– With your patients and skin health are there any supplements or foods that come to mind for you, that help with the health of the skin?

– Absolutely, yeah. I really look at, I’m be curious to hear what you recommend, but I really look at the basics, you know. Vitamin C. Vitamin C is so important for building healthy tissues.

– Right

– You know, connective tissues, to maybe we’re looking, really getting underneath the outer layer, the epidermis into the dermis, you know, all of the connective tissue there. So, vitamin c, already mentioned vitamin d, that’s a pivotal. Vitamin A is a real important one, Vitamin E are a really important one. Now, I could make this list of all these different vitamins, and you could say, okay I’m gonna run to the store and buy these vitamins. And for a couple, that might be a good case, but perhaps an even wiser way to go about it, is to eat foods, that already contain all of these different nutrients, because, you know, what we’re finding more and more, is that vitamins, micro-nutrients, they work together. You know, they work synergistically.

– I think food is always the best first way to go, and then, you can add in supplements, as an insurance factor, perhaps.

– Yeah, I would agree with that 100%.

– Yeah.

– I’m looking at specific foods. I really like to look at what’s in season, you know. In particularly, in the summer months. You know, what we find if we just looks at fruits. You know, if you look at the fruits that are in season, throughout the year. Well, in the summer months, late summer when the sun’s most intense, when it’s hottest out, then we have juicy fruits, you know. And so, there’s more water in it, there’s more fluids, and so, we obviously need that, you know. We need to be more hydrated. So, we’re looking at peaches, melons, you know, these kind of juicier fruits.

– Cantaloupes, watermelons.

– Yeah.

– Tomatoes, which is a fruit.

– There you go. Yah, tomatoes are fruit, as well. And then, when we transition to fall, and we get into maybe pears, apples, asian pears, stuff that, you know, still packed full of nutrients. Not quite as much. You know, not quite as much liquid in per unit, but, you know, a different, just a different flavor, you know. I really, really trust in that, eating seasonally. What are some foods you might recommend?

– So, for me, with skin health and foods, I really like to look at foods that are, like your dark leafy greens, things like kale, and spinach, and collared greens. These foods that are really rich in nutrients like lutein, and zeaxanthin, your carotenoids. So, things like carrots, all the foods that are anti-oxidant rich, specifically. So, kale is a big favorite of mine. I like to call that, like, North America’s super-food, really. It’s so nutrient dense. So, I’m really looking for foods that are really high in fat soluble vitamins, as well as, anti-oxidants, like lutein, beta carotene, zeaxanthin, astaxanthin, because all of these will penetrate into the, well they’re anti-oxidants for the skin. So, when the sun’s rays are coming and interacting with the skin, there is free radical production there.

– That’s right.

– And so, what these anti-oxidants do is they quench these free radicals that are produced in the skin, and it helps protect the skin from any potential damage from the sun, and slows the aging process on the skin, which is really important.