Want fabulous skin? Eat FAT! LIZ EARLE reveals how you can look years younger in just 6 weeks When your skin is dull, troubled or inflamed, no doubt you instantly head for your bathroom cabinet.
But creams and cosmetics are only part of the answer to healing your skin. It’s just as vital to examine what you’re putting in your body, as well as on it.
And by following my delicious eating and beauty plan from my new book Skin, the second part of which is exclusively serialised in today’s Mail, you can eat your way to truly fabulous skin in just six weeks.
In the first part of the plan, published in Saturday’s Mail, we covered weeks one and two and focused on detox and cleansing.
Today, I’m going to guide you through weeks three and four of the plan. In these weeks, we’re going to focus on healing and balance — soothing inflamed skin and helping to ease skin conditions such as eczema and rosacea.
Plus, I will reveal how to nourish skin — because, in order to gleam with health, our skin needs plenty of vitamins, minerals and essential fats. And, happily, this is one area where fats can be good for you.
Once you’ve completed weeks one and two, you should be able to see improvements. That elusive glow and youthful bloom is on the way back. And it can only get better — starting with the right fats and oils.
Some of the most nutritious and skin-friendly foods are plant oils. Many are an excellent source of vitamins and essential fatty acids, and they’re vital for the healthy functioning of our whole body. And more than this, eating good oils can actually aid weight loss by boosting your metabolism and helping you burn calories faster.
If anyone knows about the importance of fats in the battle to heal troubled skin, it’s me. I had a long struggle with eczema in my teens. Debilitating, painful and unsightly, I tried everything to cure it, to no avail.
Then, some 30 years ago when I was working in my first job as a writer for a woman’s magazine, I was asked to interview a nutritionist. She advised me to take evening primrose oil to treat my inflamed skin. I had tried everything for it before, but after taking her advice and watching my skin clear, the penny finally dropped: we can control our skin through what we put in our bodies. The shift in my diet made such a big difference that I took my research further.
What I found was completely out of kilter with the time. Natural fats, such as those found in full-fat milk, butter and lean meats or supplements like evening primrose oil, weren’t bad for you. They were essential for your body — and for healthy, glowing skin. This was at a time when the low-fat brigade dictated what we should eat. Fat was the big, bad villain.
But the truth is that when you take all the fat out of your diet, your skin falls apart. Eat a low-fat diet and you’re much more likely to have dry skin, or inflammation in the skin, which shows itself in conditions including eczema, dermatitis — and even wrinkles.
Today, thankfully, we’ve come to our senses and people are beginning to understand that healthy fats are vital for good health. We also need fats to help absorb the all-important, skin-friendly fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K.
So what are good fats? Well, they include oils such as olive, rapeseed, avocado, as well as nut oils, oily fish, nuts and seeds.
As for milk, make sure it’s whole. It’s a complete myth that semi-skimmed or skimmed milk is better for us — whole milk is only 3.5 per cent fat, so it’s not a high-fat food and is a rich source of goodness.
Look for the words ‘pasture-fed’ on the label, which means that your milk has come from cows that have grazed on grass as nature intended and may be higher in Omega-3 and skin-friendly fats.
You should, however, avoid the fats in processed foods, particularly hydrogenated fats and trans fats, such as hardened vegetable or palm oil. These fats do us no good at all.
And rejoice: butter is better for our skin (and our health) than margarine!
So remember: if you want youthful, radiant skin, you simply can’t do without fat.
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