Louise's 3 essential foods for healthy skin.
Our Trinity symbol represents our 3D approach to nurturing the skin back to health. It shows our 3 pillars to skin health that were born by me some 20 years ago; Science, Nutrition, Holistic.
This month I am going to break down the second element of this symbol; Nutrition. I quickly realised that part of my own acne issue was impacted by the quality of my diet and the nutrients I was absorbing or not as the case may be.
At the peak of my acne, in my twenties, my lifestyle was, let's say rather lacking in any healthy elements. Whilst I had the (at the time) job of my dreams working as a development manager and trainer for an International skin care brand, it meant hours everyday on the road driving with poor food choices and very little exercise.
I didn't realise at the time the impact this was having on my health let alone my skin health until a change was forced with my wedding date set. It was time to, literally, get off my butt, get into the gym and turn my health around.
This move to getting fit, healthy and wedding-dress-ready naturally led to me also making much better food choices. Slowly but surely I started to notice that whilst this didn't ‘cure’ my acne, my skin was healing quicker, it was less inflamed and much brighter!
Becoming increasingly fascinated by nutrition and it’s role in skin health, I plunged myself into post graduate courses, reading, researching and aligned myself with the best qualified experts to enable me to refer clients to, encompassing a truly bespoke and evidence based approach.
This has been an integral finding when treating clients with this three pillar, signature approach over the years. We are all unique so it's important to get bespoke advice around your nutritional needs, but here are my three favourite skin loving foods:
- 70% cocoa dark chocolate - Rich in protective flavanols which have antioxidant potential, which helps protect skin from damage caused by the sun and free radicals.
- Essential fatty acids - Oily fish (such as mackerel, salmon, trout, sardines, and anchovies) are excellent sources of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA. (docosahexaenoic acid) helps to reduce inflammation within the skin, giving an element of protection against UV (that's not an excuse not to use SPF!), accelerate healing, help build the delicate lipid barrier… the list goes on! Nuts and seeds (like walnuts, flaxseeds, and rapeseed oil) contain ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) but lack significant amounts of EPA and DHA. While nuts contribute to overall omega-3 intake, they don’t provide as much DHA as oily fish.
- Eggs - Protein is the fabric of collagen, and eggs are a top source of high-quality protein. But don’t just eat egg whites, as the yolks contain other skin-boosting nutrients—including biotin. Biotin has been shown to help promote healthy skin, hair and nails.
