Your biggest organ, the skin, not only protects your internal organs but also serves to keep you beautiful and younger-looking. You must provide your skin the due support it requires in the form of essential healthy nutrients found in natural anti-aging foods.
✧ Limitations For You And Your Skin:
Unfortunately, your skin keeps deteriorating as you age with the passage of time, and, to your utter surprise, the first signs of aging begin to appear to form your mid-20s. Actually, your skin cells begin to break down speedily with your ever-increasing age and you are helpless to reverse or stop this process. What you can do maximum is to slow down the effects of aging to appear on your skin.
✧ What Your Skin Needs:
In order to keep fulfilling its basic functions, your skin does need due support from within the body in the form of essential healthy nutrients. Nature has been benevolent to preserve these healthy nutrients in certain foods for you to avail of their benefits and keep yourself looking younger. Let’s have a look at these healthy nutrients and what they do to your skin before we come to certain anti-aging natural foods that carry them for you.
1. Green Tea Polyphenols:
Rich with anti-inflammatory properties and able to prevent anti-oxidant depletion on your skin, green tea polyphenols, whether applied topically or consumed orally, repels the damage caused by ultraviolet radiation and chemical carcinogens.
2. Carotenoids:
The chief among these being Vitamin A, Beta-carotene, and Retinol, all antioxidants, fight against the free radicals in the skin and make your skin much younger looking.
3. Amino Acids:
These are very crucial in stimulating elastin and collagen production which in turn makes your skin wrinkle-free and smooth looking.
4. Omega-3 Fatty Acids:
These also contain anti-inflammatory properties responsible to slow down the adverse effects of the process of aging in your skin.
5. Poly-phenols:
Being potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, poly-phenols protect you from ultraviolet damage and also have anti-DNA damage effects.
6. Vitamin C:
Highly active against pollution and other environmental effects, a great booster of collagen production, and exhibiting great antioxidant properties, this vitamin is very vital for reducing the adverse effects of aging on your skin.
7. Selenium:
This highly important nutrient does three functions namely boosting the antioxidant defenses of your skin, protecting the skin cells from UV damage, and helping your skin with the anti-inflammatory effects against aging.
8. Vitamin D:
It protects your skin cells from the damage caused by direct exposure to the harmful ultraviolet radiation. It also prevents skin infections besides having long term anti-aging effects.
9. Flavonoids:
These useful nutrients prevent oxidative stress and, hence, protect you against the signs of aging.
10. Vitamin E:
Owing to strong oxidative stress, your skin may suffer from long term damages such as wrinkles, erythema, edema, and the thickening of the skin. This vitamin protects your skin against all these damages.
Natural Foods That Make Your Skin Look Younger:
A number of fruits both wet and dry, vegetables, beverages, fish, herbs, spices, and other food items are there for you to include them in your routine diet and look ever young and fresh. Some of them are:
✦ Watermelon:
Premature aging is another cause of damage to your skin, making it look wrinkled with fine lines and marks of old age. Being rich in vitamins C, E, and K, the minerals like potassium, selenium, calcium, and manganese, and different proteins and carbohydrates, this remarkable fruit protects your skin from pre-mature aging. Cut in slices or chunks, a bowl of this summer fruit taken daily in the morning as the first diet keeps you younger-looking.
✦ Avocado:
Blessed with vitamins A, C, E and K and potassium along with a number of antioxidants, this marvelous fruit has been found one of the best to fight against the worst effects of aging. Besides, it also has a number of additional benefits for your overall health. You may have it mashed and spread on your toast or add it to your daily salad in the form of thin slices and enjoy its immense health benefits.
✦ Blueberries:
Blueberries having Flavonoids such as myricetin, quercetin, and kaempferol enriched with vitamin C and K and other nutrients produce a very healthy anti-aging influence and prevent cell damage. Add fresh blueberries to your regular smooth dietary items to enjoy the full benefits.
✦ Figs:
Figs have antioxidant properties as they are packed with polyphenols and Flavonoids which are responsible to prevent various types of oxidative stress. You can consume figs in plenty of ways such as tarts, slices, chunks added to your pizza and fruit salad, etc, and keep your skin and overall system healthy and fit.
✦ Spinach:
Filled with vitamin A which has Carotenoids, vitamin C which ensures skin health, iron which strengthens your tissues, and folic acid which fosters cell function, Spinach is one of the great vegetables with antioxidants that help you get and maintain younger-looking skin. Among the various other ways of consuming spinach, the simplest one is to add a handful of its leaves to your daily smoothie and blend it. You may also sauté spinach leaves with olive oil or a bit of garlic juice. You may also stir-fry its leaves with a small amount of low-fat cream cheese.
✦ Cucumber:
Containing 96% water and a number of antioxidants, tannins, and Flavonoids, this amazing vegetable reduces oxidative stress and blocks the free radicals that are extremely harmful to your skin. Sliced or chunked cucumber dressed with black salt and lemon juice is really refreshing and supportive to reduce the signs of aging.
✦ Green tea:
Keratinocytes in your body reduce the process of aging in your skin and green tea contains polyphenols that boost the production of Keratinocytes. Besides, green tea eliminates wrinkles by reducing the extracellular matrix damage on your skin. Taken thrice a day at the maximum, green tea may benefit your skin a lot in keeping it younger looking.
✦ Saffron:
Phenolic components such as monoterpenoids, kaempferol, and quercetin present in saffron inhibit the production of melanin through melanogenesis. It also reduces the activity of tyrosinase responsible for accelerating the process of melanogenesis. These Phenolic compounds have very healthy anti-aging effects. The best and easiest way to consume saffron is to soak a few of its strands in milk and then drink this saffron milk at least twice a week.
✦ Salmon:
The reddish color of salmon is due to the presence of astaxanthin which prevents inflammation and reduces oxidative stress. Additionally, selenium and omega-3 fatty acids in salmon make it ideal to reduce the signs of aging. Across the globe, salmon is considered very much effective in maintaining skin health. You can eat salmon baked or grilled or you may also broil it with butter and spices.
✦ Yogurt:
This fermented milk is the most consumed dairy product in the world. This is stuffed with beneficial bacteria acting as probiotics responsible for slowing down both intrinsic and extrinsic aging and the glow of your skin. Yogurt can be eaten plain or as dressing upon your salad or plate of fruit like mayonnaise.
The above-mentioned foods, like many others of this kind, serve as natural anti-aging food agents to keep you younger-looking.
