Healthy, glowing skin starts with your diet. Photo: Magi Kernan.
It’s no secret that outdoor sports aren’t the best thing for your skin. Whether it’s the glare coming off the snow and a cold wind whipping your face, or salty trade winds and the tropical sun beating down, the outdoors aren’t so kind to the body’s largest organ. While wearing a hat, glasses, and smothering sunscreen all over the place can limit our exposure to the elements, we can actually help our skin stay healthy by focusing on what we heap onto our dinner plates.
Skin health and the appearance of healthy skin depend on collagen. Collagen is a protein that forms connective tissues in the body. These tissues are mostly found in the skin, bones, teeth, cartilage, and ligaments. However, collagen also serves as a kind of “ intracellular “glue” that gives support, shape, and bulk to blood vessels, bones, and organs.” With plenty of collagen, your skin is firm, smooth, and glowing, but when collagen levels dip, your skin may begin to sag and dull. Your diet plays a key role in dictating how well your body can produce collagen.
There are three key ingredients for collagen production: vitamin C, lysine, and proline.
While the recommended daily value of vitamin C is only 75-90 mg, this only addresses our dietary needs (like preventing scurvy). For healthy skin we actually should be consuming much more. Some experts recommend as much as 2,000 mg per day (which is still only 2 grams). In addition to helping with collagen production, vitamin C has also been shown to help protect the skin from UV damage, which is especially great for those of us who log long hours outdoors.
Vitamin C is also one of the easiest vitamins to bulk up on: all you have to do is take a quick trip down the produce aisle. The most potent sources are found in citrus fruits like oranges, grapefruits, tangerines, limes, and lemons. However, other less acidic fruits like papaya, cantaloupe, and raspberries also offer plenty vitamin C as well. By integrating these fruits into your daily diet, you can not only help you skin look amazing now, but you can fend off future sun damage from the inside out.
Lysine is an amino acid that acts as a building block for collagen. Experts recommend about 2-3 grams of lysine per day for healthy skin. Many protein-rich foods are also rich in lysine. A couple examples include nuts, red meat, milk, and sardines. The amino acid is also naturally found in plant-based sources including peas, lentils, and tofu. Another thing to note is that a high-sugar diet can cause lysine deficiency. Sugars bind to lysine in such a way that the amino acid can not be used in its intended manner. If you’re looking for optimal skin health, veer away from a sugary diet.
Finally, proline too is valuable for collagen formation. However, this amino acid is much easier for the body to obtain than vitamin C and lysine. Unlike the other two, proline can be made from other amino acids in the body. If you’re looking to increase your dietary intake of proline, it can be derived from almost any high-protein source of food. To name a few specifics, ilk, cottage cheese, beef, and cabbage are wonderful sources of proline.
There you have it: healthy skin demands more than SPF 30. Feel free to share any other healthy skin tips in the comments section.
