Photo Credit: Brook Lark
Skin
Your skin is one of your largest organs, and it has some important functions:
Protection - Your skin is a barrier and protects you from injury from the outside world, changes in temperature, microorganisms, and pollutants from the environment.
Regulation - It regulates your body temperature, and is responsible for making vitamin D.
Sensation - Your skin is rich with nerve endings that sense and transmit messages about the environment around you. There are different receptors for cold, hot, pain, and touch.
Detoxification - Skin is a detoxification organ.
Skin And Nutrition
Healthy skin comes from within. This may be more true than you realize!
Did you know that malnutrition or deficiencies of certain nutrients can significantly impair skin healing?
This makes calorie intake, carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals all important for skin health.
Macronutrients
Carbohydrates provide glucose that makes energy to build new tissues. Those new tissues are built from proteins. Carbohydrates are also used to spare proteins, otherwise, those proteins would be used for energy, and not for building new tissues.
Fats are an energy source too, and they provide the necessary building blocks for skin healing and tissue repair. Omega-3 fats are essential, meaning your body can’t make them, and you must get them from food. They are a component of cell membranes, including your skin cells, and they help lower inflammation.
Protein is one of the most important nutrients for skin repair, and contrary to popular belief, most people don’t get enough quality protein in their diets. A deficiency of protein can negatively affect many factors involved in maintaining healthy skin. For example, connective tissue is primarily made of collagen, and collagen synthesis requires amino acids. Amino acids come from protein.
Micronutrients
Vitamins C, A, and E are powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients.
Deficiencies of vitamin C cause impaired skin healing, decreased collagen production, impaired immune function, and increased risk of skin infection.
Vitamin A deficiency can cause impaired skin healing, decreased collagen production, increased breakdown of tissues, and not getting enough vitamin A may lead to eczema. Steroid uses increases the need for vitamin A.
Vitamin E protects cell membranes, is beneficial for skin healing, and has been used topically to decrease scarring. It also may help reduce itchy skin and ease symptoms of eczema.
Riboflavin (vitamin B2) helps make glutathione, the body’s master antioxidant. With stress and inflammation, there is an additional need for antioxidants like glutathione, so more B2 may also be needed. Low glutathione has been found in people with eczema.
Vitamin B6 helps make collagen, and deficiency of it is one cause of seborrheic dermatitis.
Vitamin B5 may help keep skin moist and enhance the healing process of skin wounds.
Magnesium is needed to make the enzymes that synthesize proteins and collagen work.
Copper is involved in antioxidant enzyme function, and in collagen production.
Zinc is needed to make RNA and DNA, low levels impair skin healing, and low levels have been found in children with eczema. Stress and inflammation decrease zinc levels.
Iron deficiency can result in impaired collagen production, and leaky, itchy skin.
Selenium is needed for glutathione production and also thyroid hormone production. Low thyroid can result in skin conditions and drier skin.
There are many more, but this list is a good place to start.
Foods Containing Nutrients Important For Healthy Skin
These foods are examples. Avoid your known allergens/triggers!
Animal protein: Chicken, beef, fish, and eggs contain all of the essential and conditionally essential amino acids and therefore are considered complete proteins. Go for grass-fed, free-range, pastured, wild-caught, and organic when possible.
Plant-based protein: Soy and soy products, nuts and seeds, lentils, beans, and quinoa. Most plant proteins are not complete because they do not contain the full spectrum of essential and conditionally essential amino acids.
B2: Spinach, asparagus, broccoli, eggs, organ meats, beef, chicken, salmon, halibut, almonds
B3: Tuna, chicken, turkey, salmon, lamb, beef, sardines, brown rice, lentils
B5: Beef liver, chicken liver, sunflower seeds, trout, salmon, lobster, pork, chicken, eggs, lentils, broccoli, mushrooms, oranges, avocado
B6: Tuna, turkey, beef, chicken, salmon, sweet potato, potato, sunflower seeds, spinach, avocado, banana
Folate: Liver, chicken giblets, egg yolk, lentils, potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach, beetroot, Brussels sprouts, dark leafy greens, asparagus, oranges, peaches
B12: B12 is found naturally only in animal products (clams, mussels, mackerel, crab, beef, salmon, eggs, chicken, lamb, liver)
Biotin: Eggs, legumes, meats, fatty fish, chicken, liver, avocado, raspberries, cauliflower
Vitamin A: Beef liver, cod liver oil, eggs, grass-fed butter, sweet potato, pumpkin, carrot, cantaloupe, mango, spinach, broccoli, kale, collard greens, butternut squash (essentially all red, orange, yellow, and green plant foods)
Vitamin C: Bell peppers, papaya, Brussels sprouts, strawberries, kiwi, grapefruit, orange, lemon, lime, broccoli, potatoes, tomatoes, apple, spinach, banana
Vitamin D: Salmon, herring and sardines, mackerel, cod liver oil, canned light tuna (lower in mercury), oysters, egg yolk, mushrooms
Vitamin E: Sunflower seeds and oil, safflower oil, grapeseed oil, olive oil, almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, avocado, rainbow trout, spinach, Swiss chard, turnip greens, asparagus, broccoli, mustard greens, blackberries
Vitamin K: Kale, Swiss chard, parsley, broccoli, spinach, olive oil, fish, liver, meat, eggs, some is made by gut bacteria
Iron (heme iron is found in animal products and nonheme iron is found in some plant foods): Beef, chicken liver, oysters, clams, tuna, mussels, raisins, prune juice, prunes, potato with skin, quinoa, spinach, Swiss chard, white beans, lentils, tofu, hazelnuts, cashews
Zinc: Oyster, beef, crab, turkey, pork, chicken, pine nuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, pecans, Brazil nuts, chickpeas, almonds, lamb, pumpkin seeds, quinoa
Copper: Beef liver, oysters, crab, clams, cashews, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, almonds, lentils, mushrooms, semisweet chocolate, chickpeas
Selenium: Brazil nuts, tuna, oysters, halibut, shrimp, salmon, pork, beef, chicken, sunflower seeds, brown rice
Magnesium: Fatty fish (salmon, halibut, mackerel), spinach and other leafy greens, oatmeal, potatoes, black-eyed peas, brown rice, lentils, avocados, pinto beans, dark chocolate (70% and higher), nuts, seeds, legumes, tofu, buckwheat, quinoa, bananas
Silica: Leeks, green beans, garbanzo beans, strawberries, cucumber, mango, celery, asparagus, rhubarb
Sulfur: Chicken, haddock, sardine, cod, beef, dried peaches, eggs, turkey, spinach, onion, Brussels sprouts, chickpeas, figs, beans/peas, leeks, endive, potatoes
Flavonoids (a class of polyphenols): Virtually all plant foods, including apples, apricots, blueberries, pears, raspberries, strawberries, black beans, onions, parsley, pinto beans, tomatoes, dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
Curcumin: Turmeric, curry powder, mango ginger
Resveratrol: Grapes, red and white wine, peanuts, pistachios, blueberries, cranberries, cocoa, dark chocolate
EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate): Green, oolong, and black teas, carob flour, pecans, filberts, hazelnuts, raw cranberries, pistachios
CoQ10: Meat, poultry, fish
DHA and EPA (Essential Fatty Acids/Omega 3s/healthy fats): Flaxseed, chia seeds, eggs, fatty fish and fish oils, other marine sources (sea vegetables/seaweeds), avocado, coconut oil
Glutathione: Undenatured whey protein, asparagus, curcumin/turmeric, avocado, spinach, garlic, foods high in vitamin C (citrus fruits), and selenium (Brazil nuts)
Phospholipids: Sunflower seeds, eggs
A food-first approach and supplements
Supplementing with individual nutrients unnecessarily can cause an imbalance of others because all nutrients work together in the body.
With food, this won’t happen.
Also, you can’t out supplement a diet that’s lacking in the first place, so start with food.
If you want to supplement, get professional support and guidance to avoid making the problem worse (or creating even more problems).
Avoid High Mercury Fish
High mercury fish: Bluefish, grouper, mackerel (Spanish, Gulf, King), marlin, orange roughy, sea bass (Chilean), shark, swordfish, tilefish, and tuna (canned albacore, yellowfin, bigeye, ahi)
Focus on low mercury fish
Low mercury fish: anchovies, butterfish, catfish, croaker (Atlantic), flounder, haddock (Atlantic), hake, herring, mackerel (North Atlantic, chub), mullet, perch (ocean), pollock, salmon (fresh, wild), sardines, sole (Pacific), squid, tilapia, trout (freshwater), whitefish, and whiting
General Recommendations
Go organic when possible for fruits and vegetables. Some produce is more important to buy organic than others.
Go organic, pastured, free-range, grass-fed, wild-caught, etc. for animal products when possible.
Drink at least 6-8 glasses of water per day. Little ones, after 6 months old/when they start eating solids can start having sips of water, and then should drink 8 ounces of water per year of age.
How Do You Get Your Little One To Eat These Foods?
Get my guide for picky eaters.
