from the sun. Lycopene is said to be twice as effective as beta carotene because it has an SPF of about 3 hence prevents skin cancer and UVB from burning the skin.
Furthermore, vitamin E which help strengthen skin cells and reduce inflammation is available in sweet potatoes.
Papaya
Papaya is another fruit that is readily available in most supermarkets, and that’s great news because it contains numerous enzymes that can give your skin a wonderful glow.
One of those enzymes is chymopapain, which relieves inflammation, a common cause of various skin conditions.
Papain is another valuable enzyme.While it can remove blemishes, it can help to treat acne when applied topically. Moreover, it dissolves fats that clog the skin pores.
In just one cup of fresh and ripe papaya, you get a remarkable 144 percent of vitamin C, which is an amazing strengthener of collagen.
Avocado
Avocado is an inexpensive and versatile fruit that can do wonders for your complexion.
Rich in healthy fatty acids, vitamins, and antioxidants, avocados can protect your skin from sun damage, protect against symptoms of skin sensitivity and inflammation, reduce the destruction of beneficial skin lipids, and improve your skin’s density, thickness, tone and general appearance.
Key ingredients that are found in avocados are vitamin C and vitamin E. The former helps in binding skin cells and maintaining their firmness and structure by creating elastin and collagen. The latter prevents free radical damage from oxidizing fats in your skin cells that lead to aging skin.
Other important ingredients are moisturizing monounsaturated fatty acids and antioxidant carotenoids which further protect your skin.
Yellow Peppers
A healthy diet that contains the right proportions of yellow bell peppers is necessary to achieve a glowing, young-looking and healthy skin. Yellow pepper helps in the formation of collagen which protects skin cells from getting damaged and tightens sagging skin.
Even more is the ability of yellow pepper to heal shingles and athlete’s foot when combined with other medication. This is because it has great anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. It’s also proven to remove blemishes and rashes when mixed with carrot juice.
While yellow peepers offer the best results, you can still use green bell peppers which contain a significant amount of fiber, protein, and iron which are essential for a smooth, healthy skin.
Remember, all these results are achievable if you include yellow peppers in your daily diet. And the good thing is that they are readily available in your supermarkets at very low price.
Finally, while it’s easy to get attracted to commercial skin care products because of the results they offer, you can also start healthy eating habits to achieve the same results. Every food you eat plays a significant role in the beauty of your skin, and if you eat the correct balance of foods, you’ll be a step ahead to achieving a soft, supple and infection-free skin.
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