A diet rich in healthy fats and vitamins can promote healthy skin. Many fruits and vegetables, including red grapes and tomatoes, contain compounds that can benefit the skin.
Nutrition is important for health. An unhealthy diet can harm your metabolism, cause weight gain, and even damage organs, such as the heart and liver.
But what you eat also affects another organ: your skin.
As scientists learn more about diet and the body, it is becoming increasingly clear that what you eat can significantly affect the health and aging of your skin.
This article looks at 12 of the best foods to keep your skin healthy.
1. Fatty fish
Fatty fish, such as salmon, mackerel, and herring, are excellent foods for healthy skin. They are rich sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which are important for maintaining skin health (1).
Omega-3 fatty acids are necessary to help keep skin plump, supple and hydrated. In fact, a deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids can lead to dry skin (1, 2).
The omega-3 fats in fish reduce inflammation, which can cause redness and acne. They can even make your skin less sensitive to the sun’s harmful UV rays (2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source).
Some studies show that fish oil supplements can help combat inflammatory and autoimmune conditions that affect the skin, such as psoriasis and lupus (4).
Fatty fish is also a source of vitamin E, one of the most important antioxidants for the skin.
Getting enough vitamin E is essential to help protect skin against free radical damage and inflammation (5).
This type of seafood is also a source of high-quality protein, necessary to maintain the strength and integrity of the skin (5).
Finally, fish provides zinc, a mineral vital to regulating the following:
inflammation
overall skin health
the production of new skin cells
Zinc deficiency can cause skin inflammation, lesions, and delayed wound healing (6).
SUMMARY
Types of fatty fish like salmon contain omega-3 fatty acids that can reduce inflammation and keep skin hydrated. They are also a good source of high-quality protein, vitamin E and zinc.
2. Avocados
Avocados are high in healthy fats. These fats benefit many functions of your body, including the health of your skin (7Trusted Source).
Getting enough of these fats is essential to help keep skin supple and hydrated.
A study involving more than 700 women found that a high intake of total fat (specifically the types of healthy fats found in avocados) was associated with more flexible and elastic skin (8).
Preliminary evidence also shows that avocados contain compounds that may help protect skin from sun damage. UV damage to the skin can cause wrinkles and other signs of aging (8, 9).
Avocados are also a good source of vitamin E, which is an important antioxidant that helps protect the skin from oxidative damage. Most Americans do not get enough vitamin E through their diet.
Interestingly, vitamin E appears to be most effective when combined with vitamin C (5).
Vitamin C is also essential for healthy skin. Your skin needs it to create collagen, which is the main structural protein that keeps skin strong and healthy (10).
Vitamin C deficiency is rare today, but common symptoms include dry, rough, scaly skin that tends to bruise easily.
Vitamin C is also an antioxidant that helps protect the skin from oxidative damage caused by the sun and the environment, which can lead to signs of aging (10).
A 100-gram serving, or about 1/2 an avocado, provides 14% of the daily value (DV) for vitamin E and 11% of the DV for vitamin C (11).
SUMMARY
Avocados are high in beneficial fats and contain vitamins E and C, which are important for healthy skin. They also contain compounds that can protect your skin from sun damage.
3. Walnuts
Walnuts have many characteristics that make them an excellent food for healthy skin.
They are a good source of essential fatty acids, which are fats that the body cannot produce on its own.
In fact, they are richer than most other nuts in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids (12, 13).
A diet too high in omega-6 fats can promote inflammation, including inflammatory skin conditions like psoriasis.
On the other hand, omega-3 fats reduce inflammation in the body, including the skin (13).
While ome fatty acids
