There are numerous tasty and nutritious foods that are good for your skin, hair growth and nails. Utopia will show you eight foods you can eat to help ensure a beautiful complexion, healthy hair, and strong nails.
#1 Foods Good for Your Skin and Hair: Carrots
Almost everyone has heard carrots are good for your eyes. But did you know that they are also a food good for your skin and hair? Carrots contain a lot of beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A. It’s an essential provitamin that helps your skin heal faster and protects from the sun’s UV radiation. In addition, vitamin A aids the absorption of iron, which is also important for the skin.
Vitamin A deficiency can lead to hair loss, dry skin, dry hair and fragile nails. Men need around 1.0 mg and women around 0.8 mg per day, or about the amount found in one large carrot.
Another advantage to carrots: they can be grown in most regions and soils throughout most of the year. This allows you to grow your own or buy locally!
#2 Walnuts Are Good For Your Skin
Walnuts are not only delicious, they are also incredibly healthy. They contain biotin, vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids. Biotin, also called vitamin H, is important for the formation of skin, hair, and nails. Biotin deficiency can lead to skin disorders, hair loss, brittle nails and poor wound healing.
The body needs about 30-60 micrograms per day. 100 grams of walnuts contain about 20 micrograms of Biotin. Combined with other sensible nutrition, you’ll be sure to hit your daily target.
Walnuts also score with other important nutrients. Vitamin E works as an antioxidant, protecting the body’s cells – and is therefore good for your skin. If you don’t take in enough vitamin E, your skin can become dry, discolored, and wrinkled. It is also said to have a positive influence on neurodermatitis.
Depending on your age and gender, your body needs 5-13 mg of vitamin E per day. 100 g of walnuts contain about 6 mg. Walnuts also contain the essential omega-3 fatty acids, which also have a positive influence on the skin.
#3 Water: Essential for Clear Skin
While it is an excellent idea to focus on foods good for your skin or hair, none of them will help if you don’t drink enough water. The human body consists largely of water – in adulthood around 50 to 60 percent. With advancing age, the proportion decreases to 45 percent. This also explains why the skin becomes drier with age. Water transports the nutrients to your body’s cells and maintains the skin’s turgor, or elasticity.
Instead of soft drinks, juice or coffee, water is the better choice. The good thing about water: you already have it in your house, because in most of the industrialized world, you can safely drink tap water.
#4 Healthy Foods: Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin seeds are another yummy food good for your skin and hair: They contain zinc, important for the immune system and the formation of connective tissue. Zinc is also involved in the synthesis of protein. Without zinc, our body wouldn’t be able to form skin or hair cells – which makes pumpkin seeds are an excellent food for your skin and hair. Zinc also has a great influence on wound healing.
Zinc deficiency can lead to open sores in the mouth, poor wound healing, hair loss, and brittle nails. 100 g of pumpkin seeds contain 7 mg of zinc, which is the recommended daily amount for women. Men will need to eat a little bit more to get around 10 mg.
Another important nutrient contained in pumpkin seeds is iron. The main task of iron is to transport oxygen in the blood. As a component of the blood pigment, hemoglobin, iron transports oxygen into every cell. If a person’s iron intake is too low, the skin becomes pale. Skin diseases, hair loss, brittle nails, open sores in the mouth, and dry skin are also possible. With 12.5 mg of iron per 100g, pumpkin seeds have among the highest ferrous content of any food.
Here’s a simple recipe containing pumpkin seeds: DIY Pumpkin Smoothie: An Easy, Healthy Recipe
#5 Foods Good for Skin, Hair and Nails: Black Currants
Black currants are particularly rich in vitamin C, which is important for the immune system. Its antioxidant effect slows the aging process and is important for the formation of collagen, a component of the skin, hair, and nails. Vitamin C is also important for optimal absorption of iron. A vitamin C deficiency can make your skin more susceptible to bleeding and slower to heal from wounds.
Black currants offer 177 mg of vitamin C per 100 g, easily exceeding your daily requirement. However, they should be eaten raw, as vitamin C is very sensitive to heat. The little black berries also contain iron and potassium – potassium is important for the tissue tension of the body cells and the water balance. Unfortunately, this tasty food for beautiful hair is only in season in summer.
#6 Lentils
Lentils are a great source of protein – and as such, a tasty food good for your skin, hair and nails. Protein is found in every one of our cells. It forms and maintains the skin, hair and nails. Nothing in our body works without protein. A protein deficiency weakens the connective tissues and causes wounds to heal poorly.
Dried lentils contain an average of around 24 g of protein per 100 g. When cooked, they still contain around 9 g. The body can absorb the protein particularly well when lentils are combined with other protein sources. Lentils also contain biotin, vitamin E, zinc, iron, and magnesium.
#7 Spinach
Most of us learned that spinach is healthy as a child. Turns out mom and dad were right: it contains vitamin C, vitamin A and biotin. It’s a truly healthy food for beautiful skin, hair, and nails. Although it is often claimed that spinach contains a lot of iron, with 3-4 mg per 100 g, it pales in comparison to pumpkin seeds.
#8 Oatmeal: Good for Skin, Hair and Nails
Oats are rich in zinc, iron, calcium, magnesium, and biotin. They are also a good source of protein. With a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, you provide your skin, hair, and nails with plenty of nutrients in the morning. Consider throwing in some pumpkin seeds and walnuts to add to the effect. In summer you can add fresh berries, such as black currants.
Read on: Easy Homemade Oatmeal Cookies – Three Recipes
Tips for a Clear Skin, Healthy Hair and Strong Nails
- In general, a healthy and varied diet with lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds is good for the body.
- Stress also has a strong influence on the body, which is why sufficient sleep, relaxation, and exercise are important components of beauty in everyday life. Read on: How to Reduce Stress: 7 Ways to “Decelerate” Your life
- Environmental factors such as pollutants have an influence on our skin, hair and nails as well, which is a great reason to consider organic food products – they contain fewer pollutants.
- Be careful with food supplements, because an overdose of some nutrients can actually have a negative effect on skin, hair and nails.
This article was translated from German into English. You can view the original here: 8 Lebensmittel für schöne Haut, Haare und Nägel
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