Glowing skin is something most of us yearn for, but it’s not something we can necessarily achieve over night. As with any aspect of our health we have to nourish the body inside and out, break old habits and make new patterns in order to change and create rituals in self-care. We have beautiful skin care at our fingertips but what we put inside our body is just as important as what we put on our skin in order to find our glow. Let’s take a look at how we can achieve radiant skin by nourishing from the inside out.
Focus on whole foods for whole nourished skin
Building a wholefoods diet into our lives is the ticket to longevity in health and radiant skin and yet, is one so easily missed. With busy schedules, work, family and friend commitments, our diet is often the first to go out the window and more often than not our skin follows. Start slowly and begin by adding these simple steps into your life to help transition into wholefoods eating, a well-nourished body and beautiful skin.
Reduce processed and refined foods in the diet that do not nourish our body or our skin. Focus on reducing and eliminating packaged foods containing refined sugars, additives, preservatives, artificial sweeteners and ingredients matched with numbers and instead introduce an abundance of whole unprocessed foods to our lives. Fuel the body with fresh vegetables, fruits, healthy fats and quality sources of protein and feel the change for the good.
If the glow in skin is a little dim, then we need to establish goals to achieve results. Feeling a sense of purpose with health and carving our way to feeling and looking sensational does not come without setting out a few ways to get there. Consider the beauty in skin and health like a map and make check points along the way. Reducing sugar, processed and refined foods might be the first stop, increasing water intake the next, introducing a new ingredient to eat our way to delicious skin third and it goes on. By establishing goals and ticking the boxes we make ourselves responsible for the health of our body and beauty of our skin.
Nourish the gut to find the glow
The gut is the seat of our health and without caring for the state of our gut we cannot expect our skin to thrive. Through our gut we absorb the beautiful nutrients from food so with that in mind we need to mindfully nourish the gut so it can effectively do all in it’s power to give our skin nutrition from within. To do so consider…
Integrating a small cup of bone broth each day to the diet. The collagen from the bones breaks down to gelatin to restore gut lining and boost the beautiful elasticity and youthfulness in skin too.
Foods rich in probiotics such as cultured or fermented vegetables, natural (unsweetened) yoghurt, miso and fermented tea can help establish healthy bacteria in the gut to aid the digestion and absorption of nutrients in our food. This is essential to see changes in our health and our skin.
Warming foods in the later stage of the day help to ease digestion as our body leads into restful hours. Whilst raw foods are wonderful to amp up in the earlier stages of the day, many people respond better to cooked foods to close the day. Integrate cooked vegetables (steamed, baked, sautéed or grilled) with quality proteins and healthy fats as a beautiful way to warm into rest and wake feeling energised and vibrant.
Eat a radiant rainbow
When considering the health of our skin we need to nourish with abundance and variety and a beautiful way to do this is to eat the colours of the rainbow from fresh whole foods produce. In particular, introduce the following essential nutrients to fuel lustrous healthy skin. Fill the diet with:
ACE… or Vitamins A, C and E from carrots, kale, spinach, oranges, broccoli, brussel sprouts, almonds, avocados and seeds. Also look for fresh fruits and vegetables in rich colours such as raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, capsicum, sweet potato, beetroot and greens a plenty to help protect the effects of ageing and oxidative stress on the skin.
Selenium… a beautiful trace mineral that can aid the absorption of Vitamin E in the skin, reduce breakdown of collagen and maintain elasticity. Get an added Selenium boost to your diet with walnuts, brazil nuts, nourishing whole grains and seafood.
Essential Fats from avocados, almonds, linseeds, brazil nuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, pepitas, olives and their oils, coconut and fatty fish are delicious, nourishing, satisfying for hunger cravings when included in the These Essential Fats also help skin by reducing inflammation, providing a rich natural moisture and repairing damage to skin cells.
Zinc to help regulate the action of sebaceous glands and oil production, heal damaged tissues and wounds and aid problematic skin conditions. To add zinc into your diet and skin, try adding more poultry, legumes, wholegrains and seafood.
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RASPBERRY CHOCOLATE TART
GF : DF : SF : V : VG : PALEO
Serves 8-10
Tart base:
1 1/2 (225g) cups almonds
1 1/2 (175g) cups pecans
6 medjool dates, pitted
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
100g raw chocolate, broken into pieces
2 teaspoons vanilla
Filling:
1 cup coconut yoghurt
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2 tablespoons maple syrup
375 g raspberries (approx. 3 punnets)
To make the tart base combine the almonds, pecans and dates in a food processor and blend for 30 seconds to combine. Add in the coconut oil, raw chocolate and vanilla and process for a further 20 seconds.
Line the base of a 27cm tart tin with baking paper. Press the tart mixture into the base and sides of the tin and transfer to the freezer to set for 2 hours.
Once the tart base has set whisk together the coconut yoghurt, vanilla bean paste and maple syrup. Spread the yoghurt mix evenly across the base of the tart and top with fresh raspberries.
Discover all of Jacqueline’s recipes and download the full Challenge here
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