It is vital to follow a healthy diet for having blemish-free healthy skin. A balance of vitamins, minerals and proteins is required. Fad diets, which suggest consumption of only one food, can be damaging in the long run. They deprive our body of essential nutrients. A single diet cannot be responsible for building up or maintaining the skin.

There are so many myths about certain kinds of food being responsible for skin problems. For example, eating chocolates, sweets or rich cakes will give you spots or eating greasy, fried foods will give you a greasy skin or make your hair greasy. There is no guarantee that eating only cucumbers, grapes, carrot juice or lettuce you will give you a beautiful, flawless complexion. There are fake claims, which suggest that salads dramatically change our appearance and for perfect skin vitamin and mineral supplements intake is a must. All this is baloney. Thought it is true a varied and a balanced diet is beneficial, the only factor that determines the beauty of our complexion is heredity. Eating habits play only a very small part in it.

Gross deficiency of certain elements in our diet can lead to skin problems. It does not happen with people taking normal balanced diets, but those for those who are recovering from severe illness, surgery and crash diets problems might occur. The skin becomes dry and dark, sore lips, hair fall, discolored nails with ridges and edematous feet.
Vitamin A is vital for healthy skin and eyes. Cod-liver oil, liver, carrots, spinach, milk and egg-yolk are richest sources of vitamin A. Lack of this vitamin can lead to excessive dryness of the skin, development of pimples and vision at night becoming defective. However overdose of Vitamin A can cause dryness and roughness of the skin, falling of the hair and soreness of lips. Cracking and soreness of lips also happens due to vitamin B deficiencies. Rich sources of this vitamin are liver, meat, milk, greens, pulses, cereals and citrus fruits.

Iron should also be included in your diet. It makes the blood healthy thus gives a healthy pink glow to our skin. It's found in green vegetables, fruits and meats. Zinc is another mineral essential for healthy skin.
July 05, 2007