Before you buy another bottle of moisturizer or stack up on supplements, consider this: if you aren’t making thoughtful choices in your diet, you aren’t taking the most basic steps needed to help rebuild collagen and elastin and keep your skin plump. Adding nourishing foods to your diet that contain nutrients known for replenishing your skin is a key step in your routine.
By all means, enjoy using serums, moisturizers, and toners galore (and never bypass sunscreen). But don’t sleep on these 11 foods that are among the best for combatting the loss of plumpness and hydration in your skin.
Walnuts
Walnuts are rich in antioxidants that prevent skin damage and wrinkles and vitamins and minerals like vitamin E to brighten and repair skin and omega-3 fatty acids to deeply hydrate your skin, which helps keep it smooth and clear.
Broccoli
Broccoli’s many valuable nutrients include vitamin C, which is crucial for building collagen It also has lutein — a carotenoid that protects skin from oxidative damage. When your skin is better protected from oxidative damage, it is less prone to wrinkles and fine lines.
Olive Oil
When you reach for a healthy fat to use when cooking or dressing your salad, opting for olive oil provides antioxidants and essential fatty acids that moisturize your skin and prevent oxidative damage from the sun. You can even use olive oil topically, as an effective makeup remover or moisturizer for very dry skin patches.
Citrus Fruits
Considering their high vitamin C content and how important vitamin C is to build collagen in the skin, it’s a wise idea to add oranges, mandarins, grapefruit, and kiwi to your grocery list.
Avocado
Avocados have essential fatty acids and vitamin E to replenish your skin’s lost moisture. They’re another delicious food that doubles as a topical treatment — try making a hydrating mask with leftover avocado.
Pomegranate
Pomegranate is not a citrus fruit, but it has several nutrients that remind us of one, including high amounts of vitamin C (perfect for collagen-building) and antioxidants to reduce oxidative damage to your skin. Used topically in masks and serums, pomegranate has been linked to clearer skin thanks to its exfoliation and brightening properties.
Dark Chocolate
Dessert should never be off the table. If you want to choose a sweet treat that’s also skin-friendly, dark chocolate contains fiber and antioxidants, plus it’s lower in sugar than milk chocolate.
Blueberries
When we think of a fruit that’s rich in antioxidants, blueberries come to mind. They protect your skin, help boost collagen, and keep it hydrated.
Ginseng
Adding ginseng to your meals can help your skin by providing it with vitamins D and B12 to boost circulation and oxygen, as well as collagen. Ginseng can help calm inflammation and puffiness (optimum circulation helps) and brighten the skin.
Greek Yogurt
The calcium in Green yogurt helps protect your skin barrier and increase cell turnover for brighter, clearer skin. Greek yogurt also contains probiotics that help balance your gut bacteria. Since many health outcomes, including how your skin looks, stem from the gut, this is a great food to add to your diet.
Salmon
Last, but never least, we have salmon — a fish that is celebrated by skin experts for its high concentration of omega-3 fatty acids to lessen inflammation, antioxidants, protein, vitamin D, and vitamin B. Basically, it’s the food of your glowy skin dreams.
