What does your skin say about you? Are you aging too fast? Is your skin youthful? Do you want to look and feel younger?
Cosmetic researchers consistently tell us the key proven ingredients to help repair and renew your skin are Vitamin A, acids and antioxidants. But there is a lot more to beautiful skin than just putting stuff on top. If what you put inside to make new skin with is poor then nothing you put on the outside will ever make up for that poor nutrition.
Your Skin Cells Have a Use By Date
The top layer of your skin is actually not living tissue. The life cycle of skin cells is about 30 days at age 30 and takes a bit longer as they years go by. You continually make new cells deeper below the surface layer of your skin from nutrients provided by your diet and delivered via your blood circulation.
New cells are full and moist and as they grow they push the previous layer towards the surface. By the time your skin cells reach the surface they are dry and scale-y as their life cycle is complete, so the top layer of your skin is made of dead cells. The thicker the layer of dead cells the more dull the appearance.
This surface layer is progressively rubbed off through exposure to, and interaction with, your clothes and outer world elements.
Remove Dead Skin
I found by applying a good film of aloevera gel and letting it absorb, the dead cells on the surface soaked up the moisture content of the gel and then could be easily “rolled” off exposing the fresh skin below without harsh scraping or scrubbing. Repeat the application of aloe vera gel again till no more softened dead cells rub off. Aloevera as well as moisturizing your tissues, both living and not living, is also very healing for your skin.
Feed Your Skin
Water is your number one nutrient need. Water is for hydration and is also your delivery system for nutrients. It is also essential to flush out waste created inside cells during normal cellular function. And water is the key ingredient in your lymphatic system that collects the waste products once outside the cells, to process through lymph nodes and deliver to your liver for filtering and eliminating.
Protein is the main building block of all cells – nuts, seeds, meat, chicken, fish, dairy, beans – so you need these daily to repair wear and tear, and to replace worn out cells every night as you sleep.
Antioxidants found in juicy fruits provide moisture as well as specific protective nutrients. Eating colourful fruits and vegetables will ensure you keep up your antioxidant levels. Generally the brighter and more colourful the food the higher is the antioxidant content.
Fruit provides many options to indulge your skin’s needs. Include a variety of fruit like blueberries, blackberries, black grapes, cherries, goji berries, strawberries, pawpaw, oranges, red grapefruit.
The yellow, orange, red foods provide caroteniods that are fat soluble and your liver converts to Vitamin A, essential for your skin. The dark colours, black, purple, deep green are water soluble so are absorbed readily without liver support.
Vegetables too fill your antioxidant needs. Eat lots of these as they are less likely to flood your system with too readily available sugars as an overload of fruit can do. High sugar levels cause havoc. Eat beetroot, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, capsicum, peas, anything green, raw and cooked – all things bright and beautiful.
Fruit and vegetables are high in Vitamin C too, especially raw, which is essential to build collagen networks for supporting skin tone and elasticity. You can’t build collagen without Vitamin C. Your face as well as everything else needs it.
Minerals are contained within your proteins, fruit and vegetables as well. Minerals are electrically charged, either positive or negative, that are the kick starters of functions.
Vitamin, mineral and fibre levels vary within different foods so eating the same choice day in and day out can create imbalances and deficiencies. Lots of variety gives you the best opportunity of balanced nutrition without thinking too much about the specifics.
If you have specific health issues see a professional who can advise you as your nutritional needs can be more specific when recovering from injury or illness.
Oils and essential fats are important to the flexibility and discrimination ability of the membrane of every cell, to allow in what supports and nourishes your cells and keep out what is toxic. Specific fats are essential to provide the base for your hormones, buffer your nerves and your brain tissue too. You need omega 3 from deep sea fish, oil from seeds, nuts and grains.
Summary
The condition of your skin tells a great deal about what is happening inside your body and brain. Taking care of your skin from the outside cannot replace taking care of your skin from the inside. You may need a complete checkover and sort out of current food habits and a healthy skin program to once again have a beautiful skin. Book in for a Kinesiology balance and Facial Harmony.
Cheers
Anna McRobert
anna@annamcrobert.com.au