3 Dietary Habits for Better Looking Skin

One of the first and most conspicuous places we start showing our age is in our skin. Wrinkles, lines, creases, discoloration, loss of elasticity and plumpness—the skin can lose its youthful glow in many different ways. With many of us spending more time indoors than usual right now, and with many beauty maintenance facilities temporarily closed for business, many of us are looking for ways to keep ourselves looking vibrant and young on our own. Here are three major habits you can adopt today to maintain and improve the look of your skin from Atlanta Plastic Surgery:

Maintain (or adopt) a skin-friendly diet. A nutritious, well-balanced diet is crucial to good skin health and overall well being. Experts recommend foods rich in:

• Vitamin A(low-fat dairy products, tuna, mackerel, salmon, trout, and cod liver oil, to name a few)
• Antioxidants (rich colorful fruits like blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and plums, as well as artichokes, black beans, red beans, pinto beans, prunes, and pecans)
• Essential fatty acids, especially omega-3s, which many people lack sufficient amounts of (salmon, walnuts, canola oil, and flaxseed being among the best sources of omega-3s and other fatty acids)
• Selenium (whole-wheat bread, muffins, and cereals low in sugar as well as Brazil nuts, turkey, and tuna)
• Green tea and healthy oils, such as extra-virgin olive oil, are also known to promote healthy skin.

Stay hydrated. Drinking plenty of clean, pure water is an essential habit for healthy, youthful skin. It keeps your skin cells hydrated and helps them move nutrients in and toxins out. Furthermore, hydrated skin tends to sweat more efficiently than skin that lacks moisture, helping it stay clean and clear. While the standard recommendation has been to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day (or half a gallon), the amount of water needed for optimal health varies from person to person. Drink water steadily throughout the day and avoid or minimize drinks with sugar, caffeine, and other additives.

Other ways to say hydrated include drinking other healthful liquids that are low in sugar, such as fresh juices. Read the labels to ensure the sugar content is low enough. Also, it’s good to get some hydration from certain healthful, hydrating foods. Fresh fruits, such as oranges and grapefruit, and leafy green vegetables, such as lettuce and spinach, are just a few examples of nutritious and hydrating foods.

 Keep vices to a minimum. While drinking small amounts of alcohol (such as a small glass of red wine per day) is correlated with some health benefits, alcohol and tobacco products tend to have adverse effects on skin elasticity, circulation, and healing, among other health issues. Particularly, tobacco use can compromise blood flow to the skin’s surface, which impairs the skin’s ability to regenerate and effectively speeds up the aging process.

If you’d like more tips on helping your skin stay healthy or if you’re interested in any of the many non-surgical or surgical procedures we perform, please contact one of our Atlanta Plastic Surgery offices to schedule a consultation today. In addition to discussing your prospective procedure, we can go over our available financing options with you. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest plastic surgery news and updates.