Beneath your outermost skin’s layer, lies collagen – a kind of protein – that not only supports your skin structure but also bind the skin tissues. This keeps your skin firm and wrinkles free, so you look young. However, as you grow old, the production of collagen by your body slows down, causing depletion of collagen. The naturally occurring enzymes are also responsible for disintegrating existing collagen. The Sun, environmental pollution and free radicals too breakdown the collagen. The depletion and degeneration of collagen wreak havoc, causing the skin to lose its firmness and gradually starts to wrinkle and sag.
Eat Collagen Boosting Foods To Maintain Skin’s Collagen Levels To Make Your Skin Firm, Tight And Young Looking
How To Stimulate Collagen Production?
To quote Richard C. Parfitt, MD, Facial Plastic Surgeon: “Stimulating collagen with at-home topical products, in-office treatments and proper lifestyle choices helps the skin maintain its strength, resiliency and volume”. However, in addition to topical products, and treatments, another simpler good solution is food to naturally stimulate collagen in the skin. Here are some of the most basic foods, which when you eat can boost your body’s natural collagen production and make your skin firm, tight, plump and supple.
Collagen Enhancing Foods
As collagen cannot be absorbed through the skin, so topical applications of so called “Collagen-Enhancing” creams do not help much. Instead you can eat collagen-producing foods, which will help to boost the level of collagen in your body. These natural collagen boosters are really beneficial to the skin, since they help decrease wrinkles, fine lines, tighten skin, plump it up and also improve skin elasticity, thereby reverse aging process.
1. Fish And Lean, Grass-Fed Meat – To Create Robust Skin Cells: To quote New York Nutritionist Brook Alpert: “Fish like tuna and salmon are loaded with omega-3 fatty acid”. Omega-3-rich fish like mackerel, salmon and tuna along with grass-fed meat (which is also high in omega-3) preserve the fatty membrane around the skin cells, which make your skin cells healthy, elastic and wholesome. Consequently, they are able to support the structure of the skin, which turns your skin into more firm, supple and youthful-looking.
2. Red Vegetables And Fruits – To Strengthen Sun Protection: Red fruits like apples, oranges, cherries, strawberries and red vegetables like beets, tomatoes, red peppers, red potatoes contain the antioxidant lycopene. To quote Alpert: “Lycopene acts as a natural sunblock, protecting the skin from damage while increasing collagen levels”. The lycopenes act as anti-aging foods that increase collagen too. They further prevent DNA damage in the cells and help reverse the effects of aging and the appearance of skin becomes attractive and youthful.
3. Dark Green Vegetables – To Increase Collagen Production: Dark leafy greens like spinach and kale provide antioxidants that save your skin’s weak collagen from free radicals that breakdown collagen. Moreover, being full of vitamin C, they can rev up collagen production. The wrinkles-free topical products contain vitamin C, which has anti-oxidizing properties that help stabilizing the messenger enzymes that otherwise can break collagen down.
4. Orange Vegetables – To Restore And Re-Generate Collagen: Orange produce like carrots and sweet potatoes are rich in vitamin A, which has abilities to restore and re-generate damaged collagen that’s been damaged.
5. Berries – To Beat Off Collagen Damage: Blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries … they’re all chockfull of antioxidants, which scavenge free radicals while simultaneously boosting collagen levels.
6. Soy Products – To Control Aging: Whether soy milk, cheese or tofu, they all contain genistein, a natural plant hormone, that acts as antioxidant and so improves the production of collagen which gives skin its strength, elasticity and thus firm up your skin.
The antioxidants contained in soya work magically in skin care, they have abilities to safeguard your skin by restraining the production of free radicals that can be the main cause for deterioration or death of the skin cells. One of the most important benefits of antioxidant in skin care is skin firming.
Natural Beauty Tip: Include soy products like soymilk and cheese in your diet, which not only will help control skin wrinkles and fine lines, but also make your skin glow.
7. Citrus Fruits – Vitamin C And Collagen: Studies have found that citrus fruits, like oranges, limes, lemons and grapefruits that are packed with vitamin C have the abilities to assist amino acids (lysine and proline) transform into collagen. Antioxidant vitamin C also slows the rate of free-radical deterioration and it is crucial to averting scurvy.
Natural Beautiful Tip: Vitamin C promotes wrinkle-free skin by stimulating collagen production. This potent antioxidant also prevents sunburn and tan naturally, and bonus point is it reverses age-related damage to skin.
9. Garlic – To Rebuild Collagen: Garlic provides lipoic acid and taurine, both of which help rebuild collagen fibers that have been damaged. It’s also one of the best natural sources of sulfur, a key element to collagen production in the body.
10. Protein – To Promote Natural Production Of Collagen: Egg whites are rich source of lysine and proline, as well as collagen itself. Thus include more egg whites into your diet to support your body’s natural production of collagen. And what for those who are vegetarian or vegan? For them we recommend nuts (especially peanuts), which also provide lysine.
11. White Tea – Strengthen Skin Structure: As per a study conducted by Kingston University and Neal’s Yard Remedies, white tea has properties to support the structural proteins of the skin, especially collagen. It may stall enzyme activity, which can otherwise break down collagen causing fine lines and wrinkles.
As now you know that there are lots of foods that can help keep your skin wrinkles-free and youthful from the inside out, so try to include the above mentioned foods in your every day diet to increase collagen levels in your skin to make it youthful and wrinkles-free.
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