Eating For Healthy & Clear Skin

 

By Madelene Sears

No matter your age or skin type, issues with keeping your skin clear can be frustrating. Problems that may arise include acne, acne scars, oily skin, dry skin, redness or rosacea, uneven skin tone, and more. These issues often can be linked to your lifestyle behaviors, especially your everyday dietary habits. Like many health issues, this can be remedied by making changes in your diet.

Some foods cause toxin build-up within the body, especially in organs whose job is to eliminate toxicogenic waste, such as the liver. If we can avoid habitually eating some of these foods that slow the liver systems and overall digestion, we can help to clear the body of toxins which often push through to the skin.

It is best to avoid eating foods that include high polyunsaturated fatty acid, such as vegetable oils, fried foods, high fat dairy products and all processed and refined foods. I like to think about how much trouble an item has to go through to get in my shopping cart. I will ask myself, “has this food been overly handled, packaged, and altered by adding chemicals and preservatives?” If so, this food is not going to be nutrient-dense and it is not going to aid in overcoming issues I may be having within my body right now.

Some foods that promote healthy, glowing and acne-free skin with detoxifying effects include:

• Probiotic containing foods, such as kombucha tea, raw sauerkraut and kimchi salad
• Dark leafy greens, especially arugula
• Garlic
• Lemon
• Apple cider vinegar
• Onion

Below is a fun recipe that includes fresh vegetables, garlic and onion, which can aid in clearing skin. You can find many of the ingredients at Texas Farmers Markets. Eggplant, tomato, onion, high quality olive oil, vegetable broth and a variety of herbs are all in season in July, so come out to the markets this weekend to grab local and organic ingredients to make this special dish!

 

Baked Stuffed Veggie Eggplant

2 medium eggplants
coconut oil for coating pan
1 cup diced white onion
2 cups diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon vegetable broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
sea salt
pepper
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
2 ½ cups bread crumbs
1 teaspoon olive oil
tomato slices for garnish
fresh parsley for garnish

Cut each eggplant in half, remove seeds and pulp. Slice the pulp into small pieces and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat a large saucepan with enough coconut oil to coat the pan. Cook the eggplant shells for about 3 minutes, cut side down, to soften, and then flip them to cook over for another 3 minutes. Place in a baking pan just big enough to hold them with the open side face up.

Meanwhile, heat the vegetable broth over medium heat and cook the garlic and white onions for a couple minutes. Add the diced tomatoes and chopped pieces of eggplant, sea salt, pepper and oregano. Lower heat and cook for 3-5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in bread crumbs. Adjust seasonings to taste. Add a small amount of olive oil, helping to moisten the mixture. Spoon it into the eggplant shells, packing it in well. Cover each eggplant half with the thinly sliced tomatoes.

Line some foil with parchment paper and tuck the ends in so that no foil can touch your eggplants. Cover the eggplants with the parchment paper-foil covering and bake the stuffed eggplants for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and garnish with fresh parsley.

From The Beauty Detox Foods by Kimberly Snyder, C.N. Image courtesy of T.Tseng