A multi-colored diet can lead to brighter skin
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This article is part of a special issue investigating key questions about skin care. Find the complete series here.
your the skin is under constant attack. Exhaust fumes, cigarette smoke, particulate pollution, heavy metals, and ozone can produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) that attack DNA, rupture cell membranes, and unravel proteins essential to life. Perhaps the most damaging are UV rays, which generate ROS and directly break DNA.
The human body can scavenge and neutralize ROS, but it needs molecules found in fruits, vegetables and leafy greens to do so.
Carotenoids are among the most studied nutrients for these benefits. These are the pigments that give things like pumpkins their vibrant color. “They are very good antioxidants and are particularly good at neutralizing singlet oxygen (a type of ROS),” he says. Jean Krutmann at the Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Düsseldorf, Germany recently reviewed 50 years of data from human clinical trials with carotenoid supplementation. “The carotenoids trap them and neutralize them before they do any damage.”
These substances are the best at protecting against the longer wavelengths found in UVA light. UVA penetrates the deepest layers of the skin, producing ROS that can cause skin aging, wrinkles, and cancer. Carotenoids cannot prevent direct DNA damage caused by the rays, so they cannot be considered a substitute for sunscreen.
Good dietary sources are carrots and tomatoes. For maximum benefits,…
