10 top foods for skin health

1. Green Tea

Green tea (also known as matcha) is some­thing of a super­star when it comes to skin thanks to its won­der­ful heal­ing prop­er­ties. Green tea is not only high in antiox­i­dants (which can reduce the amount of free rad­i­cals in your body), it’s also a great detox­i­fi­er for the skin.

Green tea con­tains vit­a­min B2 (riboflavin), which has the abil­i­ty to aid cell turnover, main­tain col­la­gen lev­els and speed wound heal­ing.¹ It also boasts sooth­ing, anti-inflam­ma­to­ry and antibac­te­r­i­al prop­er­ties, help­ing to reduce irri­ta­tion, red­ness and swelling as well as unclog­ging pores and treat­ing acne.²

What’s more, a 2003 study showed that the antiox­i­dant EGCG, which is abun­dant in green tea, has the abil­i­ty to repair dying skin cells — help­ing to com­bat the signs of aging and make dull skin look health­i­er.³

Green tea is a great low­er-caf­feine alter­na­tive to cof­fee, so drink a cup — or even bet­ter, sev­er­al cups — every day if you can. Your smoother, more radi­ant skin will reap the benefits!

2. Avo­ca­dos

Yes, avo­ca­dos are high in fat, but it’s a ​‘good fat’! A Japan­ese study found that a high intake of total fat — specif­i­cal­ly the types of healthy fats found in avo­ca­dos — was asso­ci­at­ed with improved skin elas­tic­i­ty.⁴

Packed with 19 vit­a­mins, nutri­ents and phy­tonu­tri­ents, avo­ca­dos are a nutri­ent-dense fruit that play a major role in healthy diets, includ­ing vit­a­mins E and C. ⁶ Vit­a­min C helps to cre­ate col­la­gen to keep skin healthy and strong, while Vit­a­min E can help pro­tect your skin from oxida­tive dam­age. ⁷

All good rea­sons to eat plen­ty of these gor­geous green fruit! Aim to eat around half an avo­ca­do a day to help keep your skin flex­i­ble, mois­turised and ​‘glowy’.

3. Blue­ber­ries

The not-so-hum­ble blue­ber­ry has one of the high­est antiox­i­dant con­tents of all foods, includ­ing antho­cyani (which gives blue­ber­ries their colour), as well as vit­a­mins C, E, A and B com­plex, zinc, iron, sele­ni­um and copper.

Along with boost­ing your immune sys­tem, antiox­i­dants can help to neu­tralise the effect of free rad­i­cals in the body, help­ing cells to prop­er­ly detox­i­fy and repair dam­age, which in turn helps reduce the signs of aging.⁸

The nutri­ents in blue­ber­ries can also help to com­bat acne, reduce inflam­ma­tion and strength­en the cap­il­lar­ies just beneath the skin to pro­tect against spi­der veins. ⁹ Try adding one or two cups of fresh or frozen blue­ber­ries to your diet each day – with cere­al or por­ridge, in smooth­ies or desserts or sim­ply as a snack with yoghurt. Also aim to include straw­ber­ries, rasp­ber­ries, blue­ber­ries, black­ber­ries and goji berries.

4. Nuts

Nuts def­i­nite­ly rank among the best foods for skin health, as they con­tain zinc, mag­ne­sium and sele­ni­um, all of which are help­ful for wound heal­ing. Almonds con­tain a potent dose of B vit­a­mins (riboflavin and niacin), as well as zinc, pro­tein and healthy dietary fat. They’re also rich in vit­a­min E, a pow­er­ful anti-oxi­dant that’s known to help neu­tralise dam­ag­ing free rad­i­cals in the body and is often used in skin health prod­ucts.¹⁰

Wal­nuts are also lit­tle bites of good­ness when it comes to skin. They’re a rich source of essen­tial fat­ty acids (EFAs), a ​‘good fat’ that’s often lack­ing in West­ern diets and can pro­mote reduced inflam­ma­tion in your body, includ­ing your skin.¹¹ Wal­nuts are also rich in zinc, which is essen­tial for your skin to func­tion prop­er­ly as a bar­ri­er, heal wounds and com­bat bac­te­ria and inflam­ma­tion.¹² So unless you have an aller­gy or intol­er­ance, it’s okay to go nuts on nuts!

5. Seeds

Seeds are a great way of get­ting more nutri­ents and essen­tial trace min­er­als, espe­cial­ly pump­kin, sun­flower and lin­seeds (flaxseeds). Pump­kin seeds are an excel­lent source of zinc, which plays an impor­tant part in keep­ing your skin radi­ant and healthy, help­ing to build new and healthy skin cells and repair­ing dam­aged skin.¹³

Sun­flower seeds also chock-full of nutri­ents, includ­ing pro­tec­tive fat­ty oils and sub­stan­tial amounts of zinc and vit­a­min E, which may help to pro­tect skin cells and pro­mote health­i­er skin.¹⁴

Flaxseeds are anoth­er great seed to include in your diet as they’re rich in an omega‑3 fat­ty acid called alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). A 2011 study found that female par­tic­i­pants with sen­si­tive skin who took a flaxseed oil sup­ple­ment for 12 weeks expe­ri­enced reduced skin sen­si­tiv­i­ty and rough­ness, increased hydra­tion and smoother skin.¹⁵

Try adding baked or raw seeds into sal­ads, enjoy them as an ener­gy-boost­ing snack or sprin­kle an LSA blend (ground lin­seeds, sun­flower seeds and almonds) onto yoghurt, por­ridge or cere­al, or into smoothies.

6. Leafy green vegetables

There’s a good rea­son your Mum told you to ​‘eat your greens’. Dark leafy greens like kale and Swiss chard are high in fibre and are also one of the top sources of beta carotene, a pow­er­ful antiox­i­dant that can help to repair and renew the skin, giv­ing it a more radi­ant glow.

Spinach is also chock-full of beta-carotene, as well lutein, potas­si­um, fiber and folate – an essen­tial B vit­a­min that helps main­tain and repair DNA.¹⁶ Try adding dark, leafy greens to smooth­ies, sal­ads, sand­wich­es, wraps, omelettes, you name it – to give your skin a boost from the inside out.

7. Lemons

There are lots of rea­sons to love lemons. They’re packed with nutri­ents includ­ing vit­a­min C, B‑complex vit­a­mins, cal­ci­um, iron, mag­ne­sium, potas­si­um and fibre. Their high lev­els of vit­a­min C is great for boost­ing your immune sys­tem and essen­tial for the for­ma­tion of col­la­gen, which helps to keep skin firmer, health­i­er and younger-look­ing.¹⁷

A squeeze of lemon juice in a large glass of cold or hot water can be a great way to kick-start your sys­tem in the morn­ing.¹⁸ Lemon and water advo­cates swear by this rit­u­al and that it can help to aid diges­tion, detox­i­fy your sys­tem, and decrease blem­ish­es and wrin­kles.¹⁹ Try adding lemon juice or grat­ed rind to sal­ads, stir-fries or desserts and of course, it pairs per­fect­ly with green tea – see above!

8. Beta carotene

All veg­gies are packed with good­ness, but many are also brim­ming with beta carotene, a plant pig­ment that gives red, orange, and yel­low fruit and veg­eta­bles their vibrant colour. Also called ​‘carotenoids’ (named after car­rots), these antiox­i­dants have have many health ben­e­fits – with a US study show­ing that carotenoids can to help pro­tect the skin from dam­age caused by free rad­i­cals and help main­tain skin health and appear­ance.²⁰

Rich sources of these pro­tec­tive antiox­i­dants include car­rots, man­gos, papayas, yams, kumara/​sweet pota­toes and bell pep­pers – so do your skin a favour by mak­ing your meals as (nat­u­ral­ly) colour­ful as possible.

9. Water

Tech­ni­cal­ly not a food, but plen­ty of H₂0 is soooo impor­tant to skin health! Even mild dehy­dra­tion will cause your skin to look dry, tired and slight­ly grey. Try to drink six to eight glass­es of water a day – or herbal, caf­feine-free teas – all flu­ids count towards your dai­ly allowance, but water is the best.

Some fruit and veg­eta­bles, such as water­mel­on, rock­mel­on, cour­gette and cucum­ber, also con­tribute flu­ids as well as min­er­als to speed up the hydra­tion of your body and skin.

10. Dark chocolate

We’ve saved the best news for last! Good qual­i­ty dark choco­late ual­i­ty dark choco­late with a high cacao may also be ben­e­fi­cial in pro­tect­ing the skin. A pre­lim­i­nary study in 2014 not­ed that antiox­i­dants found in cocoa may help to pro­tect the skin from the inside by neu­tral­is­ing oxida­tive stress, a major fac­tor of der­mal struc­ture dete­ri­o­ra­tion and pre­ma­ture skin aging.²¹

So go on, reach for that piece of choco­late and know that you’re doing your­self some good!

Again, it’s not a food, but sun­screen is one of the most impor­tant things you can do to keep your skin healthy. Apply­ing a wide-brimmed hat, sun­glass­es and a broad-spec­trum sun­screen of at least SPF30+ every day can not only help to reduce the ear­ly signs of aging such as wrin­kles and sunspots, it can also help reduce your risk of all types of skin can­cer, includ­ing melanoma, in lat­er life.

Whether you’re con­sid­ered to have a high or low skin can­cer (check your risk here), no one wants to end up with pre­ma­ture­ly aging skin, so stay Sun­Smart when­ev­er you’re outdoors.

It’s impor­tant that you choose the right type of sun­screen to suit your skin to avoid unnec­es­sary break-outs, irri­ta­tion or aller­gies — check out our arti­cle on the top sun­screens for dif­fer­ent skin types.