If you maintain a healthy diet of great, skin-boosting foods, your skin will be vibrant, healthy and get this, look younger than you actually are!

So, instead of slapping on creams that promises you the elusive fountain of youth effect, why not eat healthily to reach that desired effect? It's not all that difficult really because you only need to pick and choose what foods that are good for you and what foods that are best to stay away from.

While you still need to take care of your skin with a skin regime, what you eat greatly affects how your skin will look like in the long run. That's because it also needs nourishment.

Health experts have long said that you need to choose your food properly to boost your complexion and your health. So, how do you know what to choose to eat?

Simple. As with any health advice, you need to stick to healthy, wholesome foods mostly and stay away from processed, deep fried and high sugar food.Yes, that means you should eat more greens, more fruits and more natural foods compared to fast food and unhealthy junk food.

That is just the basic rule. Read on for some specific foods that may give your health, your complexion and your skin the extra boost for some vibrance and glow.

Vitamin A is essential for healthy, glowing skin and the best way to get this is to drink low-fat milk or better, consume low-fat yogurt. Low-fat dairy products are rich in Vitamin A and consuming these will give your body the nutrient it needed for healthy, young, glowing skin.

Berries are one of those fruits that are not only great to eat but also great for your skin. This is because berries like blackberries, blueberries, strawberries are high in antioxidant. And why do we need antioxidants from these fruits? That's because antioxidant protect our cells from damage by free radicals due to exposure to the sun. This means, they help our skin stay young by protecting it from damages by the sun. Talk about power sunblock!!

Of course, when those berries are not in season, you can always look for other fruits and vegetables that are high in antioxidants such as plums, artichokes, beans, prunes and even pecans.

Much as we want to avoid oily food and fats, there are good fats that we should consume for healthy and younger looking skin. When we talk about good fats, it is mostly essential fatty acids that are important for your body to develop healthy cell membranes.

The more well-known essential fatty acids are Omega 3 and Omega 6 which we can find in foods such as fish, walnut and flax seed oil.

Next, when we talk about healthy oils, I don't mean deep fry your food in loads of oil. What I meant is that you need to choose to add about 2 tablespoons of healthy oils in your diet. No, you don't have to drink the oil but you can use it to cook your daily dishes.

Healthy oils are good quality oils that will give your skin the lubrication it needs and the best ones to use are oils that are cold pressed or extra virgin such as extra virgin olive oil where the essential fatty acids and nutrients are still preserved in its preparation method.

What does these three seemingly unrelated foods have in common? Well, they are high in the mineral selenium and this nutrient is good for healthy skin cells. Selenium is known to protect the skin against sun damage.

Other foods that are rich in selenium includes whole-wheat muffins, cereals and turkey. Do go for whole-wheat foods rather than white flour foods as the sugar in these items can affect insulin levels and may even cause skin break outs.

Next we come to our good old H2O. Keeping your body hydrated by drinking loads of pure, clean water (and not juices or soups or soft drinks) is good for your skin to flush out the toxins and stay healthy and young. You need to drink at least 8 glasses of water each day to replenish your skin.

And if you must have tea, do go for green tea as this beverage is known to have anti-inflammatory properties and also high in antioxidants.

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