Salmon

The primary nutrients that make fish so good for your complexion are zinc and, especially, omega-3 fatty acids. Increasing omega-3 intake can reduce dryness and inflammation, which can cause the skin to age faster. Omega-3 fatty acids also helps keep your arteries clear, which improves circulation.

Something else that Salmon has alot of:  zinc.  Zinc can help fight acne because it's involved in metabolizing testosterone, which affects the production of an oily substance caused sebum, a primary cause of acne. Zinc also assists in new-cell production and shedding of dead skin, which gives your skin a beautious glow.

Citrus Fruit

Vitamin C is always a main ingredient in beauty creams because this vitamin aids in the production of collagen, a protein that forms the basic structure of your skin. Collagen breakdown, which starts speeding up significantly around the age of 35, can leave your skin saggy. I'm pretty sure Vitamin C won't help breast sag though, unfortunatley. (just checking to make certain I still have your attention!)  It is amazing to watch yourself age - the skin loses it's elasticity and starts to hang...sucks.  I'm going to go down a few oranges as soon as I'm finished writing this post.

Consuming extra vitamin C in foods like oranges, grapefruits, Acerola cherries (a single Acerola has 100 percent of your vitamin C for the day) and tomatoes can help tighten the skin and prevent those god-forsaken wrinkles.  I say anything that helps me from looking like the crypt keeper is ok in my book.  Yay for vitamin C!

Edamame

Soyfoods, including edamame, tofu and soymilk help to preserve collagen, which begins to decline in our twenties.  These foods are high in ISOFLAVONES - a study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition showed mice fed isoflavones and exposed to UV radiation had fewer wrinkles and smother skin than mice who weren't fed isoflavones.  But honestly, do mice have a problem with wrinkles in general?  Regardless, I'm all for preserving my collagen, so I plan to try some edamame.  I've seen it in whole foods but have never tried it.

Coffee!

I always love to read that coffee is HELPFUL, not HARMFUL.  Check this out - in a study of over 93,000 women, published in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention, those who drank even a single cup of caffeinated coffee reduced their risk of developing nonmelanoma skin cancer by about 10 percent.  The more they drank - the lower their risk.  Decaf didn't offer the same protection.  Paul Nghiem, associate professor of dermatalogy at the University of Washington Medical School  says that caffeine kills precancerous and UV damaged skin cells by blocking a prtein they need in order to divide.  Pour me another cup!

Whole Grains

Whole foods are basically unprocessed foods -- whole wheat bread instead of white bread, for instance. In general, whole grains instead of processed carbohydrates can improve your complexion. Whole grains are a good source for the antioxidant rutin, which helps combat inflammation-related skin damage. Wheat germ provides the B-vitamin biotin, which assists cells in processing fats. If you don't have enough biotin in your body, your skin can become dry and scaly.

Processed (or refined) flours (all that white food we have always been served) can cause an insulin spike, which can encourage acne. This is yet ANOTHER reason to replacing those refined-flour foods with whole grains.  Once you get used to them you won't ever go back.

Get busy incorporating these foods into your diet and show me some skin baby.