A Skin Deep But Shallow Confession…

If I’m being honest, an embarrassingly HUGE reason I got into a plant-based diet was skin health. The idea of eating more foods that have been shown to help keep your skin young and healthy-looking seemed like an obvious way to up my nutrition and skin health.

My mother has incredible genes when it comes to aging, thank goodness, BUT I want to do my part to ensure that I age gracefully and healthily.

To me, the most obvious and simple tactic seemed to be eating vegetables and fruits that have been shown to help create that glow and protect skin from the natural factors that lead to increased signs of aging!

I figured I should let the organization that has already done an incredible amount of research on this topic through peer-reviewed scientific journals and studies, explain it best in the videos below.

These videos are brought to you by NutritoinFacts.org. This is not at all sponsored, they are truly a non-profit. I love using their research as they only use peer-reviewed scientific studies.

What is Nutrition Facts.org?

Nutrition Facts is an incredible non-profit organization that is all about providing free updates on nutritional research put out by peer-reviewed scientific journals in bite-sized videos.

It is unlikely that most of us have time to read full on peer-reviewed scientific studies, let alone take the time to fully understand them or stay awake. This is where Nutrition Facts becomes incredibly valuable!

They review these journals for you, fact checks them with data that is already out there, and explain them in an easy to digest way.

I highly recommend checking them out for yourself!

Videos that Discuss Aging and Nutrients:

Here are a couple of videos I find highly informative and motivating when it comes to eating in a way that can help fight aging and increase your skin’s nutrition and health.

Video Discussing that “Golden Glow” and Nutrients

This next video goes into the ‘why’ behind why some vegetables and fruits help your skin look look ‘glowy’ and beautiful. I watched this before my wedding. It is what influenced what I ate about a month out before the wedding.

I wanted that new-bride glow ;)

For me, it seemed clear that the easiest way to reduce aging factors was to eat plant-based.

To review, the 3 main reasons skin ages according to the scientific studies reviewed by Nutrition Facts are:

1) Oxidative stress (induced by sun-damage)

2) Inflammation

3) Ischemia (lack of adequate blood flow)

So how do vegans fight signs of agings?  

As many plants have 'antioxidants’, that seems like an obvious way for people to fight aging by combatting oxidative stress. By ensuring you have a variety of plants in your diet, chances are quite good that you’ll be getting a high dose of antioxidants in your diet that may help reduce oxidative stress in your skin.

On top of that, as many studies have shown that saturated fat and bad cholesterol may contribute to bodily inflammation and ischemia, it seemed clear that eating simply plants would help avoid this problem. Also, many fruits and vegetables have anti-inflammatory properties.

I learned a lot of this from digging deep in Dr. Greger’s Nutrition Facts videos that discuss scientific studies on inflammation and blood flow. I highly recommend you dig deep yourself if this information intrigues you!

 Here is more information on how meat can cause inflammation in the body. 

What foods can help my skin glow and fight signs of aging?!

That all said, let’s say you aren’t willing or ready to go plant-based to help your skin out. From the videos above, we’ve learned the following, here it is dumbed down.

• Generally, we see the need to be eating antioxidant/carotenoid-rich foods to fight the 3 causes of aging and to assist in creating a golden skin glow.

• Carotenoids are a type of antioxidant. There are many types of carotenoids, one of the most popular ones being alpha and beta carotene. All of which is helpful to us!

Knowing this, what are some foods we should incorporate into our diet, and how can we effectively incorporate them to fight aging and have glowing skin?

Firstly, always consult your doctor before majorly changing your diet. Anything in excess can be dangerous!! The best thing you can do that is recommended by nutritionists is to generally increase your whole-food intake and ensure you are eating a wide variety of plants!

The more research I do, the more I learn about all the crazy health benefits all the different fruits and veggies have!
Anyways, back to Carotenoids.

Carotenoids are classified into two main groups: Xanthophylls and Carotenes.

Xanthophyll Carotenoid examples are: 

• kale

• spinach

• summer squash

• pumpkin

• avocado

• yellow-fleshed fruits

• corn

Carotene Carotenoid examples are: 

• carrots

• cantaloupe

• sweet potatoes

• papaya

• pumpkin

• tangerines

• tomatoes

• winter squash

How do I get more Carotenoids in my diet to get my skin glowing and fight aging?

Let’s get smoothies out of the way. Yes, you can blend whatever the heck you want together and drink it but I feel like that is too easy of an answer so I’m going to move on.

Feel free to blend whatever you want together. I’m going to show you some more creative ways of incorporating this delicious food!

Mexican Inspired Bowls, Casseroles, and Lasagnas with Carotenoid rich ingredients!

I feel like if you use Mexican inspiration, it is so easy to cook with many of the ingredients mentioned above.

For instance, recently I made an incredible Mexican-inspired vegan casserole that included a good amount of the carotenoids listed above! However, if I were to make it again, I would include all the following in it:

1. Kale

2. Spinach ( I just used kale originally, but I would mix these together next time)

3. Corn

4. Sweet Potato, baked

5. Tomatoes, diced ( I would add this as a garnish or as fresh salsa on the side)

6. Avocado, sliced ( I would add this as a garnish!)

7. Pumpkin Puree ( I would mix this with the enchilada sauce and maybe some vegan milk in a saucepan).

It is also easy to see how all the ingredients listed above with the ingredients below would make an unreal Mexican vegan power bowl or wrap:

• Rinsed black beans

• Sliced jalapenos

• Chives

• Chopped cilantro

• Cooked brown rice or quinoa

• Vegan sour cream

• Lime, squeezed

Carrots

Carrots are rich in beta-carotene and antioxidants! To eat more carrots, I simply make a point of having baby carrots and hummus always on hand.

As well, I like to have some kind of blade that shreds carrot into thin strips! This is ideal if you want to quickly add carrots to your salads!

Tomatoes

Tomatoes have carotenoids such as lutein and lycopene, vitamin C, and more antioxidants!

I think most plant-based people don’t have any problem getting tomatoes in. They go great in most stews, salads, sandwiches, wraps, etc. They are one of those vegetables that seem to sneak their way into a lot of dishes.

If you have a problem with tomatoes (I used to), I found that dicing them and getting rid of the runny middle part really helped me!

Cantelope and Papayas

These fruits have beta-Carotene, vitamin C, and so much more.

These are a bit of a head-scratcher for me. I honestly don’t really like either of these fruits. I wonder if you started out by buying them pre-cut at your local grocery store and eating them with vanilla yogurt or some vegan whip cream if that would be a tasty snack.

It seems like most people recommend blending these items in some kind of magical tropical smoothie. This one looks delicious and easy to make vegan by using plant-based milk, view it here!

I found this unique salsa recipe that calls for cantaloupe, papaya, and mango, check it out here!

Kale and Spinach

There are so many crucial nutrients and minerals in these dark leafy greens! They also happen to have a high amount of antioxidants and vitamin C.

I always try to add kale or spinach to my salads! It helps add more fiber and antioxidants to my bowl!

I love to have frozen kale and spinach ready to go in my freezer! This way, I can add it to a smoothie, cooked rice, cooked spaghetti, in a stir fry, or wrap, etc.

Lemon, onion, ginger, garlic soup - MORNING SOUP!

As I am not a fan of lemon water, I made my own version of a “lemon-morning soup”. I see videos of how people drink lemon water first thing, and they swear it clears their skin up.

However, lemon water tastes pretty bad, so I decided to take that idea and make an extremely healthy hot broth that I can quickly drink in the morning. Have you ever looked up the nutritional value of an onion?

It is surprisingly high in nutrients, minerals, vitamin C, and antibacterial properties! Why just drink gross lemon water when you can create a delicious and nutritious vegetable broth!? I, of course, add lemon juice to my bowl of soup in the morning.

In a large pot full of water, simmer on low for a couple of hours the following:

1. A whole yellow onion! Just peel the very top skin off. I usually just cut mine in half, peel it, and throw it in.

2. A knob of fresh ginger

3. Dried mushroom

4. Dried Kombu (optional)

5. Turmeric

6. Salt

7. Soy sauce

8. Vegan Worchester (optional)

9. Garlic cloves, 1-2

10. Oregano, a dash

11. Vegetable broth cube or powder tbsp. (optional, helps fill it out with more flavor)

Optionally, serve with fresh herbs, lemon juice, black sesame seeds, and hot sauce. Lemony, citrusy, light broth-y goodness!

Bonus Mention: Hibiscus Tea

An underrated antioxidant powerhouse! I try to drink a cup of this stuff at least a couple of times a week now. For more information on how powerful hibiscus tea is as an antioxidant, check out this video here!

To Summarize our discussion on skin health and nutrition

Honestly, there is no magic formula or meal plan to prevent aging. The exciting fact is that vegetables and fruits are all packed with minerals, nutrients, antioxidants, and other properties that work together to help fight the natural causes of aging.

I believe that if you increase your intake of nutrient-rich foods and ensure you are getting a wide variety of incredible fruits and vegetables, you will be on a great path towards better skin health and nutrition.

If we put more of the stuff we know has properties that can help fight aging and less of the stuff that can inflame the body or adds no net positive nutritional value in our body, we are making some progress!

I feel no shame about admitting the main reason I went plant-based was for my looks. I’m not perfect, I still eat vegan junk food a lot of the time, but I am definitely eating and enjoying more vegetables and fruits than I ever have before.

Why did you go plant-based?! @ me on Instagram anytime!