Well, yeah, if I eat five pounds of fried chicken, my skin will definitely not look the same as it does when I eat lots of vegetables and fruit and food that isn’t oily.
There’s a HUGE difference, and I notice it right away. The biggest difference for me is when I get enough veggies and fruit — basically, enough fiber and food that isn’t processed or fried.
The healthier I eat (and the more water I drink throughout the day), the better my body feels, and the better my skin looks. It’s dewier, and my fine lines aren’t as…fine-liney. My skin also looks smoother.
One thing I’ve been doing a lot lately is drinking green juices, which are mostly veggies and water, so they aren’t as high in sugar as pure fruit juices. I’m about to make one now. 🙂
I just blend a whole bunch of veggies, some fruit and water (pretty much, whatever I have around, but usually a combination of spinach, kale, cucumber, pineapple and pear, with a squeeze a lemon to cut down the grassy taste), and when I have one of those consistently and don’t eat as many cookies or as much popcorn and junk food, my skin glows.
I also notice that when I eat a lot of salty foods like chips and French fries, my body feels gross, and my face will look bloated.
I don’t really have any food allergies that I know of, except for occasionally in the fall when my regular allergies are out of control. Sometimes in the fall I’ll get hives when I eat dishes with fresh herbs in them, but it’s hit or miss, and I’ve never pegged it to the specific herbs, so I have no idea which ones are responsible.
I did go to an allergist once, but it wasn’t to test for food allergies. It was for sinus allergies, and they did a skin test, which basically determined that I was allergic to everything — all of nature. LOL!
How about you? Do you notice a difference in your skin when you eat certain foods? And does a certain kind of diet make your skin better or worse?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Not on a huge scale. I think drinking more water helps my skin. I tried the smoothie thing and I couldn’t see a significant difference.
I found that it used to make a huge difference and I gave up a lot of things (sweets, chips, basically junk) for the sake of slightly better looking skin.
I find now that it’s not so much? Perhaps my hormones were crazy out of control back then, and now they’re more stable?
I do limit my sugar intake if I can. You wont see me eat an entire chocolate bar, more than two spoons of ice cream, a soda or iced tea of any kind, juice, or a mixed alcohol beverage. I treat myself with a max of three squares of dark chocolate daily with unsweetened hot tea.
The biggest things for me are, lots of water, consistent changing of my pillow cases (I rotate through four a week), lots of sleep, and thorough make up removal before bed time.
If I don’t drink enough water, too much salt, bread, msg (Chinese food), or coffee my skin looks bad. Sugar doesn’t seem to have much effect, but I don’t usually eat much (only when I binge on chocolate!!!)
Go you, eating/drinking green juice! I usually only eat/drink that in the summer. It requires so much clean-up.
As for kale-I eat kale in Quinoa too, but my favorite is to pan sear it in a little bit of butter with salt and pepper. Just cook it over medium heat until it’s a bit browned. You don’t have too cook it too much. When you eat it, it should be a little bit crispy on the edges.
Green juice is such a pain to prep and clean up! I find though that if I pre-portion out as much of it as I can, it’s easier. Like, I’ll put the spinach and kale in individual containers, and I’ll wash all the pears and fruit and have them ready to go so I can just do a quick chop and throw them in. I wish someone would invent a way to have blenders clean themselves because I haaaaate cleaning mine.
I’ve never really noticed a difference, but I’m one of those annoying people who eats pretty healthy all the time, mostly because I like really good food, and discovered that home cooking is the secret of life (don’t tell anyone).
I promise not to tell! LOL! I’m not a chef or anything, but I’ve learned that I really enjoy home cooking. In the time that it takes to call a take-out place, drive there, then come home, I can just as quickly get a meal on the table. Plus whenever I order take out it’s never exactly how I want it, anyway.
What are your favorite things to make? I enjoy fast one pot meals, but when I have more time, I really like recipes with lots of steps. I don’t know… I think it reminds me of being in chem lab. I also love to bake.
God, I’m not a good cook! I feel like I end up wasting money because what I make doesn’t taste good! I love home-cooked food if it’s made by someone else :p
Yeah, since I’ve tried really hard to cut out sugar my skin is looking a bit better, especially around the eyes. Or it could just be the Dr. Dennis Gross eye cream I’ve been using.
For the most part, even my cheeks look better. My rosacea really flares up when I eat a lot of sugar and fat. Pretty sure it’s an inflammatory response.
Oooh, which eye cream?
Dr. Gross Ferulic + Retinol Eye Cream.
http://www.sephora.com/ferulic-retinol-eye-cream-P388622?skuId=1634344#pdp-reviews
If you’ve never used retinol before you have to introduce it very slowly. It can be drying, so you need to use a light moisturizer or hyaluronic serum over it. I only use it at night and I don’t use it every night. I started using it once a week until I got used to it, then twice a week. At most I use this 3 or 4 nights a week.
You also have to be careful not to get it too close to your eye, because it’s a real pain if it gets into your eye. One of the few eye products I’ve ever repurchased.
I’ve noticed my skin and overall self being a bit more bloated after some of the holiday eating splurges. I admit I don’t always eat healthy and I really want to start making overall lifestyle changes this year. Oh and I find exercise helps too, so I definitely want to do more of that this year!
Me too! All that sugar eventually shows up on my face.
Oh, can you please tell Mingy and the crew thank you for the lovely Christmas card?! Tabs was thrilled to receive it in the mail!
Yay, glad you got the card! The kitties had a fun time practicing their caroling skills at all hours. 🙂
Aww, they’re so musical! 🙂 How is it to have your very own in-house kitty choir?
I make pretty much exactly the same concoction as you do except not pineapple. It does weird things to my mouth. Sometimes I’ll throw in some powders – spiralling, macca, ground chia, depending on what I have in the house. I go through phases when I drink more of it but in winter I get really lazy, eat carbs and get fat….. 🙁
ooop, I meant to type spirulina not spiralling!
Hmm, maybe you’re allergic to it? The same thing happens to me with certain melons.
And with you on eating carbs in the winter… It feels like the right thing to do. LOL!
Mostly my skin looks icky if I drink too much alcohol. I drink a fruit smoothie every morning for breakfast, but I want to try putting more veggies in it since fruit is ultimately sugar.
Hi Rachel,
There’s lots of ways to sneak veggies into your fruit smoothies. I always do spinach, and then I squeeze some lemon juice in there to cut down on the grassy flavor. Do you put additional protein in your smoothies? I find that helps to hold me over too!
Yes I found one made with pea protein at Walmart. Have you tried putting oatmeal in your smoothies? It helps me stay full too. If you can, soak it in water or almond milk overnight in the fridge to soften it up.
Sugar is notorious for leading to chronic sinus infections. I have a cake with frosting addiction lol Always brings on congestion, then the face pain, bloating, dark circles, etc come next
GIRL, don’t get me started on cake. I love it. I love baking them too, and I went through a phase where I was making one every weekend just because I loved the process. I’d give the cakes to my family and eventually they told me to stop because they were putting on so much weight. What’s your favorite cake? It’s hard for me to narrow it down but I do love carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.
Carrot is my favorite, sigh! Though anything with buttercream Frosting will do ☺ I would’ve been in happy sugar shock with your baking giveaways.. Thank god I cant bake lol So funny, today I made zucchini noodles with my spiralizer (amazon) just so I could have a slice of chocolate cake.
Having to battle non allergic rhinitis year round, I started, cutting sugar way back (then i could have cake weekly), drinking Trace Minerals greens& probiotic powder with smartwater&getting a salt lamp have helped alot, especially with that sallow, sunken look…massage is so great too-luckily, I have an lmt friend… Great post for us Karen!
Hmm my sinuses bother me sometimes, I wonder if it’s because I’m such a sugar hound!
And it’s Winter too, gotta have the sugar now ?
No, and it’s weird. In fact, my acupuncturist was confounded that, despite my major digestive woes, my skin is great! Whereas, up until my late 30s, when I was deep into my macrobiotic/vegan phase, I still had acne. Go figure!
My BFF swears by acupuncture. I’ve never tried to myself but would love to someday. There’s a community acupuncture clinic in my town and I keep meaning to go but have yet to do it! I’m scared of the needles…
Oh girl, acupuncture: the second most relaxing thing next to a massage, I swear!!! You don’t really feel needles, unless your qi is acting up.
I do notice it but it’s not instant… if I’ve od’d on sodium it’s instant, lol. But good healthy eating is something I do pretty regularly but if I slip off the wagon for a week or two I see it. Face looks sallow and sunken.
I also do some supplements that help my skin/digestion like collagen, probiotics, and omegas. I’ll not the effects those sooner than just plain diet alone. That’s probably because even at my worst, I’m still about 60% healthy. Usually closer to 70%! My vice is pasta. I eat it far too often. I load it with veggies, homemade sauces, and organic meats though so it’s not like olive garden!
Have you ever tried making pasta noodles out of zucchini? I’ve done it before and when it’s done right it’s quite tasty. You can also do a 50/50 mix with zucchini “noodles” and real pasta.
Not really. I eat spicy food and drink coffee almost everyday, order Chinese all the time (all these sodium / msg), have a bucket of fried chicken way too often, and I hate fruits so I barely buy them. I’ve even had the famous hot korean instant noodles featured in so many YouTube challenges, everyday for two weeks straight and my skin didn’t react a thing (I know that sounds so bad but I was ADDICTED). I guess I’m lucky but I do drink many many liters of water every single day, and I love the taste of every vegetable so I can’t go a day without eating veggies. Maybe it balances it out!
Oh and I do eat meat loaded with collagen regularly, including pig skin, pig feet, chicken feet and fish soup (cooked with skin on). Asians would know this my mother always told me how good it is for the skin (not sure if true but I loveee the texture of these things – weird me.)
I have a lot of digestive issues. I can’t eat gluten or peanuts, and I also struggle with anything more than small amounts of beans. A lot of cruciferous vegetables don’t work for me either. I’m somewhat lactose intolerant – yogurt doesn’t bother me at all, but more than like, a cup of straight milk and I have issues.
I’ve been drinking smoothies in the morning (spinach, strawberries, a few cherries, yogurt, flax, some sort of liquid), but I don’t notice a difference in my skin. I definitely don’t eat enough vegetables normally – I’m not a great cook, I don’t particularly enjoy cooking, and my husband and I don’t like to eat the same things. I love healthy home cooked meals if someone else makes them for me! The healthiest time of my life was study abroad in France with my host mom making nice fresh meals.
I end up mostly eating things out of convenience and not because they’re actually satisfying, which is unfortunate. I’ve been thinking about something like Blue Apron, but with my food intolerances and just some of my general pickiness (very sensitive to strong flavors and spice – I’m a complete baby about hot food – and I hate fish)… I’m still researching.
I’ve had to eat a very limited diet as an adult due to health and stomach issues, but when you’re only adding in 1 thing at a time it’s really easy to see if it affects your skin or not. Wheat and soy products break my skin out terribly. Multivitamins do too. I was very pleasantly surprised when going gluten and soy free completely ended my cystic acne, because I wasn’t doing it for my skin. But my diet is pretty high in sugar and carbs currently, I also drink coffee and eat some chocolate and certain kinds of dairy, all with no negative skin effects.
I like to think that it does!
Oh, definitely. I have a shellfish allergy so if I ate that, my skin would look like a dead person’s. Because I’d be dead. 🙂 As I get older, I find I have a lower tolerance for fried foods (which I almost never eat anymore) and also things that are high in starch (potatoes, sweet potatoes), which immediately make me feel bloated and crummy. I’ve had 2 friends who recently had to go Gluten Free because of reactions like rashes, bloating, etc. I don’t think I could do it but I guess if you have no choice, you adjust. I wish I could thrive on the pizza and wine diet. HAHA!
Yes. Back in my college days and early twenties I was a serious coffee addict/caffeine fiend. Constant breakouts on my chin and near my mouth were just something I assumed I had to live with. Countless visits to the dermatologist had yielded no results. Finally I skipped coffee for some reason and my skin instantly cleared up. So apparently my skin is sensitive to caffeine.
To this day I miss coffee, though I can get away with an occasional decaf.
After 4 weeks of gluten free/vegan eating I was told several times My skin was glowing…being slightly obsessed with good skin it was the BEST compliment I ever received!!!!
I had bad acne all during my 20s, and nothing I tried seemed to make any difference. Then I went on a vege cleanse diet for a couple of months and my skin cleared up so dramatically it was hard to believe. I didn’t think I ate that bad before, but I did eat a lot of frozen bought meals. Now I try to cook everything fresh myself. I keep up my water intake and try to keep my alcohol down. And I find having a banana every day also helps to keep my skin glowing – don’t know why, some mineral I’m lacking maybe!
Hi Karen,
Yes, whenever I stop drinking enough water I feel it in my body and skin, the healthier I ate too. we take strawberry banana smoothy with chia seeds or papaya banana with chia seeds. Drinking enough water and sleeping well helps allot