Healthy glow inside out

Here’s how you can keep your skin soft and supple by eating right all year long, writes Geetika Mittal Gupta

Imagine sipping on a mug of hot chocolate on a cold winter day, or those holiday-themed hot drinks, soups and stews that satisfy your cravings and keep you warm all winter long. While all of these rich foods leave you with a fuzzy and warm feeling, they do have an impact on your skin. With a decrease in temperatures, there’s a good chance that it has already taken a toll on your skin. It is common for our skin to become dry, flaky, and rough in winters, so before you go out and spend that paycheck on fancy lotions and creams, try providing your skin some nourishment from the inside first. What you eat is just as essential for a healthy glow as what you apply to it. Here are some tips on how you can keep your skin soft and supple by eating right, not just in winters but also all year long:

Almonds all the way: Almonds are not only a healthy snack, but they are also a beautiful food due to their nutritional value. By consuming nuts such as almonds, our body gets healthy fats and most importantly vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) which has been shown to impart anti-ageing properties that are beneficial for overall skin health. Almonds are also high in copper, which plays a role in skin and hair pigmentation. Thanks to the diversity of nutrients present in them like Vitamin E, protein, folate, fibre, etc., almonds are a smart choice for overall good nutrition.

Go green with leafy veggies: Get that youthful glow by adding green leafy vegetables to get enough vitamin A in your diet. Getting not enough of this nutrient is likely to make your skin dry and flaky. Dark, leafy greens like spinach, methi, lettuce, and kale are excellent sources of vitamin A. These nutrients help in combating dry and itchy skin, thus, giving your skin a radiant complexion. Make sure you are adding the necessary green veggies to your diet in the form of smoothies, or even adding them as a side dish to your meals.

Indulge in your not so regular fruits: Vitamin E can play a great role in enhancing your skin’s health as it is known to block free radicals from the body, which play a large part in the ageing process. It also acts as a cleansing agent that could possibly treat sunburns and lighten dark spots as well. If you wish to have soft, supple and radiant skin, then you must include Vitamin E-rich foods in your daily diet. Many fruits provide a good amount of Vitamin C along with Vitamin E which works as great antioxidants. Kickstart your day with fruits such as avocados, kiwis, blackcurrants and blackberries. You can also throw in some pickled olives and dried cranberries to make your breakfast a little more exciting.

What the fish: For non-vegetarians, consuming fish can be a good way to add to your skin’s health. Varieties like salmon, tuna, and trout are high in Omega-3. These are great for you as the nutrients present in these food items help to calm inflammation, which can lead to a breakdown of collagen and elastin, both of which keep the skin looking youthful. Vegetarians should include regular intake of soybeans in their diet. They are nutrient-dense foods that contain Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, imparting ample nutrition to our skin and also protecting it from UV rays.

Here are a couple of quick fixes you can make to your diet in order to enhance your skin health:

Replace the mayo in your salads and sandwiches with sliced or mashed avocado.

Instead of your regular butter, top your toast with almond butter.

Keep a small portion of almonds to have as a convenient snack during the day.

Add wheat germ to smoothies, muffins and pancakes.

Garnish salads with peanuts, sunflower seeds or almonds. Top it with fish and serve with a salad dressing made of sunflower oil.

So this winter, say goodbye to your typical cold-weather beauty woes — no more dry, flaky and irritated skin — by just improving your diet. The secret to flawless, blemish and acne-free skin lies in nutrient-rich foods. Also, make sure you keep hydrating yourself with water.

(The author is a dermatologist & cosmetologist.)