Notes by Nourish

Today we’re talking about some top tips for healthy glowing skin.
The skin is an excretory organ, much like the liver and kidneys. One of their jobs is to help to remove heavy metals, toxins and impurities from the body.
The skin is very much an expression of what is happening on the inside, so if your skin is looking worse for wear, it may be time to clean up the diet. Perhaps it’s time to look at what could be causing inflammation and/or dehydration.

Let’s delve into Top Tips for Healthy Glowing Skin!

No. 1 – Hydrate

Drink more water!
For healthy glowing skin, aim for 1.5-2 litres of water per day, depending on what activities you’re doing that day. Naturally, after a work-out, you’ll need more.

• Coconut water is a great hydrating beverage to add to your diet as it re-balances your electrolytes and keeps the body sufficiently hydrated. If you’re working up a sweat, try drinking some coconut water before, during and after your workout.
• Drinking herbal teas that support the liver can also help, especially nettle, fennel, dandelion or even green tea. Pukka Cleanse is a good combination of these herbs to help support the liver and aid in water retention, puffiness and skin health.
• Another option is to try having warm water with half a squeezed lemon in the morning before breakfast. This helps to detoxify the body and re-alkalise it, plus it can help to fire up the digestion. I like to add MSM powder or a similar product such as Revive Joint Active as this also helps natural detoxification and skin health.

No. 2 – Eat Superfoods

Although you can clarify many foods as a superfood, to clarify, here I’m talking about the following:

• Cereal grasses wheatgrass and barley grass
• Algaes including spirulina and chlorella
• Aloe Vera
• Acai
• Turmeric
• Green tea
• Bee pollen

These highly nutritious foods are fantastic for overall health, but especially skin health. Read more about superfoods on this blog post: The Top Ten Superfoods with Natural Superpowers.

Superfoods to try

Wheatgrass and Barleygrass are rich in alkalising minerals and contain lots of fibre. They are packed with protein, vitamins, minerals, and are an excellent source of chlorophyll. 

Spirulina is a blue-green algae. It is rich in chlorophyll, packed with protein, all the essential amino acids, vitamins A, B Complex, C, D, and E, potassium, and other trace minerals. 

Chlorella is an incredibly effective detoxifier helping to remove alcohol, chemicals, heavy metals and even environmental pollutants from the liver. Especially useful for helping your body cope with any alcohol consumption. Chlorella contains zinc and Vitamin B2, two nutrients known to help promote glowing radiant skin.

Aloe vera is great for healing, soothing and cleansing the skin, both externally and internally.  To learn more about it, read What’s the Scoop on: Aloe Vera.

Acai is a powerful and nutritious superfood. It is incredibly high in antioxidants, polyphenols, anthocyanins, amino acids, dietary fibre as well as vitamins and minerals. These include calcium, phosphorus, beta-carotene and vitamin E.
Add to smoothies, shakes, porridge, desserts and raw desserts such as raw cheesecake.
Other dark berries such as blackcurrant, blackberry, blueberry and maqui are also worth adding into your diet when you find them.

Turmeric – Turmeric helps to protect the liver, improve circulation through the liver, increase bile production and enhance both phases of liver detoxification. Turmeric is also rich in anti-ageing antioxidants for ultimate skin health. For more info on turmeric see my blog here

Green Tea – Drinking green tea or green tea extract daily is a great way to help prevent sun damage and slow ageing of the skin, and can certainly be an important part of any skincare regimen. Learn more about Matcha green tea here.

Other great superfoods for skin health include cacao, bee pollen, goji berries, maca and medicinal mushrooms.

No. 3 – Eat your Greens

Green leafy vegetables are cleansing, detoxifying and alkalising to the body. Additionally, they help to cleanse and nourish the blood. Greens also help to:

• remove toxins from the body’s system
• detoxify heavy metals and pollutants
• bring the body towards an alkaline state and away from being too acidic.
• bring down areas of inflammation within the body.
• provide ample amounts of nutrients and fibre

For more on this, see our blog post on:

• What’s the Scoop on: Greens
• How to Get Greens Powders into Your Daily Routine During Winter [including recipes]

No. 4 – Omega Oils

Good fats are paramount for healthy skin. One particular fat worth mentioning is omega 3. Increasing your omega 3 is great for ailments such as:

• arthritis pain
• joint pain
• psoriasis
• eczema
• dry skin
• unbalanced hormone levels e.g during menopause

Omega 3 rich foods include:

• seeds e.g chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin, sunflower, sesame
• nuts e.g walnuts
• oily fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines) and fish oils
• Plus some other good fats for skin health include avocado, almonds, ghee and coconut oil (for its skin-friendly oils and MCT fats).
• Algae oil such as Testa Algae Omega caps. These are a great vegan-friendly alternative to fish oil. Additionally, they are long-chain fats meaning they don’t need to be converted into the EPA and DHA, they are already there!

No. 5 – Antioxidants

Increasing antioxidants in the diet can not only help the body fight against disease, inflammation but also the signs of ageing. Antioxidants are high up there when it comes to obtaining healthy glowing skin.

High antioxidant foods include, but are not limited to:

blueberries|green tea| acai berries| goji berries| pomegranates| spinach, raspberries| purple grapes|mulberries |cacao|medicinal mushrooms| green algaes to name a few.

No. 6 – Eat the Rainbow

Eat the rainbow!
Enjoy colourful foods, ranging from:

• beta carotene-rich orange carrots and red/orange peppers
• lycopene filled red tomatoes,
• curcumin filled yellow/orange turmeric
• detoxifying cleansing greens
• anthocyanin-rich beets
• resveratrol filled mulberries

Include some raw foods here and there and munch down some fermented foods such as kimchi, sauerkraut and/or kefir. These will help to boost enzyme levels which ultimately help with digestion of food and assimilation of nutrients.
Preferably choose organic where possible so as to reduce pesticide exposure, which may cause unnecessary toxic build-up in our bodies.

Note:

If you are struggling with eczema or psoriasis, it may be worth avoiding all dairy for 2 weeks and seeing how this affects you. A lot of people find that dairy causes a lot of inflammation which is resulting in their inflammatory skin conditions. Alternatively, try swapping out cows milk for sheep or goat milk, or make milk kefir. These are often a lot easier to digest.

No. 7 – Reduce Inflammatory and Dehydrating Foods and Beverages

For those struggling with skin issues, try reducing inflammatory and dehydrating foods and beverages. For example, refined sugar, processed wheat, gluten, dairy, alcohol, caffeine and processed foods.

It is not necessary to avoid them completely but instead enjoy them every once in a while.
These substances are often the main players in inflammatory conditions, building up toxins in the body and dehydrating the body. As a result, the skin suffers.

Instead, opt for healthier versions

• You don’t have to live without bread. Instead, try sourdough bread or sourdough gluten-free bread.
  If it’s a wheat intolerance, try spelt bread instead.
• Try coconut flour, brown rice flour or buckwheat flour in baking instead. Gluten-free oat flour is also worth a go. Please follow a recipe. These flours do NOT work 1:1.
• Swap out refined sugar for coconut sugar/date syrup/raw honey/maple syrup/molasses. These are still sugar of course, but they contain at least some minerals and are a bit more friendly to your body.
• Replace your coffee with green tea, herbal teas and matcha tea.
  You don’t need to remove coffee entirely. But if you usually have 2 or 3, swap out a couple for more hydrating fluids instead.
  Also, try having your coffee before or up to midday. Any time after midday can affect your blood sugar and affect your sleep quality. Poor sleeping habits can also play havoc with your skin.
• On the subject of coffee, if you’re still in need of your fix, try swapping out your usual brew for one spiked with medicinal mushrooms. Adding a small spoon of maca powder can also help balance out the unwanted effects of the caffeine.

No. 8 – Happy Gut Health

A healthy gut is key to having not only a healthy body, but certainly glowing skin.
You can start by adding in some fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, lacto-fermented vegetables, water kefir, milk kefir, yoghurt and kombucha.
Learn more about all of these in this blog post where I go into depth about each one.

Instead, although preferably alongside these tasty delights, you can also include a daily probiotic like Super 8, Bio Kult or Optibac.  These will help to restore and balance the good bacteria in the gut.

A happy healthy gut will ensure optimal digestion of food, followed by complete assimilation of nutrients, therefore, creating a healthy body great energy levels and glowing skin!

If you’re struggling with the aftermath of taking antibiotics, have a read over this blog: Help Your Body Recover from Antibiotics Naturally

If you’re interested in skin health, have a read over these blogs:

• Foods to Naturally Increase Your Skin’s UV Resistance
• Starting From The Inside Out: Why Skin Problems Are Often An Internal Issue
• Face Masks: A Beginner’s Guide for Beautiful Skin
• 5 Natural Products to Add to Your Summer Beauty Regime
• Prepping your Skin for Summer with Kinvara Skincare

Emily Nöth

Any questions? Drop into your local Nourish store to chat with our expert team and explore our full range of foods, supplements and skincare. You can also find our full product range in our online store.

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*Please note that while we are knowledgeable about our products and nutrition, this blog should never be a substitute for medical advice and attention

Please remember that you should always obtain the all-clear from your doctor before starting any new supplement plan or diet if you’re on any medication