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Go Vegan For Your Skin
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Glowing, clear skin is a features that many of us strive to attain. As skin is the largest organ of our body, and often one of the first things we notice, the quality of our skin is often an indicator of our health. The skin is a reflection of both your environmental factors and how you nourish it from within. Healthy living is essential for healthy skin, starting with what we eat.
While the skincare industry mostly focuses on improving skin from the outside, you can improve your skin from within by making dietary changes. It’s not just enough to take care of your skin and skin ailments topically. Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables, while excluding animal products and refined sugar, will improve the overall appearance and health of your skin, especially if you have skin issues, like acne or sallowness, that you want to address.
A vegan diet can dramatically improve your skin as long as you keep fried foods and refined sugars out of the meals. The antioxidants, vitamins and minerals found in vegetables and fruit, a large percentage of a healthy vegan diet, are very beneficial to the skin (and are sometimes applied topically as well). Avoiding the hormones and antibiotics present in most animal products can dramatically clear up your skin. Here are some of the ways a vegan diet can make your skin look and feel healthier:
Vegan diets contain nutrients beneficial to skin
Healthy vegans eat more fruits and vegetables than omnivores—which means they get greater doses of vitamins and antioxidants that are the building blocks for beautiful skin. Vegan diets are high in Vitamin C—found in many leafy greens, citrus fruits and some berries—and Vitamin E—which is commonly found nuts and seeds. Vitamins C and E are powerful antioxidants that neutralize skin-damaging free radicals and help fight wrinkles and brown spots, staving off the signs of aging.
Vegan diets also have more “color” to the plate than the average American diet of “meat and potatoes.” These eye-pleasing colors also signal the presence of important antioxidants and bioflavonoids, like beta-carotene and anthocyanins, that are extremely beneficial to the skin. Beta-carotene can impart a healthy glow to your skin, may help improve your internal SPF and helps resist skin damage, which can reduce wrinkles. Found in orange and yellow fruits and vegetables, beta-carotene can also help clear up skin plagued by acne.
Anthocyanins, found in deep red and purple foods like blueberries, beets, acai and pomegranates, help regulate blood flow to the skin, which improves skin clarity. Anthocyanins also help stabilize the collagen structure, which keeps your skin firm. Much of the discoloration and breakouts can be linked to inflammation; anthocyanins can reduce the damage done by free radicals.
Additionally, vegans need to rely on plant sources for their protein and fat—therefore, a healthy vegan diet is high in beans and nuts and seeds. Beans are an excellent source of zinc, which has been found to decrease inflammation, helping to clear the skin of pimples and redness. Healthy, unsaturated fats found in nuts and seeds, avocados and olive oil provide fatty acids that keep the skin well-hydrated.
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Vegan diets remove sources of inflammation
In addition to providing an ample dose of the nutrients your skin needs to be its healthiest, a vegan diet also cuts out the hormones and antibiotics that come from consuming products from farm raised animals. Several studies report that there is a causal connection between acne and dairy consumption. Researchers traced the issue back to the presence of hormones in dairy products—it is thought that those hormones wreak havoc on your hormonal balance, which leads to inflammation in the body and the skin.
Some studies have shown that red meat consumption is directly correlated with increased inflammation in the body, inflammation which leads to the breakdown of collagen and elastin—key components of skin to keep it taut and firm.
Also, animal products are high in body-for-you saturated fats (unlike the medium chain fatty acid saturated fat found in coconut oil). These saturated fats increase the risk for heart disease and atherosclerosis. Hardening of arteries and plaques developing along blood vessels results in poor circulation—which results in dull skin, amongst other health issues.
Plant-based diets eliminate the intake of pore-clogging saturated fats and of hormones that are often found in animal products. As a vegan diet relies entirely on vegetables, fruits, nuts and beans, you will get more of the nutrients necessary to impart a healthy glow to your skin, while keeping it smooth and radiant. Not only will your skin benefit from a vegan diet, but so will your overall health.
Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer in the Los Angeles area whose writing covers everything from marketing and tech to health and wellness. She currently writes for a beauty blog at Fair & Flawless Skin, and by maintaining a diet that is high in antioxidants, she is able to keep a natural glow to her skin.