How to Get Good Skin

Today’s toxic food supply is not only the root cause of almost every chronic disease we face… It’s also making you look older than your years.

Thanks to Big Agra, our food supply – full of easy-to-prepare processed meals and starchy, sugary snacks – is causing our skin to age prematurely.

But it is possible to turn back the hands of time and regain the healthy complexion you had 10 or 20 years ago.

The three worst things for your skin are simple carbs and refined sugars, low-fat foods and refined salt.

    1. Refined sugar and carbs. These break down into simple sugars. These circulate in your blood and bind to other components to form what’s called advanced glycation end-products, or AGEs. Glycation is a natural part of aging, but too much of the sweet stuff speeds up the process.

      When your skin cells turn into AGEs, collagen becomes more brittle and less elastic. Excess sugar attaches to collagen and attacks it. This makes your skin appear older… in the form of wrinkles, sagging and dryness.

 

    1. A low-fat diet. My files are full of patients who lost weight and regained their health by eating more fat. And just like your body needs fat to be healthy, so does your skin.

      A low-fat diet robs your skin of moisture. And dry skin adds years to your face! Fatty omega-3 acids are responsible for the health of cell membranes. They’re also emollients — a natural moisturizer that heals and prevents dry skin from the inside out. The EPA in omega-3s help block the release of the UV-induced enzymes that eat away at our collagen, causing lines and sagging skin.

      Because EPA is both an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory agent, it can protect against sun damage to your skin and even help repair it.1 Healthy fats also help your body absorb antioxidants and fat-soluble vitamins. This makes for a dewier, more supple complexion.

 

  1. Refined salt. Don’t get me wrong… salt is not unhealthy. There’s a reason we crave salty foods. Sodium prevents dehydration and keeps our cells functioning normally.

    Unfortunately, the salt in most foods today isn’t even close to what Mother Nature intended. It’s bleached and refined. When food manufacturers are finished turning it into the white stuff that goes into packaged foods, the end product contains residual chemicals from the processing.

    This refined “Franken-salt” causes your skin to retain water and feel bloated. The water retention makes your face look puffy and tired. There’s even new research that suggests refined salt damages DNA by shortening telomeres. And you know that shortened telomeres accelerate aging.2

Your Food Can Turn Back Time

    • Lower the AGEs of your body. Take a green tea extract. It’s been shown to suppress the extent of glycation and the formation of AGEs.3 I recommend you take a supplement containing at least 50 mg of EGCG, the most potent antioxidant in green tea.

      Carnosine also decreases the number of AGEs in the body.4 Grass-fed beef is the best way to get carnosine from food. A typical serving has about 220 mg of carnosine. I recommend eating your beef rare. Overcooking breaks down vitamins and removes nutrients, including carnosine. Or try supplementing with 500 mg twice a day.

 

    • Heal dry skin with omega-3 fatty acids. A study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found one serving of omega-3 rich salmon every five days can prevent ugly, dry, precancerous patches called actinic keratoses.5

      Insist on wild-caught salmon. Farm-raised versions won’t have the same benefits. Other good choices for skin-repairing omega-3s include Sacha Inchi nuts, sardines, walnuts, avocado, chia or hemp seeds and flax seed oil.

      Omega-3s also help strengthen your skin’s outer barrier by acting like a seal to keep moisture in and dryness away. In some cases, skin hydration increased 39% after supplementing.6 And when a skin cell holds onto water, it increases wrinkle prevention and helps eliminate mild wrinkles.

 

  • Replace moisture with Mother Nature’s salt. Regular salt is almost pure sodium chloride. I recommend more natural alternatives. Here are my favorites:

    Pink Himalayan Crystal Salt: Himalayan salt doesn’t have the contamination risk of table salt. It also contains dozens of minerals, like iodine and iron.

    Sea Salt: Natural sea salt contains sodium chloride like ordinary salt, but also has more than 50 other minerals. Sadly, research has found that sea salt has been contaminated by plastic pollution. But it’s still better for you than table salt.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD, CNS

1. Ho Kim H, et al. “Eicosapentaenoic acid inhibits UV-induced MMP-1 expression in human dermal fibroblasts.” J Lipid Res. 2005;46(8):1712-1720.
2. Boesten D, et al. “Accelerated aging during chronic oxidative stress: A role for PARP-1.” Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2013;2013:680414.
3. Babu P, et al. “Therapeutic effect of green tea extract on advanced glycation and cross-linking of collagen in the aorta of streptozotocin diabetic rats.” Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 2006;33(4):351-357.
4. Saeed MS, et al. “Decreased formation of advanced glycation end-products in peritoneal fluid by carnosine and related peptides.” Perit Dial Int. 2007;27(1):86-89.
5. Hughes M, et al. “Food intake, dietary patterns, and actinic keratoses of the skin: A longitudinal study.” Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;89(4):1246-1255.
6. Neukam K, et al. “Supplementation of flaxseed oil diminishes skin sensitivity and improves skin barrier function and condition.” Skin Pharmacol Physiol. 2011;24(2):67-74.