Most people know that a healthy diet prevents many diseases and helps maintain a healthy body. What is not so well-known is that a diet rich in beneficial foods can help keep our skin looking and acting younger, longer. Combined with a good skincare routine and being sun-smart, an anti-wrinkle diet can play a significant role in achieving the skin you want!

Inflammation: From the Inside Out

If you use well-formulated skincare products, you’re already doing a lot to avoid the ingredients that cause skin inflammation which damages collagen and elastin. Eating unhealthy, processed foods can cause inflammation in the body-and you’ll eventually see the effects of this on your skin.

Chronic inflammation, whether from your diet or other sources, floods the body with stress hormones, stimulates pain receptors, destroys healthy collagen, limits cell renewal, slows your body’s ability to heal itself, and may even trigger acne.

Many of the foods people eat on a regular basis worsen chronic inflammation, especially when paired with other unhealthy lifestyle choices such as unprotected sun exposure, smoking, and not getting enough sleep. Because of this, it’s easy to see why using great skincare products is only part of the plan to keep your skin smooth, younger looking, and healthy regardless of your age.

Cutting Out Chronic Inflammation

An anti-wrinkle diet to minimize foods that trigger inflammation is an anti-aging MUST. The following foods are the worst of the inflammation-promoting offenders:

• Excessive sugar consumption, especially refined sugars such as high-fructose corn syrup,
• Trans-fats (any oil listed as “partially hydrogenated” qualifies),
• Processed or cured meats, including bacon, which contains nitrites and nitrates,
• Red meat; if you can’t give it up, choose the leanest cuts and avoid grilling, grilling with charcoal, or cooking it till it’s dark brown or black,
• Highly processed foods, which include most of the items on the menu at fast-food restaurants and lots of the pre-packaged meals and snack foods, and,
• White flour,
• Salty foods cause bloating, puffiness, and tired-looking skin. Consider using sea salt: It has more minerals and is thought to be more flavorful so you’ll use less.

The Best Anti-Wrinkle Diet Foods

The next time you’re jotting down your grocery list, be sure to add these anti-inflammatory, appearance-boosting foods:

• Green, black, and red teas,
• Coffee,
• Deeply colored berries, such as blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries,
• Deeply colored vegetables, especially leafy greens and red cabbage,
• All types of hot and mild peppers,
• Salmon and other cold-water, oily fish; choose wild-caught rather than farm-raised.
• Walnuts,
• Grape seed oil, walnut, rice bran, and canola oils,
• Whole grains,
• Spices such as ginger, turmeric, cardamom, curry, cumin, garlic, oregano, basil, and tamarind,
• Flax, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds.

The Bottom Line

Start eating an anti-wrinkle diet now! Consuming an anti-inflammatory diet is one of the best things you can do for your skin. Routinely eating the right foods can create a more radiant complexion, reduce the number of wrinkles, and give your skin greater resiliency, so you look younger, longer.

This dietary approach complements the right skincare products!