Columnist | Introducing the columns written by member of Amorepacific Group
Eating Well to Live Well, a Wellness Column Part 2. Nutrition Tips for Enhancing Your Inner Beauty
Columnist | Park Jeongwon Amorepacific Healthcare Contents Team
#INTRO Our skin is one of the major organs of our body that shows quite plainly the current nutritional status, and in many ways, it is not an overstatement to say that the skin is something of a polaroid shot of our inner body. Facial skin, above all, is like a report card of our inner beauty. If you frequently check your health by looking at your face and identify areas that need to be improved and do what you can in your daily life right away, you can boost your metabolism and nutritional status and gradually improve the tone of your face to ultimately, maintain good health.
#Your inner beauty assessed by checking the skin: Essential nutrition is everything! If you eat salty food, your face swells and your skin gets dry; your skin becomes oily and pores open up when you eat greasy food. Your skin becomes purplish or bluish when your period starts due to a temporary iron deficiency, which is clearly revealed through your skin. You get dark spots when you are under stress because your body consumes a lot of vitamin C and your antioxidant defenses and your ability to reduce melanin production in the skin become fragile.
Just as your skin gets a blotchy, uneven look when you put on makeup if you don’t practice a basic care routine, your skin condition is also determined by the skin cell status, meaning that your eating habit and nutritional status collectively affect your skin health. Functional foods that enhance the skin not only contain essential nutrients but also use them as their differentiating point. Hence, without essential nutrients, the absorption rate or utilization rate would dwindle no matter how functional the product is. Therefore, the secret to skin care is the essential nutrition when it comes to eating or putting on skincare products. Doing the basics is the key!
#TPO solution for skin troubles and nutrition tips for enhancing your inner beauty! Today, we will introduce nutrition tips to help strengthen your inner beauty by eating well, from solutions to the five most common skin troubles in this season, and the three best foods to keep your skin healthy that are both easy to get and boast the best efficiency, to how to schedule your hydration routine, which is indispensable to skin care!
Five TPO solutions to skin troubles
Case 1. When your skin becomes dull and flaky“Take vitamin A if you want to get silky skin”
If your skin becomes dry and you are starting to get spots on your pores, it means that your body is short of vitamin A. However, vitamin A is fat-soluble, so it is difficult to find vitamin A supplements because excessive vitamin A can cause problems. The best way to take vitamin A is to eat well.
You can expect to get plumper skin just by eating eel, salmon and pollack roes as well as bok choy, which can be cooked in various ways.
Case 2. When freckles are formed after the summer holidays“Take vitamin C for bright, fair skin”
Even if you dab on sunscreens, your skin’s ability to reduce melanin levels can become weak when you lack vitamin C, causing the skin to be burned easily and form freckles. Vitamin C protects skin cells from harmful substances and brightens up the skin complexion. So, it is an essential nutrient that you must be sure to take in summer when your skin is more likely to be exposed to the sun.
It’s good to eat apples, cucumbers, lemon, spinach, potatoes, and red peppers when they are fresh after washing them lightly with water without cooking them. Fruit can be high in calories depending on their sugar content even though they may contain a lot of vitamin C, so we recommend that you eat vegetables if you can.
Case 3. When you get chronic constipation along with pimples“Eat more fiber and lactobacillus to purify your skin”
Skin troubles are not only caused when bacteria adhere to the hair roots and sweat glands, but also when toxins circulate inside our body through the blood due to constipation. The main culprit is frequent eating of fast food, instant food, and food additives and a lack of bowel movement due to insufficient exercise. Thus, you must improve the bowel environment to solve the issue before thinking of putting on more makeup or getting cosmetic procedures.
We recommend eating seaweed like sea mustard and kelp with every meal by parboiling them among foods that have high fiber content, and salads made using beans, beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, and leaf vegetables.
When choosing lactobacillus, it’s good to choose a product that contains three to four types of bacteria that exceed 10 billion in volume since everyone has different types of lactobacillus that best adapt to their bowels.
Case 4. When sebum has built up on skin“Take Vitamin B2 and B6 to secrete less sebum”
It’s natural for the skin to secrete sebum, but anything excessive causes trouble. When too much sebum that remains on the skin surface is oxidized in the air, it darkens the skin tone and causes freckles and blemishes. Hence, it is important to take care of your skin so that it can control the amount of sebum that is excreted.
Shiitake mushrooms, seaweed, spinach, and cabbages are rich in vitamin B2 and B6 to bolster skin resistance and prevent skin troubles like acne and blemishes from occurring. B2 and B6 are water-soluble so you don’t have to worry about excessive intake and can supplement them easily with health supplements.
Case 5. When your skin loses elasticity after losing weight“Vitamin E, an absolute nutrient for skin elasticity”
When the amount of fat and muscles changes after losing weight, your skin may develop wrinkles or lose its elasticity. Here, vitamin E plays a crucial role as a vital nutrient in helping the skin recover.
Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin that has a superb antioxidant capacity in blood vessels and cell barriers. As a mandatory element when forming skin tissue, vitamin E is widely used in cosmetics. We highly recommend eating almonds to replenish your skin with vitamin E. Almonds are free of cholesterols yet are abundant with unsaturated fatty acids that are great for health, making them a great snack for people planning on dropping a few pounds.
Three Foods for Great Skin
Broccolis Broccoli contains twice as much skin-nourishing vitamins than lemons and seven times more than tangerines. Vitamin A augments skin resistance to prevent bacterial infection, and vitamin C counters pigmentation like freckles for a radiant complexion.
Green tea Drink green tea and also use it to wash your face on a daily basis for a youthful-looking radiance. Catechins found in green teas remove excessive oil and soothe skin for greater elasticity. Natural substances like EGCG, which has the highest level of antioxidants, have recently been gaining a lot of attention as an antiaging substance! Amino acids in green teas, in particular, keep the skin moist for plumper skin.
Tomatoes Tomatoes are rich in multiple vitamins and minerals that soften the skin and have an outstanding ability to reduce pimples. As a great source of fiber, tomatoes are good for constipation, and their red-colored pigments, called lycopene, are high in antioxidants and help protect the skin cells so much that they are even called edible sunscreens.
Daily Hydration Schedule for Radiant Skin
A.M. 7:00
Skin becomes dry overnight, so drink a cup full of water after waking in the morning to both hydrate your cells and detoxify your kidneys and liver. We recommend drinking lukewarm water and eating breakfast 30 minutes after drinking the water.
A.M. 9:00
This is when your body warms up and you become thirsty from the stress caused by the morning commute. Take a bottle of water with you from home and drink a cup of water during the commute or as soon as you arrive at work. This is a great time to drink teas like rooibos, earl gray or peppermint!
A.M. 11:00
If your office is hot or dry, drink a cup of cold water around this time!
P.M. 12:00
A cup of water half an hour before lunch reduces the stress on your digestive system and helps you digest better.
P.M. 2:00
This is about the time you lose your concentration and energy. Refresh yourself and activate your metabolism by drinking a cup of water and induce a certain level of tension.
P.M. 4:00
This is the time when you can easily feel tired. Choose decaffeinated tea instead of coffee, which can cause diuresis, to keep yourself hydrated.
P.M. 6:00
It’s good to refill yourself with a cup of water before heading home!
P.M. 10:00
Your body becomes dehydrated while you sleep, so it’s wise to replenish yourself with moisture. Drink water before going to bed but limit the amount of water up to a cup so you are not disturbed while sleeping!
Many inner beauty supplements, such as collagen, elastin, hyaluronic acid, and milk ceramide, are out there. Taking these ingredients is a good way to improve your ability to regenerate skin and boost skin immunity. Remember though that if you eat basic nutrients well and improve your cellular health, you can achieve an even higher level of inner beauty. Choose the best option from water to food to visibly enhance your skin.