Five Foods to Add Beauty in Your Life
“Be like a flower. Let the beauty of your heart speak. Be grateful to the mud, water, air, and the light.” - Amit Ray
The biggest enemy of beauty is the unhealthy lifestyle. This includes poor diet, high sun exposure, no movement, excessive coffee, alcohol consumption, and smoking. They decrease collagen production. In turn, visible signs of aging grow up earlier in life. To overcome aging and bring beauty, we need to incorporate healthy and happy lifestyle.
Collagen is the foundation of beauty, located within the dermis — below the outermost layer of skin. While the body is constantly creating new collagen to repair what’s been damaged, around age 35, collagen production naturally begins to taper off, and the quality of collagen is not as good as in the early age.
1. Fish
Creates stronger cells: “Fish like tuna and salmon are loaded with omega-3 fatty acid,” says New York nutritionist Brook Alpert. Skin cells are surrounded by a fatty membrane that protects them. When the cells are healthy, they are able to support the structure of the skin.
2. Green vegetables
We all know green vegetables are some of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet, but they may also be a powerful way to prevent collagen breakdown.
All green plant foods (such as kale, lettuce, green algae, arugula, green beans, and broccoli) contain chlorophyll, which is the pigment that gives plants their vibrant green color. Researchers observed that consuming chlorophyll may increase the precursor to collagen (procollagen) in the skin.
3. Red Bell Peppers
“Vitamin C is one of the primary nutrients involved in collagen synthesis. Red bell peppers are full of it. Red peppers are just super ripe green peppers, while yellow peppers are somewhere in the middle. Each have vitamin C. But the older the pepper gets, the more vitamin C it contains, making the red ones even more useful for that collagen factory.
4. Citrus fruits
Citrus fruits are sources of vitamin C, so be sure to load up your smoothies, salad dressings and homemade vitamin water recipes with lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit.
As an antioxidant, vitamin C also protects against toxins found in our air, food and water supply that contribute to breaking down collagen and damaging the skin’s inner layer. Vitamin C helps “link” the amino acids together that are needed to form collagen, such as proline, which makes it an essential nutrient in the pre-collagen production phase.
Vitamin C may also help with skin cell repair and regeneration, which is why it’s commonly added to skincare productions.
5. Berries
Strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries … all of them contain a great dose of vitamin C that’s works wonders on the skin. They also have ellagic acid which fights against UV ray damage, according to research.
