Health & Wellness for Skin Care

According to Andrea Rustad, Author of Barre.and.brunch website and fitness blog:

Hydration

We always hear about the importance of staying hydrated for health, and skincare is no exception. Good hydration is crucial to skin health and appearance, and the best thing is just to drink enough water. In some cases, tap water (if it’s clean) may actually be better than filtered water due to its higher content of minerals and ions that your body and skin needs!

One way to make drinking water more enjoyable is to add some flavor with lemon, mint, cucumber, peaches, or other fruits and veggies (or a combo!) to your water (try to use a reusable bottle to help the environment). This is better than buying flavored water because many of them add a lot of sweeteners. Also you will feel very fancy with your glass of lemon mint water.

And I couldn’t write a post about beverages with talking about tea!!! I have a whole shelf full of different teas, and was once told that if I got a paper cut I would bleed tea. So I love tea a lot, if you haven’t gathered this from my many tea parties.

Tea (unless it’s sweetened) is calorie-free, so it’s also a more flavorful way of drinking water, and different types of tea can also provide health and skin benefits. Green tea is really great for skin! It is anti-inflammatory (you can also place green tea bags on your skin to help with redness or puffy eyes), protects cell membranes, and also helps your metabolism.

My favorite teas are probably mint and chai, but I love pretty much all teas. I love Yogi Teas because they have inspirational messages on the tea label, which is really fun and makes me smile when I start my day with a cup of tea! I recently got a really tasty cinnamon vanilla tea from Yogi Tea that says it’s good for your skin, which makes sense because cinnamon is a great antioxidant, and antioxidants help with healthy skin. If you’re looking to check out some teas, I love David’s Tea stores because they have many samples and options, and you can get free tea on your birthday!

Food

I talked about what to drink for healthy skin, so it’s only logical to address what to eat! Obviously, the healthier your diet, the healthier you will be overall, including your skin. However, there are some foods that are especially helpful for healthy skin. And they’re pretty tasty too!

Foods that are great for skin health are whole wheat bread, nuts, low-fat dairy products, and foods high in antioxidants like berries, kale, peppers, spinach, lemon, ginger, beets, beans, and much more.

Here are some specific examples that I love:

Salmon (and other fish) is great for skin because it provides essential fatty acids that help strengthen cell membranes and retain moisture. Yay for healthy fats!
Carrots are a great source of Vitamin A, which encourages healthy skin cell production and protects against damage. Carrots also contain carotenoids, which contribute to their orange color, and a study by the National Cancer Institute found that a high intake of carotenoids correlates to being 6 TIMES LESS likely to develop skin cancer!! (Maybe the phrase should be changed to “a carrot a day…”)
Sunflower seeds contain the most natural Vitamin E of ANY food! Vitamin E is the best antioxidant for slowing down skin cell aging – it absorbs the harmful UV light from the sun.

Information about Anti-Oxidants in your diet