Healthy skin requires healthy diet

A healthy and balanced diet keeps your skin healthy. Instead of following a large list ofhealth and fitness guidelines to maintain the youthfulness of your skin, you can merely improve your diet consisting of adequate amount of fresh and untreated foods, vitamins, minerals, proteins and antioxidant-rich foods. Fad diet or obesity diet can never be a balanced diet and may lack some essential nutrients necessary for your skin. But junk foods are neither good for your body nor for your skin, so don’t include such foods in list of your skin diet.

Misconceptions about the effect of certain foods

One of the prominent misconceptions is that spots will appear on your face on eating chocolates, sweets or rich cakes, which is not true. It’s equally wrong belief that eating greasy, fried foods make your skin greasy. Similarly, it is not necessary that adequate consumption of cucumbers, grapes, carrot juice or lettuce will make your complexion fabulous. But gross nutritional deficiency in your skin diet may cause some problem. And such symptoms are evident after severe illness of any type like the skin becomes dry and dark, the lips become sore, the hair falls, the nails develop ridges and may even get discolored and the feet becomes edematous.

What to avoid

Avoid eating junk foods regularly because that will decrease the healthy of your skin. Basically, you need to avoid all of the following if you want great skin:

Battered and/or fried foods.

Processed, high-fat and/or high-sodium meats.

Greasy snack foods.

All "white" foods, including white bread, pasta, and baked goods.

All high-sugar junk foods and soft drinks.

Alcohol and coffee.

The perfect skin diet

Breakfast: Early morning breakfast should contain sliced fruits, fruit juice, corn flakes, milk and breadstuffs. Your breakfast should be rich in proteins and vitamins.

Lunch: People who are vegetarian can take chapatti, rice, fresh and leafy vegetables, legumes, curd and salad. It’s advisable to avoid taking fried and fatty foods. And those who are non-vegetarian can consume fish, seafood, chapatti, fresh vegetables and salads. You must abstain from fleshy foods. This is one of the effective healthy skin diet.

Dinner: Always take light dinner and there must be a gap of at least 3-4 hours between dinner and night rest. This helps in proper digestion of foods you eat and does not create problems like acidity and heaviness in stomach while you sleep. So the vegetarians can take rice, legumes, fresh vegetables and pigeon-peas. On the other hand, the non-vegetarians can take small amount of fish, but grilled not fried, chapatti, chicken and Soya.

Snacks: These are light informal meals taken as refreshments and are good both for your health and skin. But make sure, you do not consume any junk food as snack. You can take raw vegetables and fresh fruits along with almonds and cobnuts.

Drinks: Always consume adequate amount liquids throughout the day. Apart from 6-8 glasses of water, you can drink both herbal and fruit teas. Similarly, drinking milk, fruit juice as well as vegetable juice will keep you energetic at your workplace.

Say no to iodized salt: If you are facing problems of acne, pimples and blackheads then cut iodized salt out of your diet completely. Also don’t consume iodine rich foods like fish, kelp and onions to keep you iodine levels down. If you need to salt your food, use mineral rich sea salt instead of iodized salt. This is one of the best way for clear skin diet.

Food Allergies: Certain foods also cause skin problems like hives and eczemas. There are several types of eczemas and their causes could be different but atopic eczema is frequently seen in most of the individuals due to food allergy. Similarly, certain food materials like milk, eggs and preserved foods are most likely to cause allergies.

Ayurvedic tips for skin diet

Always eat warm and freshly cooked food and in proper quantity.

Eat only after the previous meal consumed is digested and when you feel hungry again.

Avoid taking food that is incompatible with each other like fruit salads prepared in milk. Similarly, milk preparations must be avoided with fish.

Chew the food properly before gulping inside to the esophagus. Don’t eat too fast or too slow.

Eat food in a clean, pleasant and hygienic environment.

Don’t consume spicy, very hot, oily, fried and pungent food. Also avoid eating fast food from outside.

Reduce fat intake and increase consumption of fibrous fruits and vegetables for healthy skin and to prevent constipation. This is one of the useful method of ayurvedic skin care.

Take excess liquids to reduce dryness of the intestine and drain wastes out of the blood through urine. Fluid intake also helps prevent skin disorders and makes it glowing.