A salad a day keeps acne away
One of the best and easiest ways to help fight acne and premature aging is by incorporating a salad a day, everyday.
In today’s world where the colour beige has taken over the majority of our plates, from bread and pasta to pastries and ice cream, we are in desperate need of a little colour. Although there’s a time and a place for beige, these foods not only provide us with next to zero nutritional value, they also steal and deplete us of any of the nutrients we do have in order for our bodies to be able to digest them, creating all kinds of nutrient deficiencies.
Guess what nutrient deficiencies lead to? Hormone imbalances, inflammation, gut issues, toxicity issues….the list goes on and on, because our bodies were designed to work based on the food nature provides us.
What do these issues contribute to? ACNE!
How much salad should I eat?
By committing to at least one decent size salad a day (2 cups or more), you can ensure you are getting the fibre, vitamins and minerals your body so desperately asks for and needs to run efficiently.
If the inside of your body isn’t running efficiently, you can damn well bet that your skin isn’t either. Absolutely no multi vitamin in the world can do a better job providing you these nutrients than a nice big, crisp, delicious salad.
Here are 12 more good reasons for a salad a day:
Improves digestion
Improves nutrient uptake
Improves elimination (yes, I’m talking about poop)
Balances hormones
Protects against premature aging
Enhances satiety (so you eat less!)
Improves weight loss (if this is a concern)
Increases hydration
Super convenient to get veggie servings and healthy fats
Served at almost any restaurant
Takes 5 minutes to prepare
No cooking necessary!
Building the perfect salad
Always start your salad with greens. Green vegetables are jam packed with chlorophyll which has countless benefits including it’s ability to decrease DNA damage and help prevent and treat certain types of cancer.
For the skin, chlorophyll really helps to fight acne thanks to its antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory agents. It will also fight free radicals, which are the little buggers that are linked to skin aging. Additionally, it will help to alkalize the body which reduces inflammation, excess oil production and breakouts on the skin.
Don’t stop there though! A salad doesn’t have to be plain old lettuce and cucumber. Get creative and have fun with it. Change it up daily and keep it interesting by making it your goal to add a bit of every colour in the rainbow. The darker and brighter the colour, the more it has to offer. Think red like tomatoes or raspberries, orange like carrots or peppers, blue like blueberries, and purple like beets.
All these beautiful colours contain phytochemicals, which are extremely important for fighting premature aging, inflammation and disease.
Remember to add nuts and seeds, and think about creating your own dressings with olive oil, apple cider vinegar and a handful of fresh herbs. Dressing and other healthy fats play a key role by increasing the absorption of certain nutrients in the veggies like lycopene and alpha/beta carotene , which are incredible cancer fighting nutrients.
All these beautifully coloured vegetables and fruit are readily available to us anywhere in the world, and in Canada we are lucky enough to have them available to us all year long, no matter the season. Take advantage of that privilege and feed your body what it was meant to have.
