Eat Your Way to Younger Looking Skin - Part 1

According to most women’s magazines in your doctor’s waiting room, biological attractiveness has a firm link with plump, youthful looking skin. There is a plethora of anti-aging products on the market, each one touting to provide the secret to regaining your girlish glow. But what if the secret to preventing skin aging lay, not in a luxurious jar of French moisturiser, but in the darkest depths of your pantry?

Personally, I think it’s always important to remember that what we really need in society isn’t a cure for aging but a cure for ageism, and to overcome the stigma that surrounds appearing older, especially for women; nonetheless I find a lot of the foods that help promote a youthful glow, also help to promote good overall health, and thus I’m not entirely opposed to more youthful looking skin being seen as a positive by-product of a healthy diet.

Smoking, excess sun exposure, pollution and stress all contribute to skin aging, making us look older than our years. Another factor that can impact our skin’s appearance, however, is diet. As we age, our skin develops wrinkles and loses elasticity. A poor diet can play a role in promoting aging, while a more healthful diet can help skin retain elasticity and prevent wrinkles. Therefore if we can eat foods that help delay aging factors, we can, in essence, make our skin appear more youthful.

A 2001 study found a diet high in fish, olive oil, vegetables, beans and lentils lessened the effect of sun damage on the skin, helping to delay the appearance of fine lines. Conversely, foods that actually enhanced wrinkles as a result of sun exposure included sugar, margarine, butter, milk products, meat and carbohydrates.

A shallow interpretation of this evidence would suggest we should cut out dairy, meat and carbohydrates from our diet if we want Katy Perry’s fresh-faced appearance, but I personally don’t fancy living on nothing but fish and vegetables for the rest of my days, nor would I suggest that to clients.

We need milk products in our diet to provide us with calcium and vitamin D, meat provides us with iron, zinc and protein and, while many of us should be cutting down on refined carbohydrates like white bread, wholegrain carbohydrates provide fibre, energy, vitamin E and B vitamins. Many of the nutrients I have just mentioned actually have an essential role to play in enhancing the health of your skin, thus cutting these food groups out, could actually worsen your skin. Thus I wouldn’t suggest that you eliminate any food groups as a result of this one study, rather I interpret this study to suggest that our skin might benefit from the following dietary changes:

• Cut down on sugar (perhaps by choosing lower sugar breakfast cereals and replacing soft drinks with water)

• Try to replace saturated fats and spreads with healthier fats like olive oil (e.g. rather than spreading bread with margarine or butter, could you dip it in olive oil and balsamic vinegar or spread it with hummus made with olive oil?)

• Replace meats a few nights a week with legumes and fish

• Rethink the number of nights a week you use cheese in your cooking, instead using herbs and spices to flavour dishes. If you find it hard to cut down on cheese, try blue cheese or parmesan, as we typically eat far less of these cheeses due to their strong flavours.

• Gym enthusiasts who enjoy copious amounts of milk-derived whey protein drinks (rather than getting protein from legumes and fish) might be doing their skin a disservice. Eat real food where possible and only drink whey based shakes when you haven’t got the time to eat a real meal based on fish or beans post-workout.

I should point out that these ideas above also happen to be key tenants of the Mediterranean diet (please see my blog post on the Mediterranean diet for more information).

Tune in next time for Part Two in the series, which examines more evidence on preventing aging through diet and provides an anti-aging meal plan and recipe.