Skin Health & Nutrition

Feeding the Skin You Can't Yet See

One of the questions I am asked surprisingly often is, "What should I eat for healthy skin?" It sounds like a simple question, yet the answer has very little to do with finding one special food or avoiding another. Healthy skin isn't built by blueberries alone, nor is it damaged by enjoying dessert on a special occasion. It is created, little by little, through the everyday relationship we have with the food we bring into our homes, the way we prepare it, and the remarkable way our bodies transform those foods into living tissue.

I sometimes think of the body as the most extraordinary kitchen that has ever existed. Every meal we eat arrives as a collection of ingredients waiting to be transformed into thousands of different recipes. Some of those ingredients will become part of your immune system, helping protect you from infection. Others will support your heart, your muscles, or your brain. Some will help produce hormones and enzymes that keep countless processes running smoothly. Eventually, if enough of those ingredients are available and the body has what it needs, another beautiful recipe begins to take shape as new skin cells are formed, collagen is repaired, and the protective barrier that keeps your skin healthy is able to be renewed.

That image has always fascinated me because it reminds us that the food we eat is never simply breakfast, lunch, or supper. Every meal becomes another opportunity to provide the ingredients our body needs to create something extraordinary. The quality of the finished recipe depends, to a remarkable degree, on the quality and variety of the ingredients we provide. When we begin looking at food that way, shopping for groceries becomes much more interesting because we are no longer buying products. We are selecting ingredients that will eventually become part of us.

One of the easiest places to begin is by looking at colour, although perhaps not in the way you might expect. We live in a world where brightly coloured foods often arrive in shiny packages, yet those colours were created to catch our attention rather than nourish our bodies. The colours that matter most are the ones created by nature itself. They tell a story about the remarkable compounds hidden within each fruit, vegetable, ,and spice, many of which continue to surprise researchers as we learn more about them.

Think about the deep orange of a carrot, a sweet potato, or a piece of pumpkin. That beautiful colour comes largely from carotenoids, a family of natural plant compounds that gives many fruits and vegetables their warm orange and yellow tones. Some carotenoids can be converted by the body into vitamin A, an important nutrient involved in maintaining healthy skin. It can also help support normal immune function and contribute to healthy vision. Every bite becomes another opportunity to provide your body with ingredients it can use in many different ways, including supporting the continual renewal of your skin.

Now picture a ripe tomato growing in the warmth of the summer sun. Its rich red colour comes from lycopene, another remarkable plant compound that has attracted considerable scientific interest because of its antioxidant activity. Our skin is exposed every day to sunlight, pollution, and the normal wear and tear of living, and while no single food can prevent those effects, foods rich in naturally occurring antioxidants help support the body's own protective systems as they respond to everyday oxidative stress.

Dark leafy greens tell another story altogether. Spinach, kale, Swiss chard, and parsley are filled with nutrients such as folate, vitamin K, magnesium, and lutein, each of which contributes to healthy cell function in its own unique way. We often think of leafy greens as something we should eat because they are good for us, but perhaps it is more inspiring to think of them as supplying a completely different collection of ingredients than the orange vegetables sitting beside them. They are not competing with one another. They are working together, each bringing something unique into the body's remarkable kitchen.

Then come the deep blues and purples of blueberries, blackberries, and purple cabbage. Their colours come from anthocyanins, natural compounds that help protect the plants themselves from environmental stress while also providing a fascinating range of benefits that researchers continue to explore. Even the white vegetables deserve our attention. Garlic, onions, and mushrooms may not be colourful in the traditional sense, yet they contain sulfur compounds and other naturally occurring substances that contribute their own unique strengths to the body's overall health.

When we begin looking at food this way, counting colours becomes much more meaningful than counting calories. We are no longer asking whether we had vegetables with supper. We begin asking a far more interesting question: 

How many different gifts from nature found their way onto my plate today?

Rather than trying to eat ten colours in a single day, which would probably become exhausting, I much prefer thinking about the week as a whole. Researchers studying the health of the gut microbiome often encourage people to aim for approximately thirty different plant foods over the course of seven days. That number includes far more than vegetables. Apples, Oats, Garlic, Basil, Mushrooms, lentils, parsley, cinnamon, blueberries, onions, broccoli, and fresh herbs all contribute to the total. Suddenly, variety becomes the goal instead of perfection, and healthy eating begins to feel far more enjoyable than restrictive.

There is another part of the story that I find equally fascinating, and it begins the moment a fruit or vegetable is harvested. We often imagine that food remains exactly the same until the day we eat it, yet nature is constantly changing. The tomato picked from your garden on a warm August afternoon is biologically different from one harvested weeks earlier, transported across the country, stored in warehouses, and finally placed on a supermarket shelf. That doesn't mean supermarket produce has no value. Far from it. Fresh fruits and vegetables remain among the healthiest foods we can choose. It simply reminds us that freshness matters because some delicate nutrients naturally begin changing once a plant has been harvested.

Whenever possible, enjoying local produce in season allows us to experience fruits and vegetables closer to the moment they were picked. A few herbs growing in pots on a windowsill, a visit to a local farmers' market, or vegetables from your own garden are wonderful ways to increase freshness, but there is another option that often surprises people. Frozen fruits and vegetables are frequently harvested at their peak and frozen very soon afterward, preserving many of their nutrients remarkably well. They deserve far more appreciation than they often receive and can be an excellent choice when fresh local produce isn't available.

Food quality, however, doesn't end once it reaches our kitchen. The way we prepare our meals can either preserve many of those wonderful nutrients or gradually reduce them, and understanding this allows us to make small changes that add up over time. Vitamin C, for example, is sensitive to prolonged heat, while tomatoes actually make more of their lycopene available after cooking. Carrots release beta-carotene more readily when they are lightly cooked, yet delicate herbs often contribute their greatest flavour and many of their aromatic compounds when added closer to the end of cooking rather than simmering for long periods.

I don’t think the lesson is that raw food is always better or that cooked food is always better. Nature is rarely that simple. Some foods offer us their greatest gifts when enjoyed fresh and crisp. Others become even more nourishing after spending time in a soup, a stew or a gently simmering sauce. A healthy kitchen is usually one that celebrates variety, allowing different foods to be prepared in different ways rather than insisting there is only one right method.

One of my favourite habits is making homemade soups. They bring together colourful vegetables, herbs, healthy proteins and nourishing broths in a way that wastes very little. Instead of pouring cooking water down the sink, many of the water-soluble nutrients remain in the broth, becoming part of the meal itself. Leftover soup waiting in the refrigerator also makes choosing a nourishing lunch much easier on busy days, reminding us that one of the greatest secrets to healthy eating has very little to do with willpower and everything to do with preparation.

As we begin paying closer attention to the foods we eat, it becomes natural to wonder whether our skin might also be telling us something about the way we are nourishing ourselves. This is an area where I think we need to be both curious and cautious. Our skin doesn’t necessarily diagnose nutritional deficiencies, nor should we expect it to. The same change in the skin may have many different causes, including hormones, medications, allergies, genetics, environmental exposures, stress, medical conditions, or simply the natural process of some people and the way they age. At the same time, our skin is one of the body's largest organs, and like every other organ, it reflects what is happening within us. Rather than looking at our skin as something that has gone wrong, perhaps we can begin looking at it as another conversation our body is inviting us to have.

Let's begin with one of the most common concerns people mention.

Dry skin.

It is tempting to assume that dry skin simply means we need a richer moisturizer, and sometimes that is exactly what is needed. Winter weather, indoor heating, frequent hand washing, swimming, sun exposure, and natural aging can all leave the skin feeling dry and uncomfortable. Yet nutrition also deserves a place in the conversation because the outer layer of our skin depends on healthy fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water to help maintain a strong, resilient barrier. If we are regularly eating highly processed foods while healthy fats, quality proteins, and colourful fruits and vegetables are appearing only occasionally, our skin may simply have fewer of the ingredients it depends on every day.

Instead of asking, "What cream should I buy?" Maybe we could ask ourselves a few thoughtful questions, like, have I been including a source of protein with each meal? When was the last time I enjoyed salmon, sardines, walnuts, flaxseed, or extra virgin olive oil? Have colourful vegetables become regular visitors to my dinner plate, or have convenience foods become common simply because life became busy? Have I been nourishing my body well enough to expect it to continue building healthy skin year after year?

Acne is another conversation that deserves a little more compassion than it often receives. For years, people were told that chocolate caused acne, while others insisted that food had nothing to do with it at all. We now understand that the picture is much more complicated. Hormones, genetics, inflammation, stress, sleep, skin bacteria, and nutrition may all influence acne in different ways, and each person's story is unique. That means searching for one food to blame is rarely the most helpful approach.

Instead, I encourage people to step back and look at the overall pattern of their eating. Is breakfast nourishing, or is it frequently skipped? Does lunch provide lasting nourishment, or is it something grabbed on the run? Are meals built around whole foods that look much as they did when they came from nature, or do brightly coloured packages appear far more often than brightly coloured vegetables? Is there enough protein to support repair, enough fiber to nourish the gut microbiome, and enough variety that the body receives a broad range of nutrients instead of the same handful of foods every day?

The goal is creating an internal environment that gives the body the best opportunity to do what it already knows how to do.

Sensitive skin, recurring rashes, and skin that seems to react to almost everything deserve that same thoughtful approach. Sometimes the answer is as simple as a new laundry detergent, a cosmetic ingredient, or an environmental allergy. Sometimes it is connected to changes in the skin barrier itself. Occasionally, it may encourage us to look a little deeper into digestion, food sensitivities, or the overall quality of the diet we are eating. The important thing is not to jump to conclusions. Curiosity serves us far better than assumptions.

Perhaps one of the most valuable habits we can develop is learning to look at our meals before we eat them and simply ask,

"I Know my body needs to repair me today, including making my healthy skin, have I given it enough wonderful ingredients to work with?" 

That single question naturally changes the choices we make. We begin adding fresh herbs because they contribute far more than flavour. We include berries because they bring something different than carrots. We choose beans one day, fish the next, homemade soup another day, and a colourful salad beside supper because every one of those meals tells a slightly different nutritional story.

I sometimes imagine opening someone's refrigerator, not to judge what is inside, but to understand how they nourish themselves. A refrigerator that supports healthy skin doesn't have to be expensive or filled with unusual foods. More often, it contains simple things that have been chosen thoughtfully. A container of homemade soup waiting for tomorrow's lunch. Greek yogurt or cottage cheese ready for breakfast. Fresh berries when they are in season, frozen berries when they are not. Colourful vegetables waiting to be chopped into tonight's supper. Fresh herbs growing in a sunny window. Eggs for those who tolerate them. A piece of salmon, leftover chicken, or a pot of lentils, ready to become the next meal. Olive oil beside the stove, lemons in the fruit bowl, and perhaps a jar of fermented vegetables waiting to add both flavour and variety to the plate.

There is something comforting about a refrigerator like that because it tells the story of preparation rather than perfection. It reminds us that healthy eating is rarely decided at six o'clock in the evening, when everyone is tired and hungry. It is decided much earlier, when we choose what to bring into our homes and make nourishing food the easiest choice rather than the hardest.

The next time you walk through the produce department, visit a farmers' market, or open your own refrigerator, maybe you might pause for just a moment before deciding what to eat. Instead of asking,

"What am I in the mood for?" 

maybe there’s another question you could ask yourself.

"What ingredients would I like to give my body today?"

I believe that one simple question has the power to change not only the way we eat, but the way we care for ourselves, one meal at a time.

Every meal we prepare tells a story.

Sometimes it is a story of convenience because life has been busy and we simply needed something nourishing to get us through the day. Sometimes it is a story of celebration shared around a family table, while other meals become moments of comfort, healing, or quiet reflection after a difficult week. Whatever the occasion, every meal becomes something much greater than the food sitting on our plate. It becomes another opportunity to provide our body with the ingredients it needs to repair, protect, and renew itself.

I think there is something wonderfully reassuring about that.

Healthy skin is not created by one perfect breakfast, one colourful salad, or one week of eating well. Neither is it undone by a birthday cake, a family barbecue, or a weekend away with friends. Our bodies have never expected perfection from us. They simply respond to the patterns we create over time. Every nourishing meal becomes another collection of ingredients added to the pantry. Every colourful vegetable, every handful of fresh herbs, every bowl of homemade soup, and every thoughtfully prepared meal gives the body another opportunity to continue the remarkable work it has been doing since the day we were born.

Maybe the greatest gift we can give ourselves is learning to look at food with a little more curiosity and a little less guilt. Instead of asking whether a food is good or bad, maybe we can begin asking what it contributes. Does it provide healthy fats that help maintain the skin barrier? Does it offer protein that becomes part of the body's rebuilding process? Does it bring the colours, flavours and plant compounds that only nature can create? Even asking those simple questions begins changing the way we shop, the way we cook, and, eventually, the way we nourish ourselves.

The next time you walk through a farmers' market, harvest herbs from your garden or simply open the refrigerator to prepare supper, take a moment to appreciate what you are really looking at. You are not simply choosing ingredients for tonight's meal. You are choosing many of the ingredients your body will use tomorrow. Some will help your heart continue beating with remarkable reliability. Others will support your immune system, your brain, or your muscles. Somewhere among those same ingredients are the ones your skin has been patiently waiting for, ready to become part of new cells, healthy collagen, and the protective barrier that cares for you every hour of every day.

That is one of the many reasons I find nutrition so inspiring. Every meal gives us another opportunity to begin again. Because caring for ourselves, one thoughtful meal at a time, is one of the simplest and most meaningful acts of kindness we can offer the remarkable body that has been caring for us all along.

As we finish our conversation together, I hope you remember something. Every meal you prepare is another opportunity to give your body the ingredients it needs to repair, protect, and renew itself. Some of those ingredients will help your heart continue beating. Some will support your immune system, your brain, or your muscles. Others will eventually become part of your skin, helping it do the extraordinary work it has been doing since the day you were born.

 LyzaLee's Kitchen Table

This Week's Invitation

Instead of counting calories this week, count nature. Place a small sheet of paper on your refrigerator and write down every different fruit, vegetable, herb, bean, whole grain, nut, seed and spice that finds its way into your meals.

 

This week, I'd love to invite you to do something a little different.

Instead of counting calories, carbohydrates or points, begin counting the gifts that come directly from nature.

Place a small sheet of paper on your refrigerator and write down every different real plant food you enjoy throughout the week.

Carrots, Blueberries, Spinach, Parsley, Garlic, Basil, Mushrooms, Oats, Lentils, Apples, Cinnamon, Peppermint, even the herbs and spices you sprinkle into a soup or over roasted vegetables become part of your list because they, too, are plants with their own unique collection of nutrients and protective compounds.

This isn't a challenge to eat more.

It's an invitation to enjoy more variety.

As you make your list, try to choose foods that look very much as they did when they were growing. Fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, beans, whole grains, mushrooms, nuts, seeds and spices are exactly what we're looking for. Frozen fruits and vegetables count too, because many are picked at their peak and frozen shortly after harvest.

What doesn't count are foods whose colours were created in a factory instead of a garden. Brightly coloured breakfast cereals, candies, soft drinks and foods containing artificial colours and dyes may catch our eye, but they are not the colours we're looking for this week. The same is true for highly processed foods that contain very little of the original plant they once came from.

By the end of the week, take a look at your list.

How many different plants found their way to your table? Twenty? Twenty-five? Perhaps even thirty?

Don't worry if you don't reach a particular number. This isn't a golden number. It's about becoming aware of the remarkable variety that nature offers and discovering how enjoyable healthy eating can become when we stop focusing on restriction and begin celebrating abundance.

I'd love to know how many different plants found their way into your kitchen this week.

A Final Thought

Every meal we prepare tells a story.

Sometimes it is a story of convenience because life has been busy and we simply needed something nourishing to help us through the day. Sometimes it is a story of celebration shared around a family table, while other meals become moments of comfort after a difficult week or an opportunity to slow down and reconnect with ourselves. Whatever the occasion, every meal becomes something much greater than the food sitting on our plate. It becomes another opportunity to provide our body with the ingredients it needs to repair, protect, and renew itself.

I find that incredibly reassuring because it reminds me that healthy skin is never created by one perfect breakfast, one colourful salad, or one week of eating well. Neither is it undone by a birthday cake, a family barbecue, or a weekend away with the people we love. Our bodies have never expected perfection from us. They simply respond to the patterns we create over time. Every colourful vegetable, every handful of fresh herbs, every bowl of homemade soup, and every thoughtfully prepared meal gives the body another opportunity to continue the remarkable work it has been doing since the day we were born.

Perhaps the greatest gift we can give ourselves is learning to look at food with a little more curiosity and a little less guilt. Instead of asking whether a food is good or bad, perhaps we can begin asking a different question.

What does this food contribute?

Does it provide protein that helps the body repair and rebuild? Does it offer healthy fats that support strong, resilient skin? Does it bring the colours, flavours and protective plant compounds that only nature can create? Every time we begin asking those questions, we naturally change the way we shop, the way we cook, and, eventually, the way we nourish ourselves.

The next time you walk through a farmers' market, harvest herbs from your garden, or simply open your refrigerator to prepare supper, take a moment to appreciate what you are really looking at. You are not simply choosing ingredients for tonight's meal. You are choosing many of the ingredients your body will use tomorrow. Some will help your heart continue beating with remarkable reliability. Others will support your immune system, your brain, your muscles, or your bones. Somewhere among those same ingredients are the ones your skin has been patiently waiting for, ready to become part of new cells, healthy collagen and the protective barrier that protects you every hour of every day.

That is why I have never believed nutrition is about following rules or striving for perfection. For me, it has always been about understanding the remarkable body we have been given and learning how to care for it a little better than we did yesterday.

Every meal gives us another opportunity to begin again, because caring for ourselves, one thoughtful meal at a time, is one of the simplest and most meaningful acts of kindness we can offer the remarkable body that has been caring for us all along.

LyzaLee