Clear Skin Diet Guaranteed to Give you Clear Skin
by Peter Lee
The skin is the body's largest organ and it covers you from head to toe. Just like the other organs, your skin also needs proper care and nourishment to look and feel healthy and avoid premature aging. There are a lot of products in the market that all promise to make your skin softer, smoother and more radiant.
The cheapest and most effective way to have healthier skin is not through the products mentioned in the previous paragraph, but by changing your diet to a clear skin diet. What is a clear skin diet? Not all people know that the food you eat is reflected on your skin. If you eat fatty food, the tendency is that you will have oily and pimply skin. If you learn to eat nutritious food that is part of the clear skin diet, your skin will have a glowing and radiant look.
When you want to prevent skin problems such as pimples, acne and white and dark spots you should change your eating lifestyle. A great skin can be achieved by eating food that is rich with antioxidants and vitamins. It also important to keep your skin hydrated by drinking enough water. Doctors recommend that you take at least 10 to 12 glasses of water a day. This is to avoid dehydration that will affect your cellular metabolism. Drinking enough water a day can make your skin clearer and healthier.
The Magic of Antioxidants
Studies showed that antioxidants in food can slow down the aging process of people. It was also found out that these can fight heart diseases and slow down cell degeneration. Antioxidants are a key component of the clear skin diet.
Antioxidants are chemicals that prevent the oxidation of other chemicals. Antioxidants play the housekeeper's role, "mopping up" free radicals before they get a chance to do harm in your body.
Here are several antioxidant nutrients which appear the most likely to produce benefits to your skin.
Vitamin A or Beta Carotene. It has been discovered that beta-carotene protects dark green, yellow and orange vegetables and fruits from solar radiation damage and it is thought that it plays a similar role in human body. Carrots, squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, kale, collards, cantaloupe, peaches and apricots are particularly rich sources of beta-carotene.
Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) is a water-soluble compound that fulfills antioxidant role, among others, in living systems. Important sources include citrus fruits (like oranges, sweet lime etc.), green peppers, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, strawberries, raw cabbage and tomatoes.
Vitamin E is a principal fat-soluble antioxidant vitamin in the body. It protects cellular membranes, lipoproteins and other "oily" structures. Skin is high in unsaturated fatty acids ("oily" molecules especially susceptible to free radical damage), and can benefit from vitamin E protection (both oral and topical). Sources include wheat germ, nuts, seeds, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, vegetable oil and fish-liver oil.
Flavonoids are a diverse group of plant pigments with antioxidant properties that contain proanthocyanins and polyphenols that are good for the skin. These substances are responsible for color in many fruits, vegetables and flowers. In addition to providing color that attracts insects or animals, these pigments protect plants from environmental stress. In addition to being potent antioxidants, some flavonoids have antiallergic, anti-carcinogenic, anti-viral and anti-inflammatory activity. Over 4,000 flavonoids have been characterized and classified, but only a few have been researched.
Even Your Skin Needs to Take Vitamins
Your body isn't the only thing that needs to be healthy; your skin has to be healthy, too. Some people may not be aware of this, but a lot of vitamins are essential and helpful in improving your skin's health and is a vital part of the clear skin diet.
Let us start by discussing the Vitamin A. You have probably heard discussions about how good this vitamin, more specifically beta-carotene, is for the eyes, but aside from this, it is also good for the skin. Vitamin A is important in repairing and protecting the skin tissues. A lack or even a small drop in the required amount of this vitamin will immediately be manifested by the body, especially by the skin itself. Flakiness and drying of the complexion is a good example the signs of vitamin A deficiency. To avoid these consequences, it is best to take foods that are filled with vitamin A, such as fruits and vegetables.
Aside from food supplements, the external application of Vitamin A is also a plus. These supplements can be taken in the form of lotions and creams, which help control the fast growth of acne, wrinkles and unwanted facial lines. Aside from these important benefits, Vitamin A also helps us avoid psoriasis, the symptoms of which include the swelling and scaling of the skin. Retin-A, which is a derivative of Vitamin A, is used in the formulation of retinols. Retinol is an over the counter drug that is used as a treatment for aging. Topical retinol with Vitamin C is also found to reverse skin changes, which are caused by photoaging and chronological aging.
The next vitamin on our list is Vitamin B for Vitamin B Complex. The most important "B" to remember in Vitamin B complex is Biotin. This nutrient is responsible for the formation of the nails, hair, and skin cells. Biotin is found in various types of food such as eggs, rice, oatmeal, and bananas. Even the human body creates its own biotin.
However, the fact that our body produces it doesn't mean that you should stop taking food and other supplements rich in Biotin and the entire vitamin B complex. A lack of this important nutrient may result in dermatitis or skin inflammation accompanied by itchiness and redness of the skin. Hair loss is also another symptom for vitamin B complex deficiency.
There are now available creams in the market which contain B vitamins. These creams help restore or bring radiance to the skin as it moisturizes skin cells and improve the entire body' s skin tone. Aside from biotin, Niacin is another B vitamin which helps bring back moisture to the skin in almost less than a week. They work by relieving dry and chaffed skin. It also serves as a skin lightener which can clear up blotchy skin.
Vitamins C and E are also good for the skin. Individually, vitamin C helps protect the skin from skin cancer normally caused by very long and frequent exposures to the sun. Vitamin E, on the other hand, is responsible for the reduction of wrinkles and photo damage. A 400 mg dose of natural Vitamin E every day would help prevent this damage and enhance the skin's texture. Together, these two vitamins work in reducing DNA damages in the skin cells. This fact made researchers come to the conclusion that antioxidants help defend the body's skin cells from further DNA damage. The vitamins C and E also lessen damages brought about by free radicals, which are detrimental byproducts of pollution, smoke, and exposure to too much sunlight. These free radicals gorge down elastin and collagen fibers that are important to the structure of the skin.
There are formulated lotions, which include a combination of vitamins C and E to help restore lost vitamins and to make your skin healthier looking. Good sources of vitamin C include broccoli, bell peppers, citrus fruits, cauliflower, and other green leafy vegetables. There are also a lot of vitamin C supplements available as over the counter drugs, of which it is enough to take a 500 to 1,000mg tablet a day. For Vitamin E, nuts, olives, asparagus, vegetable oils, and spinach are good sources. Unfortunately, you cannot make your vitamin E supply depend only on taking these foods. It can be supplemented by creams, lotions, and pills, of which the required amount is up to 400 units a day. An excessive intake of vitamin E may also be harmful.
Lastly, the skin also needs vitamin K. Vitamin K does not do much for the skin, but it has one major benefit. This benefit is manifested by the reduction of dark circles formed under the eyes and the appearance of bruises. It can also be combined with vitamin A to form a potent formula for lightening the circles under the eye.
As you can see, you don't have to spend a fortune to have a healthy skin. Just follow the clear skin diet regimen which includes eating food and fruits rich in antioxidants and vitamins goes a long way to giving you radiant, healthy, clear skin.
Use our recommended acne treatment sytem
By following the above steps, it goes a long way in preventing and controlling your acne problems. However, for some of us unfortunate acne victims, our acne problems are more serious. Therefore, tougher measures must be taken.
In addition to following the above recommendations, it is recommended to use an acne curing system that fights acne bacteria both from inside the body as well as outside the body. Most over the counter acne products in the market such as Clearsil, Oxy-10, ProActiv only address acne problems at the skin level and that is not enough to effectively fight acne.
If your acne problem still persists after following the above skin care regimen and lifestyle habits, you should try our recommended acne treatment system - The ClearPores anti-acne system, whose products employ our principle of fighting acne both from the outside and the inside. The oil-free, SD Alcohol and Salicylic Acid solutions based facial & body wash will help you fight acne on your face, back, chest and arms by unclogging your pores and expelling all the bacteria and oil that cause pimples and other blemishes. Aside from the body wash, the system includes herbal pills, which fight acne-causing bacteria from the inside, and a protection cream that keeps your skin healthy and acne-free through the day. Aside from our recommendation, the ClearPores System is backed by the research of independent doctors, herbalists and websites.
About the Author
Peter Lee is an herbalist and skin specialist. He has helped countless people achieve beautiful, radiant, acne-free skin through his principles of achieving beautiful skin by taking care of the inside as well as the outside of the body through proper skin care regimen, eating healthy diet, reducing stress through meditation, and using an acne curing system that fights acne from both inside and outside the body.
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