Research shows that what you eat affects your skin’s condition. Get your glow on with the latest tips, advice and tempting recipes
Y our skin will mirror what’s going on inside your body. ‘It’s linked to every organ,’ says Dr Thivi Maruthappu, author of Skin Food: Your 4-Step Solution to Healthy, Happy Skin (Piatkus, £14.99). And she should know: she’s the UK’s first and only dual-qualified nutritionist and dermatologist. Her theory is that what you eat and the health of your skin can’t be separated. ‘Food affects the skin from the inside, while creams and skincare often only reach the upper layers,’ she says. Nutrition is vital for one of the deeper layers of the skin, the dermis. ‘That’s where you make collagen, and where there’s a network of blood vessels to supply skin with essential nutrients that help it repair and regenerate.’ And, of course, you get those nutrients from food.
Elisa Rossi, food blogger and author of Happy Skin Kitchen (Thorsons, £25), has beautifully clear skin now but had acne in her 20s. ‘Skin issues often stem from many different things,’ she says. ‘It’s not a magic formula, but having a healthy, nutritionally dense diet can really make a difference.’ As a teen, she went on the pill to help her breakouts, then stayed on it for 10 years.
‘When I came off, my skin broke out, especially in the chin and jaw area,’ she says. After tests ruled out polycystic ovary syndrome, she looked into how to balance her hormones with lifestyle. ‘At the time, I was living on convenience food: takeaways, or pasta with a jar of tomato sauce. I took control of my diet, as well as managing my stress with meditation, spending time outdoors and getting enough sleep. It took me a couple of years to find a diet that I could enjoy long term, and that worked for my skin.’ (Elisa’s recipes accompany this article.)
Thivi says people usually see their skin change in four weeks when following her approach, which includes four key dietary pillars: eating enough healthy fats; eating a gut-friendly diet of foods that are high in fibre (fruit and vegetables, as well as pulses and beans); avoiding pro-inflammatory processed foods, and alcohol; and eating more brightly coloured fruit and vegetables. ‘It’s been shown that the antioxidants in fruit and vegetables are absorbed and reach the skin from the inside,’ she says.
EATING FOR ROSACEA
Pippa Campbell started training in nutrition, then functional medicine, after developing rosacea in her 20s. Her often-flushed cheeks were breaking out into little pus-filled spots that are typical of the condition. ‘I thought I was eating healthily because I was cooking, but I was making a lot of cakes and drinking wine too,’ she says. ‘The only time I ever get flushed now is when I drink alcohol.’
Rosacea is often linked to gut issues,
