Good skin care begins with quality nutrition; skin needs different nutrients and vitamins to stay healthy. You can get many of these nutrients and vitamins from fruits and vegetables, but you can also supplement vitamins and nutrients to give your skin that extra boost. Here’s a few of the different vitamins that benefit skin.
Good Skin Care
Vitamin E is skin’s best friend. It protects your skin from damage from free radicals (free radicals are types of damaged cells that can possibly be troublesome). Vitamin E also helps to fight off acne. Vitamin A works to improve skin health, but also, when combined with certain creams it can be an effective Vitamin for treating wrinkles. Vitamin A is prevalent in orange-colored fruits and vegetables, especially carrots and sweet potatoes, but it’s also prevalent in green-colored leaves such as spinach.
And not only does Vitamin A benefit skin health, it also helps maintain vision, and there’s even evidence that it helps to keep away systemic disease such as lung cancer. Vitamin C is known to ward away the common cold, but it’s also effective at creating collagen (collagen is that connective-type tissue layer that makes skin firm). Vitamin D, known as the sunshine Vitamin—because our skin can receive the benefit of Vitamin D by synthesizing sunlight—helps to fight certain disease. Oftentimes acne is a sign of a Vitamin D deficiency, especially in the northernmost climates such as Montana where people spend less time outside in the colder months.
Vitamin D is easily supplemented, but certain foods are fortified with it such as certain dairy products, and it’s naturally found in fish and eggs. Vitamin B5 is the most important vitamin for skin hydration—skin care products that include this Vitamin in their ingredients work especially well at hydrating skin. To receive this Vitamin naturally, eat plenty of avocado and whole grains, and even chicken.
There are other Vitamins that benefit our skin, and, for most of them, we will get all that a body needs through a healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables, some meats—especially fish and other types of seafood—and fortified low-fat dairy products. Call Central Wellness today to meet with a diet specialist.