The Beauty Diet (15 page)

When free radicals target skin's support structures, your skin becomes a battlefield. When free radicals attack elastin,
it loses its stretch, making skin saggy. When they attack collagen, this causes cross-linking of the proteins, making skin stiff. In addition, free-radical damage activates enzymes called
metalloproteinases
, which break down collagen, leading to wrinkles and sagging.

This sounds like a whole army of problems, but the good news is you can protect yourself simply by upping your intake of antioxidants. The body makes its own antioxidants, but it can't keep up with the internal demand—especially these days, when it is exposed to toxins, pollution, x-rays, and other aspects of modern life that cause oxidative stress. Also, the levels of the body's natural antioxidants decrease with age, so adding antioxidants to your diet becomes even more important.

As an antioxidant, beta-carotene protects lipid membranes from free-radical damage that can lead to skin aging. This important beauty nutrient also gets converted to vitamin A in the body, which helps to keep skin smooth. While it is beneficial and safe to consume beta-carotene from natural sources, I do not recommend beta-carotene supplements since they may pose risk for harm. Among my Top 10 Beauty Foods, you'll find significant amounts of beta-carotene in sweet potatoes, spinach, kiwi, and tomatoes. You can also add beta-carotene to your diet with foods like pumpkin, carrots, chilies, mangoes, cantaloupe, and apricots. (For more information, see the section on vitamin A in
Chapter 7
.)

A highly effective antioxidant and collagen-boosting nutrient, vitamin C is a multitasking vitamin you'll be reading about again for its other valuable properties. Because you can't make vitamin C, and because it is water soluble and does not hang around in the body, you need to consume fresh vitamin C in your diet every day. A study published in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
is note-worthy
because it examined the effect of diet, not supplements, on the skin of everyday women. This study found that a diet high in vitamin C was associated with less dryness and less noticeable wrinkles. In addition to its antioxidant properties, vitamin C promotes healing and cellular repair and is especially important for skin because it is involved in collagen production. Among my Top 10 Beauty Foods, you'll find significant amounts of vitamin C in kiwi, blueberries, sweet potatoes, spinach, and tomatoes. You can also get your daily dose of vitamin C from foods like peppers, oranges, strawberries, lemons, and broccoli (see the section on vitamin C in
Chapter 1
).

Since it is fat soluble, vitamin E can protect lipid membranes in the skin from free-radical damage. Vitamin E is a good team player: it works with other antioxidants to make them more effective and boosts the effectiveness of certain enzymes that are needed for good skin health, including glutathione peroxidase. Among my Top 10 Beauty Foods, vitamin E is found in blueberries, kiwifruit, spinach, tomatoes, and walnuts. Other foods rich in vitamin E include wheat germ, sunflower seeds, safflower and sunflower oils, almonds, peaches, prunes, cabbage, asparagus, and avocados. (For more information, see the section on vitamin E later in this chapter.)

Like vitamin E, selenium plays well with others. It helps create antioxidant enzymes and boosts the potency of vitamin E. Selenium is important for skin because it is incorporated into proteins to make selenoproteins. It can protect skin quality and elasticity because the antioxidant properties of selenoproteins help prevent cellular damage from free radicals. Among my Top 10 Beauty Foods, you'll find significant amounts of selenium in salmon and oysters. Brazil nuts are an extraordinarily good source of selenium. Other selenium-rich foods include tuna, crab, whole wheat
bread, wheat germ, garlic, eggs, and brown rice. (For more information, see details on selenium in
Chapter 2
.)

This essential mineral is found in almost every cell and plays many roles in the body. Multiple studies have shown that as an antioxidant zinc helps prevent the creation of free radicals and helps guard against free-radical damage in the skin as well as elsewhere in the body. While all of our tissues contain zinc, it is especially important for skin and is five to six times more concentrated in the epidermis than in the dermis. Like vitamin E, zinc helps stabilize the lipid membranes in the skin and protects them from free-radical damage. Among my Top 10 Beauty Foods, oysters are an extraordinarily good source of zinc, and yogurt is also helpful. Other foods that contain zinc include seafood, beef, lamb, eggs, whole grains, and nuts. (For more information on zinc, see the sidebar later in this chapter.)

These antioxidant phytonutrients give some fruits and vegetables their red, blue, or purple hues. Early studies suggest that anthocyanins may be particularly helpful for skin because they prevent free-radical damage to cells and neutralize the enzymes that break down connective tissue. By protecting collagen, anthocyanins help prevent wrinkles. Among my Top 10 Beauty Foods, you'll find significant amounts of anthocyanins in blueberries. Anthocyanins are also found in other types of berries, cherries, pomegranates, plums, red cabbage, grapes, and apples.

My Beauty Diet is designed to provide you with several servings of beauty-boosting antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables every day. No single vitamin pill can come close to providing the health benefits of whole, natural foods and all the nutrients they provide. In nature many different kinds of antioxidants—some identified, some not—appear together in one food. This
is part of nature's plan, because antioxidants support each other in the body. Even in scientific research using supplements, antioxidants are more effective when combined.

A study published in
Skin Pharmacology and Physiology
investigated the effects of a combination of antioxidant supplements on skin. Thirty-nine volunteers with healthy skin consumed an antioxidant mix for 12 weeks. Group 1 received a combination of lycopene, lutein, beta-carotene, alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E), and selenium. Group 2 consumed a mixture of lycopene, beta-carotene, alpha-tocopherol, and selenium. Group 3 was the control group that received no antioxidants. Even though everyone started with normal skin, roughness and scaling were improved in the first two groups, while no changes were observed in the placebo group.

Since studies have reported risks with high levels of vitamin supplements, I recommend getting your antioxidants from foods first—specifically, my antioxidant-rich beauty foods and others mentioned in this book. If you find that your diet is lacking in antioxidants, I recommend taking a multivitamin/multimineral supplement, which will boost your antioxidant intake while avoiding potentially toxic levels.

If your appearance is suffering because you have not been eating enough antioxidant-rich foods, there are three ways to help get your skin back into shape:

1. Eat foods every day that are full of natural antioxidants.
The antioxidants will work together to fight free radicals and will also benefit your health in many other ways. In addition, fresh, whole foods contain other micronutrients that have their own various beauty benefits.

2. Apply topical treatments that contain antioxidants.
The combination of consuming antioxidant-rich foods and applying topical antioxidants can fully arm you with the best possible antiaging protection. Look for foods and products