Do You Want Healthy Skin?

Susan Brannon

A person needs healthy fat in their diet to enhance your skin!  Some folks think that any fat is bad, but that is not true.  The healthy fatty acids give the needed nutrition for your body and skin.
 

Here are a few foods that contain healthy fatty acids:
avocados
organic eggs
extra-virgin olive oil
sardines
Use as little soap as possible and use a gentle pat-drying with a soft towel.
Don't scrub hard with a coarse towel! Below is a quick explanation of how your skin works.  Then afterwards some helpful hints to keep your skin healthy!

How Your Skin Works
You naturally loose millions of dead skin cells daily, and generates new skin cells to replace the ones that you shed off.

• The top layer is called the epidermis,the part that touches the air and provides protection against ultraviolet rays. 

• The next layer is is called the Dermis, this layer remains pretty much the same your entire life it houses your blood vessels, that provides nutrients to your skin cells, and cells that help combat an infection. This layer also contains a Lymphatic vessel, that provide the transportation network for immune-related cells, they also balance the distribution of fluids thoughout your body. This layer also contains, your nerve endings, hair follicles, sebaceous glands (which produce and secrete sebum, an oil that helps to protect you against infection and water resistant.) Sweat glands, collagen (for strength and flexibility) and elastin, a protein that gives your skin to return to the original shape.

• Below your dermis, is a layer that consists mainly of fat.  This anchors your skin to the tissues the deeper tissues are usually your muscles, and sometimes your bones.

The skin is the largest organ in your body the critical roles that your skin plays in keeping you healthy are:
a barrier for protection
regulator of body fluids and temperature
channel for elimination of waste products (sweat glands, like toxic metals, lactic acid)
physical protection, a layer of cushion to help protect against injury.

Tips:

• Do not aggressively scrub your skin!  This process actually worsens your skin because it damages one of the structures in your layers of skin.  As stated in the design of your skin, it naturally cleanses itself from the inside out.

• Do not use Anti-Bacterial Soap.

There is unfriendly bacteria and friendly bacteria.  You need the friendly bacteria to produce fatty acids, peroxides and natural protections against the unfriendly bacteria.

• Use as little soap as possible, and not hot water!

Hot water can dry out your sebaceous glands, causing your skin to become dry.  Soap does the same thing.  You need your sebum production to provide resistance against water.  Use a natural soap if necessary.  Try just washing your face and skin with lukewarm water.

• In the cool months, our skin tends to become dry.  Try to minimize furnace heat.  Turn down your heat, wear warm clothes and slippers to stay warm.  Hydrate your skin with lukewarm baths, not hot baths.  It is best not to shower everyday if you can!

• Keep your skin bare.  When you block your skin from breathing, with makeup, cosmetics that contain toxic chemicals it cannot function correctly, and it burdens your skin cells.  In time, your skin will not function as it should, then you will need these products to maintain your outer shell.

The less stuff you put on your skin the better!  The healthier and more beautiful it will be in the short and long term!  I know that people do not want to hear that, because of the society we live in teaches us to put all kinds of things on our skin to fit into society!  There are other ways to enhance your natural skin!

You need a steady blood flow to your skin (quit smoking!) because the blood circulation brings nourishment and clears away waste products. 
To help with this, eat water rich foods!

Vegetables and fruits.
Dark green vegetables and the best single food group to promote healthy skin with your blood circulation.  

Eat foods that contain Omega-3 fatty acids and flavonids:

• Foods with Omega-3 fatty acids are:

Dark green leafy vegetables
raw walnuts
wild salmon
fresh or dried seaweed
flax seeds
hemp seeds
free range eggs

• Foods with flavonids are:

lettuce
cherries
citrus fruits
cabbage
kale
spnach
asparagus
lima beans
kidney bean
raw chocolate

Eat Foods that are rich in Vitamin A, Carotenoids and healthy Fats:

Vitiman A helps to maintain the function of your skin cells.

• Vitiman A from caratenoids are:

dark green, yellow, and orange vegetables such as:
spinach
carrots
sweet potatoes

Happy Eating!