Food for Thought : Beauty Foods

Mother Nature by Yours Truly

Everyone's heard the old adage " You are what you eat ."  Ok,  I had a fruit smoothie for breakfast with yogurt, blueberries, cantaloupe, grapes, and whey protein.

 Then as I was going through my morning skin care routine I happened to take a closer look at the ingredients in my moisturizer :  Yogurt, blueberries, cantaloupe, grapes, wild honey, figs and dark chocolate powder .  Gulp.  I had to look twice.  Was I dreaming or did I have my breakfast on my face ? 

It made me think more about the important link between our food and health and what it means for the condition of our skin, hair and nails . We hear much about the "superfoods " that we should be eating such as  blueberries, broccoli, soy, salmon, dark chocolate, oats, spinach, tomatoes, walnuts and yogurt.  Eating too much sugar, flour and trans fats , on the other hand we are told, causes inflamation .

Americans are living longer and are interested in maintaining their health, beauty, and energy .  We want  more natural options in the products we choose which is why the market for nutrition-based cosmetics is expected to grow to $5 billion worldwide by 2015.    Asia and Europe have the most consumers of these products but we are a hard-sell and want to see scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of the claims of these products. 

As for my nutrition-loaded skin moisturizer I didn't read its list of ingredients very carefully and  picked it up because it was on sale .  After using it for a while  I found that it was very effective in keeping my skin hydrated through out the day .  Although I'd rather eat the blueberries and other fruits it contains I feel better knowing that its a food-based product without a lot of harsh chemicals.