Get all the nutrition you can from food with this advice
What are your top tips for getting healthy glowing skin this summer?
Clear out the ‘junk’ foods that are rich in sugar and fats and stick with foods that nourish your body. Research shows that sugar-rich foods, such as chocolate, appear to damage collagen and may lead to premature skin ageing. Collagen is the foundation for youthful, great-looking skin.
To boost collagen production in your skin, we need to eat protein-rich foods like milk or soya milk, eggs, tofu, lean red meats, chicken and fish along with vitamin C rich foods like berries, peppers, oranges and good quality orange juice.
Why do you think it's important for beauty that people think about the vitamins they get in their food and drink?
Our skin is the body’s largest organ and it’s easy to forget that, like all other cells and tissues and organs in our bodies, it needs the right nourishment to flourish, look and feel healthy.
We need a range of vitamins including vitamin C and vitamin E to help make and maintain great looking skin that is able to cope with the ultraviolet rays, pollution, soap, water and rain, all of which it is exposed on a daily basis.
Eating right is not only important for our waistlines but overall health, which foods promote good health on the inside and outside?
They are, in many ways, one and the same. Protein-rich foods like milk or soya milk, eggs, tofu, lean red meats, chicken and fish are crucial for helping to make good quality collagen. Meanwhile, we need fruits and vegetables for their vitamin C and super nutrients that help protect our skin from sun-damage from the inside out.
Foods that can help with this are berries, oranges, good quality orange juice, red peppers, spinach, kale, carrots, mangoes, sweet potatoes, apricots, tomatoes and watermelon.
Which three foods would you encourage people to eat more of?
I would suggest three colours of foods rather than three individual foods to concentrate on.
Orange-coloured ones like carrots, oranges, orange juice, apricots and mangoes; red-coloured ones like tomatoes, watermelon and red peppers and green coloured ones such as spinach and kale and watercress will hold you in good stead to help protect our skin from sun damage from the inside out.
Which foods would you suggest that people cut out or cut down on in their diet?
Alcohol, sugary foods and drinks all take their toll on the skin. These should definitely be kept as treats, rather than a regular feature in our diets.
Bikini season is fast approaching so which foods can help speed up metabolism?
The only way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories and do more exercise than you normally do.
That said, research suggests that on a temporary basis, chilli-based sauces and green tea are two foods that help to slightly speed up the rate at which our bodies burn calories, however, you need to eat these as part of a healthy diet.
Which foods can help flatten your stomach?
If you tend to feel bloated, then avoiding fizzy drinks, not chewing gum, eating more slowly, not eating while talking and finding ways to de-stress can all help to avoid swallowing excess air, which can lead to bloating.
Sipping chamomile tea may help to calm you and your digestive system too. Sticking with just a couple of caffeine-containing drinks a day may also help.
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