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Tune In: The Best Nutrients & Lifestyle Tips For Younger, Brighter Skin
So many skin care enthusiasts have woken up to a simple truth: Food is a foundational part of skin care. What we eat can have a profound impact on the complexion, good or bad: From inflammatory diets triggering skin conditions like acne or eczema to antioxidant-rich phytonutrients helping protect against free radicals.
It’s no wonder that more and more dermatologists are integrating nutrition into their practices, as well as becoming certified in nutrition education. Including today’s guest on mindbodygreen’s beauty podcast Clean Beauty School, board-certified integrative dermatologist Asmi (Sanghvi) Berry, D.O.
Berry also has a certification in Ayurvedic Philosophy of Medicine and Nutrition at the BHAGAVAT Culinary School, making her an expert in both Ayurvedic practices and holistic nutrition.
“Nutrition is such an important part of your skin, your well-being, and overall wellness. The food you eat is your medicine.
It affects your mood, your brain health, your metabolism, and all the thousands of biological processes that are going on in your body,” she says—adding that it also impacts your skin.
An integrative derm’s favorite nutrients for aging skin
How folks should approach nutrition is highly personalized.
“It can vary according to the individual’s skin, whether their concerns are acne, rosacea, pigmentation, or aging. These diets do vary quite a bit,” she says. “So the anti-aging diet, it's eating a lot of phytonutrients. These are like very powerful antioxidants, and you want to get a variety of them.”
Here, some of her favorites to recommend:
- Resveratrol—“which you can find in berries,” she says—can help improve skin longevity, reduce free radical damage, and more.
- EGCG can help improve skin hydration, suppleness, and smoothness research shows. It’s found in antioxidant powerhouse green tea.
- Spermidine1 improves skin barrier function, the microbiome, and skin healing. “You can find this in natto, which is fermented soybeans,” she says.
- Fisetin2 can help improve skin rejuvenation by supporting your skin’s fibroblasts, which make collagen and elastin.
- Quercetin is a flavonoid that improves UV protection and is anti-inflammatory. “You can find this in apples,” she says—important to note that to get the quercetin you need to eat the skin too.
- Folate, “is very protective for your DNA,” she says. Find folate in sweet potatoes.
- Flavonoids and carotenoids found in beets, which “can help your DNA repair. When you think about aging, it's really about dysregulation of your DNA repair system,” she says.
And of course, these phytonutrients should be added on top of a well-balanced foundation: “If I were to create a core that brings everything together, I would say eat more plants, eat a variety of plants, consume healthy fats—and decrease simple carbohydrates, sugar, and alcohol. These things universally negatively impact skin no matter the skin condition.”
Tune in:
For more insights on nutrition, Ayurveda, in-office procedures, and more—listen to our entire conversation below.
