Beauty and the best: Here’s how you can keep your skin healthy from within, this winter

Imagine sipping on a mug of hot chocolate on a cold winter day, or those holiday-themed hot drinks, soups and stews that satisfy your cravings and keep you warm all winter long.

This winter, most of us will enjoy the holiday season with the family or take a break to just relax and pamper ourselves. Without a doubt, food will be an essential element of the season. But while all these rich foods will leave you with a fuzzy and warm feeling, they will also have an impact on your skin.

With winter around the corner and the temperatures dipping this month, there’s a good chance that the season has already taken a toll on your skin.

Winter woes

It is common for our skin to become dry, flaky, and rough during the winter, so before you go out and spend that paycheck on fancy lotions and creams, try providing your skin with some nourishment from the inside first.

What you eat is just as essential for a healthy glow as what you apply on it.

Here are some ways on how to get healthy skin from within:

Almonds all the way

Almonds are not only a healthy snack, they are also a beauty food due to their nutritional value. By consuming nuts such as almonds, our body gets healthy fats and most importantly vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) which has been shown to impart anti-ageing properties that are beneficial for overall skin health.

They are also high in copper, which plays a role in skin and hair pigmentation.

Thanks to the diversity of nutrients present in them like Vitamin E, protein, folate, fibre, etc. almonds are a smart choice for overall good nutrition.

Go green with leafy veggies

Get that youthful glow by adding green leafy vegetables to get enough vitamin A in your diet.

If you are not getting enough of this nutrient, your skin can get dry and flaky. Dark, leafy greens like spinach, methi, lettuce, and kale are excellent sources of vitamin A.

These nutrients will help you combat dry and itchy skin, thus, giving your skin a radiant complexion. Make sure, you are also adding green veggies to your diet in the form of smoothies, or as a side dish to your meals.

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Indulge in your not-so-regular fruits

Vitamin E can play a great role in enhancing your skin's health as it is known to block free radicals from the body, which play a large part in the ageing process. It also acts as a cleansing agent that could possibly treat sunburns and lighten dark spots as well.

If you wish to have soft, supple and radiant skin, then you must include vitamin E-rich foods in your daily diet. Many fruits provide a good amount of vitamin C along with vitamin E which work as great antioxidants. Kick-start your day with fruits such as avocados, kiwis, blackcurrants and blackberries.

You can also throw in some pickled olives and dried cranberries to make your breakfast a little more exciting.

Say yes to fish

For non-vegetarians, consuming fish can be a good way to add to your skin’s health. Varieties like salmon, tuna, and trout are high in Omega-3s.

This is good for you as the nutrients present in these food items helps to calm inflammation, which can lead to a breakdown of collagen and elastin, both of which keep skin looking youthful.

Vegetarians should also include soybeans in their diet. They are nutrient-dense foods that contain omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, imparting ample nutrition to our skin and also protecting it from the UV rays.

Here are a couple of quick fixes you can make to your diet in order to enhance your skin health…

• Replace the mayo in your salads and sandwiches with sliced or mashed avocado.

• Instead of regular butter, top your toast with almond butter.

Keep a small portion of almonds to have as a convenient snack during the day.

• Add wheat germ to smoothies, muffins and pancakes.

Garnish salads with peanuts, sunflower seeds or almonds. Top it with a salad dressing made of sunflower oil.

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Nutrient-rich foods for skin health

So, this winter, say goodbye to your typical cold-weather beauty woes and dry, flaky and irritated skin, by just improving your diet. The secret to flawless, blemish and acne-free skin lies in nutrient-rich foods.

On a concluding note, make sure you keep hydrating yourself as nothing can surpass the importance of the right amount of daily water intake for good skin.

(Images credit: Shutterstock)