How Your Diet is Letting Your Skin Down!

It’s easy to assume that if we eat fairly well that our skin will therefore be provided with the nutrients it needs to be healthy and glowing. 

But there are two major problems with that assumption.

Firstly, the skin is one of the last organs of the body to receive nutrients. It is the last station on the nutrition train line! It only receives whatever nutrients are left over after the train has passed through all the vital organ ‘stations’ like the heart, the liver, the kidneys, etc.  So, because of this the skin is also the first to show deficiencies. This can appear as dull, lifeless or prematurely aged skin and in some cases more serious conditions such as rosacea, eczema, dermatitis and acne. 

Secondly, in the Western world, most people are nutritionally malnourished. This might surprise you, but it’s true. We have an abundance of processed food but most of it is high in calories and low in nutrients. When you combine this with the poor quality soil our produce is grown in, the fact that it is often harvested before it’s properly ripe and the long periods of time it is stored and transported – you end up with produce that is a lot lower in nutrients than our grandparents used to eat.  This contributes to our modern malnutrition. 

Lots of people are deficient in nutrients. Let’s look at the research. One study that looked at the diet of 16,000 people found that:

• 70% of the population don’t consume enough Vitamin D
• 60% of the population don’t consume enough Vitamin E
• 45% of the population don’t consume enough magnesium
• 38% of the population don’t consume enough calcium
• 34% of the population don’t consume enough Vitamin A
• 25% of the population don’t consume enough Vitamin C

These are very concerning statistics but this is other people right? Surely it can’t be referring to those of us who eat fairly well. It must be referring to those people who eat poorly or who are experiencing problems with their health? This is what we can easily think when we look at these statistics. But I personally didn’t realise just how hard it is to get all the nutrients we need for health until I made myself the subject of an experiment.  

I eat a healthy diet, and a couple of years ago I decided to measure my nutrient intake. I found an app called Cronometer that measures the nutrient intake of everything you eat. They have done the hard work of testing the nutrient levels of the average food found in our supermarkets and even some organic foods. You record what you eat each day, and the app shows if you reach the RDI (Recommended Daily Intake) of each nutrient.

It is interesting to note that the RDI is the minimum level of any particular nutrient needed to avoid a deficiency disease in an average healthy person.  In order to enjoy optimum health and anti-ageing benefits, you would need to exceed the RDIs for each nutrient. 

To give you some background, I eat a wholefood, mostly organic diet, rich in fruit and vegetables and very low in processed foods. Surely I would blitz the RDI’s, or so I thought! I removed the Bestow products from my diet that week so I could do the experience just from what I consumed without supplementation.

So over a week I recorded everything I ate and drank. I felt quite confident but I was in for a rude shock. I did not meet the minimum levels for calcium, iron, vitamin D, manganese and phosphorus. To top it off, I only just managed to reach the RDI for zinc, magnesium, foliate and thiamine.  These nine nutrients are essential for overall health and beautiful skin.

It really bought home to me how hard it is to get the nutrients we need. If I struggled to get all my RDI’s on the diet I eat, imagine how drastic the shortfall is with less healthy diets. So how do get the nutrients we need these days?

Firstly, we need to adopt a healthy way of eating – rich in whole foods, fruit, vegetables and good quality protein. A good base diet and lifestyle is extremely important and should be the primary focus of getting nutrients in. 

However, as my experiment shows, these days it is not enough.

I believe we need to boost our diet with superfood blends that are rich in key skin nutrients. That’s where smoothies come in. Bestow smoothies are the perfect way to sustain your energy and get your daily dose of Bestow, which offers your body an incredible feast of nourishing nutrients. They help you reach the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of key nutrients required for skin health and general wellbeing. 

Check out our Light and Bright Smoothie Refresh programme here. In this smoothie refresh you will find 5 recipes that will inspire you with delicious smoothies that you can prep ahead and have on-hand at any time.