Healthy Skin Starts on the Inside

Clear, healthy, hydrated skin is everyone’s goal and we all have access to some pretty effective products that can speed up the process of achieving that. Although good quality products are great (I swear by them), healthy skin starts from the inside. It should be a no brainer that how we treat our bodies and what we feed them is gonna show from the inside out. We should all be eating (or trying to eat) a healthy and balanced diet everyday but here are some foods that have been proven to be exceptionally good for your skin:

• Cocoa hydrates and firms your skin. “And dark chocolate contains high levels of flavonols, a potent type of antioxidant,” says Nicholas Perricone, MD, a dermatologist from NYC. A couple of squares of dark chocolate (70% cocoa) a day is enough to improve luminosity. Dark chocolate can also be applied directly to the skin as the caffeine in chocolate can reduce skin puffiness and also brighten and wake up the skin.

• For a long time, Vitamin E was one of those super foods that everyone raved over. Vitamin E is said to promote healing, brightening, cell turnover, and collagen production which minimizes dark spots and sun damage. Sunflower seeds are high in Vitamin E and help protect your skin from the sun. Sunflower seed oil can also be used topically to hydrate the lips and dry patches on the skin.

• Now for my all time favorite: green tea. A cup of green tea a day is either a great way to start or wind down in the evening. Green tea is packed with antioxidants which helps flush out toxins from the body and also calms the skin by reducing redness. In addition, because tea is essentially leaf water, you’re hydrating the skin. This is another ingredient that’s not only great for the inside, but can be applied topically with this toner for more direct benefits.