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Nutritional Foods For Skin To Glow

Submitted by Loring A. Windblad on December 22, 2009

The human skin is the largest organ in the body with just one purpose – to cover us up and protect us from the outside elements. This layer of the body consists of many layers from the basal to the epithelial. The skin is a continuously rejuvenating organ and sheds off older layers every day. It contains various components like melanocytes, keratinocytes, hair roots, and glands. There are many aspects to skin care, and diet is one of the crucial ones.

We notice this sometimes when we lose weight rapidly and soon after our skin looks dull, sags, and we look older than we actually are.

The proper diet for the skin includes the correct intake of proteins and fat – proteins because it is the building blocks of cells and fat because it is the carrier of certain vitamins. Vitamins too are very important and Vitamin E and Vitamin A are among the most important vitamins when it comes to skin care.

Protein for the skin is regularly acquired in the form of lysine and tyrosine. These are the two base proteins from which other proteins and DNA are sometimes made.

These are available in a variety of cuisine and it is virtually impossible that we could run out of these.

Collagen and elastin are the main skin proteins. Collagen is made up of glycine, lysine, and proline. Out of these, lysine is the only protein that our body needs to acquire from the diet.

This can be acquired from meat, eggs, beans, and sprouts. Elastin is the other main skin protein and is made from glycine, proline, valine, and alanine. Valine is the only protein that cannot be biosynthesized in humans and therefore, we need it from dairy sources. Alanine can also be acquired from the diet and sticking to the same sources of lysine will guarantee a supply of alanine as well. Beyond this, we need essential fatty acids for our skin oil.

Essential fatty acids come from sources like seafood and vegetable based oils. Nearly all the vitamins except vitamin K are required for our body and to that effect, these can be acquired from citrus fruits, seafood, healthy vegetable oils, carrots, and dairy products. For the vegans, it makes sense to take vitamin supplements as some vitamins like B12 are only available from a diet that included meat or dairy products. Without this vitamin, many cellular processes will not take place.

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