If you have a significant skin problem, you will be keen to find a solution as soon as possible and visiting a skin specialist may be a positive step in finding answers.
Even before stepping through the door, however, you may have heard or read many things about what causes various skin conditions, not least when it comes to the food you eat. Could the things on your plate or in your sandwich be the most significant contributor to your skin health (or lack of it)?
You might certainly be forgiven for thinking so; among recent headlines, for instance, there was a Metro News piece on the ‘skincare breakfast’, a new TikTok trend that many are advocating as the way to a glowing complexion. At the opposite end of the scale, Microsoft Start Health examined claims that sunflower seeds are bad for your skin.
Of course, it always helps to look beyond the headlines to see what the article actually says.
The Metro News noted that the skincare breakfast was the invention of influencer Alice C Sun, who suffers from dry skin but swears by skin-on salmon fillets that are “hydrating and anti-inflammatory”, hydrating Miso soup and various other things full of “gut-friendly probiotics”. Lots of Alice C’s followers seem highly convinced.
However, the article also quoted dermatologist Dr Natalia Spierings, who told the paper: “There is no evidence in the science to support the use of any specific food to benefit skin.”
What Dr Spierings did say was that some foods should be avoided, listing sugary or processed food as being likely to have negative effects over time.
That alone might suggest that when it comes to looking after your skin, it is less about finding healthier things to eat and more about avoiding the bad stuff. But the Microsoft Start Health piece about sunflower seeds might beg to differ to an extent.
Citing a range of expert opinions, it was clear that sunflower seeds are certainly not harmful, but they went further in ascribing several benefits to the seeds, not least because they contain a lot of vitamin E and thus can help reduce skin damage from the sun and slow ageing, which can leave you with fewer wrinkles in later life.
There is, however, a wider truth about the things you consume and how they impact skin health. Your food is just one of the things that you ingest, and that means you must reflect on the impact of other products you might consume, such as smoking or booze.
Indeed, the list of things that can help improve or harm your skin is a long and well-known one. As well as drinking less alcohol, you could drink more green tea, while instead of eating sugar-saturated milk chocolate you could go for cocoa-rich dark chocolate with its flavonoids and antioxidants.
So, while there isn’t a magic food or drink you can consume that will automatically cure your skin health, there are certainly some things that can help protect it, as well as others you would be much better off avoiding.
