What works and why?
Analysing the thousands of options that we have as customers when looking for food supplements the first thing that comes in mind is: Why taking nutritional supplements if we already have a healthy diet ?
Massive agro-industry process has lead to soils being nutrient deprived. Studies show that industrial farming practices have deprived the soil of its essential nutrients resulted in fruits and vegetables that are not as nutritious as they use to be. Pesticides and other chemicals in the soils can also be present in the food that we eat. Therefore, even for organic items, the food is unfortunately overall less nutritious.
On a study conducted between 1950 and 1999 ( source: US comparative study - National Library of Medicine, pubmed.gov) with 43 different fruits and vegetables they found a significant reduction in six key nutrients in these fruits and vegetables :
Protein
Calcium
Phosphorus
Iron
Riboflavin
Ascorbic acid ( vitamin C)
The level of these nutrients have decreased during that period of time.
So technically, nowadays even with a healthy diet you will not get all the nutrients that your body actually needs.
What supplements to consider in that case ?
Collagen
Consumption of collagen supplements improves the elasticity of your skin and it is recommended by dermatologist when collagen cream are not so much recommended because the collagen molecular is actually too big to penetrate the skin. It is therefore recommended to invest in a collagen supplement but not for a collagen cream.
Antioxidants
The main reason for aging is oxidation ( a main driver of ageing; a process caused by free radicals). Antioxidants are our bodie's protection against free radicals, they neutralise free radicals. So the more antioxidants you ingest the better it is for you.
FISH OIL
Fish oil is great to infuse your body with omega 3 fatty acids, as they moisture the skin from inside out. Choose a high quality fish oil and best to refrigerate after opening.
Probiotics
Why are they important ?
Gut-Skin axis : highlights the fact that gut and skin are interconnected. The health of your gut is reflected in the health of your skin. A big factor in the health of your gut is your microbio ( trillions of bacterias live inside your gut and have an impact in all aspect of your health) if the microbio is healthy and implies healthy bacteria you will have better looking skin, less inflammation less breakout than if you have a poor microbiology. However, we don’t really get a lot of probiotics in our food nowadays because other than yogurt we don’t really eat fermented food. Probiotics must be refrigerated after purchase for a better result of live bacterias supplement your gut bacteria.
Vitamin A
A powerful antioxidant, protect the skin from inflammation
Great to put on your skin in the form of retinol ( in your skincare) but also to ingest internally.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C protects your skin from UV radiation damage and free radicals, so ingesting vitamin C is protective for your skin.
Vitamin D
It is also important for beautiful skin and the immune system.
We get vitamin D with exposure to the sun but as we know that too much UV radiation can also be damaging you can also ingest vitamin D via food supplements. Studies show that low levels of vitamin D were correlated with wrinkles, pigmentation and more redness as well.
Green tea
Healthiest drink but also could be taking as food supplement. It contain polyphenols (powerful antioxidants) that fight free radicals and oxidation process but also help induce autophagy (cellular cleanup) to get rid of old and damaged cells and help rejuvenate the body.