Dear readers,
I hope everyone is having a lovely day. Today I’ll be going over five diet tips for clear skin. These have helped me tremendously over the years, and even if your skin is already clear, these tips can help to hydrate and illuminate. Our diets are responsible for a lot more than we realize, including skin health.
1. water
Water is the most essential part of keeping skin clear. When you stay hydrated, your skin will be softer and more elastic.
I used to have a hard time drinking enough water. I just didn’t really like it. Why drink water when you can drink juice or soda? But once I learned that water can help to clear skin, improve mood and tons of other incredible things, I did my best to drink as much as I could.
If you’re like me, and sometimes wish that water had a little more flavor, try adding lemon or cucumber to water. Not only will the flavor improve, but it will also add vitamins and minerals that contribute to your overall health and wellness. You can add almost any fruit or vegetable to your water for a bit of a flavor boost. In summer, nothing beats the sun like watermelon, lemon and mint infused water.
2. color
The more color in your diet, the more vitamins. You have probably heard this before. Eating the rainbow provides you with nutrients and vitamins that you just wont get eating beige all the time. Why do you think fruits and vegetables are so colorful?
The easiest way I have found to eat colorful foods is in smoothies. You could make a smoothie with many different colored foods inside it, and you could enjoy a different colored smoothie every day. My favorite combinations are:
stawberry-banana-spinach
kale-celery-apple
carrot-pineapple-cucumber
Chopped salads are another great way to eat colorful and nutritious foods. Chopping your salad seamlessly combines ingredients for a more cohesive flavor, making it easier to add more color to your salad. When making a chopped salad, don’t forget to add fresh herbs!
3. fiber
Fiber is one of the most important factors in gut health. A huge part of keeping skin clear. Non digestible fibers from plants and whole grains, are essential for flushing toxins out of your body. These toxins are responsible for buildup in pores, which leads to acne.
Incorporating fiber into your diet is easier than you think. Fiber is the part of the food that is a little bit harder to chew, the part that gets stuck in your teeth. Take the stringy part of celery for example, the stems of kale, the pulps in an orange, quinoa. Anything that is tough and from a plant, is probably fiber. One of my favorite fiber rich meals is steel cut oats.
4. limit saturated fat
Saturated fat is the most common culprit of acne. The fat content in foods like milk, butter and red meat can make skin oily and clog pores, leading to more breakouts. These foods are fine in moderation, but too much will start to impact your skin. Saturated fats and processed foods in combination is sure to cause skin problems.
I’m not telling you to cut out saturated fats completely, but limit them. Limits on these foods will reduce your total caloric intake as well, as they are usually very calorically dense. Try almond or oat milk instead, for higher fiber and calcium with less fat.
My absolute favorite almond milk is the unsweetened vanilla by Kirkland. To me, this one tastes the least nutty and I add it to my coffee every morning.
5. probiotics
Probiotics are my last tip for clear skin. Increasing the probiotics in your diet is sure to flush out toxins in your skin by balancing the bacteria in your microbiome. Your microbiome is the bacteria that live in and around your body. It is important to have as many good bacteria as possible to fight off the intruders. The bad bacteria can cause acne or attack your immune system.
Try yogurt for an easy way to introduce probiotics. If you aren’t a huge fan of yogurt, anything fermented will due. Personally, I love kombucha, pickles and sauerkraut. But there are a ton of fermented foods including olives, kimchi, sour cream etc.
