Nourish your skin

A healthy diet may help to keep your skin supple and hydrated

Before you start treating your dry skin, it’s important to understand what causes this condition. Internal causes include a poor diet and reduced oil gland function. This can cause excessive water loss from the skin leaving it dry and flaky. External causes or environmental factors are usually easy to rectify. You can stop bathing or showering with harsh or drying soaps and start being careful about reducing your exposure to pollution.

Poor diet, or a diet low in healthy foods and high in processed foods and sugar, leads to deficiencies in water intake and the intake of important vitamins and minerals that give you a smooth, supple skin. Foods with high water content, and rich in vitamins A and B, promote healthy gland function and help your skin retain its optimal moisture levels.

To begin with, increase your water intake to combat counter water loss. Drink at least 2 litres of water every day given our hot, humid conditions. Start eating water-based fruits and vegetables for added hydration. This includes watermelon, melons, grapes, oranges, sweet lime, celery, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers and onions.

Choose foods that are packed with vitamins including A, B and C and rich in natural antioxidants. These help in skin renewal and repair. These foods include Guavas, lemons, strawberries, carrots, oranges and yellow coloured vegetables like pumpkin, papaya, squash and carrots, leafy green vegetables like fenugreek ,spinach and some low-fat milk products or plain yogurt.

Eat sulphur rich foods because these promote skin rejuvenation. Onions and garlic are good choices. Fat especially god quality fat is very important so include cows ghee, coconut flax, sesame zinc seeds and a fistful of nuts daily. Simply cook in cows ghee garnish your food with coconut and snack on nuts and seeds.

This is also a good time to cut out foods and drinks that rob moisture from your skin. These include alcohol, caffeine, sweetened soft drinks, foods with a high processed sugar content such as chocolates, mithai, cakes and pastries, fried foods like samosa, vada and pakora, and the excessive use of animal fats, especially fatty meats like pork and mutton.

Alcohol, caffeine and added sugar act as diuretics causing loss of water in skin cells. Finally, make sure you protect your skin when outdoors applying fresh Aloe Vera is a good choice and lemon and don’t forget to get some exercise every day.