"Botox in an apple?" one skin doctor scoffed, sounding as if he wanted to hang up on me. I'd asked him if any foods or supplements might offer a youthful boost similar to injectable "B." High-tech treatments work wonders; they just make my wallet break out. And I figure if certain diets can help curb heart disease and diabetes, why not the skin? It's the body's largest organ, after all.
The science may not be rock-solid, but tantalizing research does suggest that making a few lifestyle tweaks can help your complexion find its potential. Call it: eat, pray, glow.
1. HAVE AN ORANGE A DAY: Of all the studies on diet and skin, perhaps the best case can be made for increasing foods with vitamin C, according to Jenny Kim MD, PhD, associate professor of dermatology and clinical medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, who pored through the scientific literature for Yahoo! with the help of one of her residents, Jamie Zussman, MD. She cites a 2007 study that examined national data from 4025 women and showed that a higher intake of vitamin C was associated with a lower likelihood of a wrinkles and aging dryness. The main sources of the vitamin in the study were orange juice, fruit—citrus and other kinds—and tomatoes. You just need two of those oranges, or a cup of the OJ, or four large tomatoes to get more than the recommended daily amount of vitamin C for adult women.
2. EAT FOR COLOR: Most experts, in fact, vote for a potent cocktail of antioxidants. To RealAge doctor, Michael Roizen, MD, coauthor of YOU: Staying Young, that means loading up on all the colorful vegetables and fruits you can manage, plus green tea. "If you avoid saturated and trans fats, added sugars and syrups, and any grain that's not 100 percent whole—foods that age you both inside and out," he says, "you can eat almost anything else." For Neil Sadick MD, clinical professor of dermatology at Weill Cornell Medical College, it's simpler. "If I had to do two things in my life food-wise to protect my skin," he says, "I would ingest more soy and drink a glass of red wine at night." Once you change your diet, he says, it should take three to six months to notice an improvement.
3. POUR ON THE OLIVE OIL: New York dermatologist Macrene Alexiades-Armenakas, whose MD and PhD (in genetics) are both from Harvard, claims the secret of the lustrous Mediterranean skin and hair is olive oil. "It not only provides those antioxidants that prevent toxic damage," she says, "but also the fatty acids that are an integral part of skin, hair, and nails." In her opinion you get the best benefit when you don't cook it. "At home, I put raw olive oil on our poached eggs in the morning, drench our salad at lunch, and at dinner, it goes on top (raw again) of any vegetable or pasta dish."
4. POP A FISH OIL PILL: Journalist Thea Singer, whose book Stress Less: The new science that shows women how to rejuvenate the body and the mind hit the shelves this week, points to a fish oil study that, she says, "really blew me away." Published earlier this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it showed that people with the highest levels of fish oil (marine omega-3 fatty acids) in their blood also had the least amount of "telomere shortening," a known marker of aging. Singer explains that telomeres are the tips on the ends of chromosomes that protect the DNA, and when they get too short, the skin cells "go to sleep and start spewing enzymes that chew up collagen and elastin, which ultimately can cause sagging and wrinkling." UCLA's Kim points to other studies suggesting that fish oil may help suppleness and psoriasis. There's no harm in taking a supplement, or in eating more salmon.
5. GO OFF THE CRAZY DIET: Going back to those telomeres, Singer's book describes a convincing body science—some of it Nobel Prize-winning—showing that chronic stress can speed up the rate at which our cells age (skin included) by ten years or more. One activity that causes the body to produce stress hormones, you may not be surprised to learn, is strict dieting. You'll go much easier on yourself with a more moderate method of weight loss.
6. TRY DANCING WITHOUT THE STARS: One of the best ways to turn back the clock, Singer believes, is dancing—with a partner, in a class, or alone in your living room. But if that's not your thing, practicing compassion meditation—or any kind (see more here from a wonderful teacher)—is a great way to unwind. Yoga, massage, joining a support group, and feeling grateful, are also proven means to cultivating radiant calm, both inside and out.
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