What Your Diet Can Do For Your Skin

Shirk sugar to axe acne

Eat: Omega-3-rich fish (salmon and sardines), colorful fruits and vegetables.

Avoid: Insulin-spiking sweets and processed white-flour foods. “Elevated insulin affects the sebaceous oil glands in ways that can contribute to acne,” says Valori Treloar, MD, dermatologist and co-author of The Clear Skin Diet (Cumberland House, 2007). This is particularly so with women because the insulin spike may elevate the relatively low level of testosterone in women’s bodies, which has been shown to affect oil glands.

Eat more gluten-free foods and improve psoriasis symptoms

Eat: Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy, lean meats and fish.

Avoid: Gluten. A Swedish dermatologist discovered that avoiding the grain protein for three months improved symptoms in some patients.

Cut down sugar and cut out wrinkles

Eat: Veggies, legumes and olive oil.

Avoid: “To minimize wrinkles, limit your added sugar to 10 percent of your total daily calories,” says Lisa Drayer, MA, RD, author of The Beauty Diet (McGraw-Hill, 2008). Better still, eliminate sugar – period.

Skip spicy foods to reduce rosacea

Eat: Omega-3-rich seafood can calm rosacea-related inflammation.

Avoid: If you suffer from rosacea, say adios to hot peppers and horseradish.

Try fish oil for eczema relief

Eat: Inflammation-reducing omega-3 fatty acids found in fatty fish (salmon, sardines and fish oil supplements) may help reduce the severity of eczema symptoms.

Avoid: “Steer clear of processed foods to minimize trans fat intake, which can lead to inflammation,” Treloar says. Inflammation produces skin redness, and without inflammation eczema is normally not present.

Written by The Clean Eating Team for Clean Eating Magazine and legally licensed through the Matcha publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@getmatcha.com.