There’s no doubt that what we eat directly affects the condition of our skin and how well it ages. Eating a diet rich in anti-oxidants, vitamins, and minerals is essential to our skin’s health and the way it looks.

But are there foods that will help improve your skin’s elasticity and help slow the aging process? With this blog post I thought we would look at three examples of foods that can help improve the elasticity in our aging skin.

1. Omega 3

One of the good fats that help improve your skin health is Omega 3. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know that I love the Omega-3’s and what they can do for your health, wellness, and for your skin. Omega’s 3 is a fatty acid found in cold water oily fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, and sardines. But many people don’t know that you can also get them from walnuts, whole eggs, flax-seed, pecans, and grass fed beef.  Omega 3 is good for your heart, it’s good for your health in general, but it is also very good for your skin.

2. Phytessence Wakame

I know, you’ve probably never heard of Phytessence Wakame, but you definitely know what it is: seaweed! Phytessence Wakame is a kelp that grows naturally around the coast of Japan and experts are pretty sure it’s one of the contributing factors to that fantastic skin they have. Many Japanese elders have smooth, youthful looking skin right into old age without really trying.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the Japanese diet including seaweed. It’s eaten dried and fresh. So why is it good for the skin? It all comes down to the fact that Phytessence Wakame is full of B group vitamins that all aid in soothing inflammation of the skin and help keep the skin youthful. It’s also packed with incredible hydrating agents such as sodium, iron, potassium and calcium (15 times more calcium than milk).

And there’s one more very important reason why Phytessence Wakame is so good for your skin: it helps stop the negative activity of a naturally occurring enzyme in your skin called hyaluronidase (pron. hi-ya lure ON ah daze ).

Hyaluronidase loves nothing more than to seek out and destroy an essential acid in your skin called hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic Acid is a molecule that acts like a sponge and pulls water and minerals into the cells improving your skin’s hydration, plumpness, and elasticity. So plenty of hyaluronic acid is a good thing and if hyaluronidase breaks it down you don’t want that.
So, long story short, eat seaweed! Many stores now sell packages of really delicious baked seaweed. Trader Joe’s has one of my favorite:

3. Sorbitol

 

 

 

 

Sorbitol is found in grapes, berries, apples, peaches, plums, and pears. It is a powerful natural agent that attracts moisture, binds it to your skin cells, and then slows that moisture’s evaporation. Sorbitol not only keeps your complexion looking firm and fresh by plumping up surface cells, but also promotes healthy cell renewal by ensuring that your cells deep inside your dermis remain fully hydrated. Basically these foods act like natural, internal moisturizers.

There are SO many more foods that contain ingredients that are beneficial to your skin, but you might see what we’re getting at here. Eating a healthy diet is extremely good for you, but eating foods that help improve skin tone and elasticity as you age is not THAT difficult.

Eat more cold water fish, eat seaweeds, eat lots of grapes, peaches, plums, and pears: age better, age slower, age at your own pace.

Here at 360 Skin we LOVE to talk about all the options that are open to you and how we can best assist you in aging on YOUR terms.

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