The perfect Skin diet

I don't have the greatest skin, i have hormonal affected acne so i'll get nasty spots for 1 week out of every month (so annoying). On top of using topical acne creams, cleansing and moisturing with oil free creams, my diet can also affect how my skin breaks out too.

On top of breaking out, these skin super foods will also keep your skin looking and feeling good!

Tuna in a Can

the secret: selenium. This nutrient helps preserve elastin, a protein that keeps your skin smooth and tight. The antioxidant is also believed to buffer against the sun (it stops free radicals created by UV exposure from damaging cells). Half a can per day, can help.

Suitable switch: Brazil nuts (about 12); turkey (1 cup).

Tomatoes

Why? Lycopene, the phytochemical that makes tomatoes red, helps eliminate skin-aging free radicals caused by ultraviolet rays. Your body gains the most sun-shielding nutrients when the vegetable is heated. Just a half-cup of cooked tomatoes or pasta sauce has 16 milligrams of lycopene.

Suitable switch: Watermelon (1/16 of a whole melon).

Sweet Potatoes

they're also loaded with vitamin C, which smooths out wrinkles. Vitamin C is essential to collagen production,and the more collagen you have, the less creased your skin looks.

Suitable switch: 2 Carrots (1 large or 16 baby); orange juice (6 oz).

Spinach

people who ate the most leafy greens actually had half as many skin tumors over 11 years as those who ate the least. It's thought that the folate in these veggies may help repair and maintain DNA—basically bolstering cells' ability to renew themselves. That reduces the likelihood of cancer-cell growth. The added bonus to Popeye's fix: The water in greens penetrates cell membranes—which makes for plumper and less wrinkled skin.

Suitable switch: Collard greens.

Green Tea

when it's hot, the bionic brew releases catechins, a type of antioxidant with proven anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. (The tea's antioxidants start to degrade as it cools, so drink it while it's hot.) drinking two to six cups a day not only helps prevent skin cancer but may reverse the effects of sun damage by neutralizing the changes that appear in sun-exposed skin.

Suitable switch: White tea.

Flaxseeds

These wee seeds contain omega-3 fatty acids, which erase spots and iron out fine lines. The fats are believed to stifle your body's response to irritation and attract water to skin cells to plump up the skin and reduce wrinkles. Sprinkle seeds on oatmeal or veggies.

Suitable switch: Flaxseed oil (1 Tbsp with sauteed veggies); salmon (4 oz); walnuts (1 oz, or about 14 halves).

Dark Chocolate

Flavonols, the antioxidants in dark chocolate, reduce roughness in the skin and protect against sun damage. women who drank cocoa fortified with 326 milligrams of flavonols (equal to a standard Hershey's Special Dark bar) had better skin texture and stronger resistance to UV rays than those who drank cocoa containing just a small amount of the antioxidant. You need just a few ounces a day.

Sort-of-suitable switch: Blackberries, blueberries, cherries, raspberries—though you'd have to eat a huge amount.

Carrots

good for clearing up breakouts. Credit vitamin A. It helps prevent the overproduction of cells in the skin's outer layer. That's where dead cells and sebum combine and clog pores. Another reason to snack on carrots: Vitamin A also reduces the development of skin-cancer cells. Nibble on a half-cup of baby carrots (that's about 16) per day.

Suitable switch: Milk (1 cup); cheddar cheese (1 slice).

Almonds

Almonds are seeds, not nuts, and they're stuffed with vitamin E, a potent sun blocker. Volunteers who consumed 14 milligrams of the vitamin per day (about 20 almonds) and then were exposed to UV light sunburned less than those who took none. Vitamin E acts as an antioxidant that helps to protect skin cells from UV light and other environmental factors that generate cell-damaging free radicals.

Suitable switch: 2 Tbsp peanut butter; 1/2 cup broccoli.

xoxo Betty