Nutrition is integral to overall wellness. An unhealthy diet can hinder digestion, cause weight gain and even damage organs such as your heart and liver.

However, what you eat also impacts another organ — your skin.

As scientists become more acquainted with the relationship between diet and the body, and skin health and maturation, what you eat has an immense effect on its condition and development.

This article presents 12 food varieties which may help maintain healthy skin.

1) Greasy Fish

Fatty fish like salmon, mackerel and herring can be an incredible food source to support healthy skin. Packed full of omega-3 unsaturated fats – essential components in maintaining overall skin wellness – these varieties offer vital nutritional support for maintaining good skin.

Omega-3 unsaturated fats are vital components for keeping skin looking thick, graceful, and saturated. An omega-3 unsaturated fat deficiency may even result in dry skin conditions (1, 2Trusted Source).

Omega-3 fats found in fish help reduce irritation, which may lead to redness and skin inflammation. They may even make your skin less sensitive to harmful UV beams (2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source).

Studies suggest that fish oil supplements could aid in fighting skin-based conditions like psoriasis and lupus (4 Trusted Source).

Fish is an excellent source of vitamin E, one of the primary cancer-preventive agents for your skin.

• generally skin wellbeing

• the creation of new skin cells

• Zinc deficiency can prompt skin irritation, injuries, and deferred wound mending (6Trusted Source).

2) Avocados

Avocados contain high concentrations of solid fats that provide numerous health benefits in your body – including strengthening skin health (7Trusted Source).

Maintaining an optimal level of essential fats is vital in order to achieve clean and sustainable skin.

One study with over 700 women discovered that higher intakes of healthy fats such as avocado-derived fats was related to more flexible and elastic skin (8Trusted Source).

Primer Proof shows that avocados contain compounds which could help protect against sun damage to the skin, such as wrinkles or other signs of ageing (sources 8Trusted Source and 9Trusted Source). These UV rays can lead to wrinkles or other indications of premature aging (8Trusted Source and 9Trusted Source).

Avocados are an excellent source of dietary vitamin E, an important cellular protector. Unfortunately, most Americans do not get enough nutrient E through their food sources.

• Unsurprisingly, research indicates that pairing nutrients E and C together is more powerful (5Trusted Source).

• Nutrient C is essential for healthy skin. Your body requires it to produce collagen, an important protein which keeps your skin strong and firm (10Trusted Source).

• Nutrient C deficiency is increasingly rare today; however, its typical side effects include dry, flaky skin that bleeds easily.

• Nutrient C is an anticancer agent that protects skin against sun and environmental oxidative damage that leads to signs of premature aging (10Trust Source).

• One 100-gram serving, approximately 1/2 an avocado, provides 14% of the Daily Value (DV) for vitamin E and 11% of its Daily Value for vitamin C (1Trusted Source).

3) Walnuts

Unsaturated fats found in nuts are an excellent source of essential unsaturated fatty acids – those your body cannot produce itself.

They’re particularly rich in omega-3 and omega-6 unsaturated fats (12Trusted Source, 13Trusted Source).

An excessive consumption of omega-6 fats may exacerbate irritation, leading to severe skin conditions like psoriasis.

Omega-3 fats also reduce inflammation within your body — specifically your skin (13Trusted Source).

While omega-6 unsaturated fats are commonplace in Western diets, sources of omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids are rarer.

Walnuts contain a good balance of unsaturated fats that could help mitigate an adverse response to an excessive omega-6 intake.

Pecans provide your skin with essential vitamins and nutrients needed for proper function and maintenance, helping it remain strong.

One ounce (28 grams) of pecans provides 8% of your Daily Value (DV) for zinc.

Zinc is essential to skin barrier function and wound recovery, while fighting bacteria and inflammation (14Trusted Source).

Pecans also contain small amounts of cancer-fighting agents such as vitamin E and selenium, plus approximately four to five grams of protein for every ounce (28 grams) (12 Trustworthy Source).

4) Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds make an impressive sight.

One ounce (28 grams) of sunflower seeds provides 49% of the Daily Value (DV) for vitamin E, 41% for selenium, 14% for zinc and 5.5 grams of protein (15 Trusted Source).

Beta carotene, found naturally in plants, can provide health benefits. When added to sweet potatoes it becomes an invaluable supplement.

5) Sweet Potatoes

Beta carotene can be found in oranges and vegetables such as carrots, spinach, and sweet potatoes (5Trusted Source, 16Trusted Source).

Sweet potatoes are an incredible source of beta carotene – just one 100-gram serving (1/2 cup) is enough to surpass multiple times the Daily Value for Vitamin A (17 Trusted Source).

Carotenoids like beta carotene can help keep skin healthy by acting as a natural sunblock.

Once applied to your skin, this cancer prevention agent penetrates its pores and protects cells from sun exposure – helping you avoid sunburns, cell death and dry, flaky patches of skin. This may help avoid sunburns as well as cell passage and dry, unbalanced complexions.

An abundance of beta carotene may also provide your skin with an orange tint, contributing to an overall improvement of appearance (5Trusted Source).

6) Red Or Yellow Chime Peppers

As with sweet potatoes, chime peppers provide an abundance of beta carotene that your body converts into vitamin A.

One cup (149 grams) of chopped red ringer pepper contains 156% of the Daily Value for vitamin A (18 Trusted Sources).

Cherries are an excellent source of vitamin C, an essential nutrient needed to produce collagen protein which maintains firm and tight skin.

One cup (149 grams) of ringer pepper provides 211% of the Daily Value (DV) for vitamin C (18Trusted Source).

An extensive observational review including women found consuming lots of Vitamin C led to reduced risks of wrinkled and dry skin as they aged (19Trusted Source).

7) Broccoli

Broccoli is brimming with numerous nutrients and minerals significant for skin wellbeing, including zinc, nutrient A, and nutrient C (20Trusted Source).

It likewise contains lutein, a carotenoid that works like beta carotene. Lutein shields your skin from oxidative harm, which can make your skin become dry and crumpled.

In any case, broccoli florets additionally pack a unique compound called sulforaphane, which flaunts some great expected advantages. It might even have against malignant growth impacts, remembering for certain sorts of skin disease (21Trusted Source, 22Trusted Source).

Sulforaphane is similarly an incredible defensive specialist against sun harm. It works in two ways: killing hurtful free extremists and turning on other defensive frameworks in your body (22Trusted Source, 23Trusted Source).

In research facility tests, sulforaphane diminished the quantity of skin cells UV light killed by as much as 29%, with insurance enduring as long as 48 hours.

Proof recommends sulforaphane may likewise assist with keeping up with collagen levels in your skin (23Trusted Source).

8) Tomatoes

Tomatoes are an abundant source of Vitamin C and contain numerous carotenoids including Lycopene.

Beta carotene, lutein and lycopene have all been shown to protect skin against UV radiation damage from the sun as well as prevent wrinkles (24Trusted Source, 25Trusted Source 26Trusted Source).

Tomatoes, with their abundance of carotenoids, make for an excellent food to help promote skin health.

Think of pairing carotenoid-rich foods, like tomatoes, with fat sources like cheddar or olive oil to increase carotenoids absorption (27Trusted Source).

9) Soy

Soy Soy contains isoflavones, plant compounds which may help your body produce estrogen by mimicking or counteracting estrogen’s action.

Isoflavones may help support many areas of your body, including skin health.

One study with moderately aged ladies concluded that regular consumption of soy isoflavones for 8-12 weeks resulted in reduced fine kinks and improved skin elasticity (28Trusted Source).

Soy may also help postmenopausal women increase skin dryness while increasing collagen, helping keep their complexion smooth and firm (29Trusted Source).

These isoflavones can not only help protect the cells in your body from harm, but they may also help shield skin cells from UV radiation exposure — which could reduce risk for some diseases (30Trusted Source, 31Trusted Source and 32Trusted Source). (30, 31Trusted Source and 32Trusted Source)

10) Dark Chocolate

Looking for another reason to indulge in dark chocolate? Consider this: cocoa has incredible benefits on skin health.

After six to 12 weeks of daily consumption of cocoa powder rich in cancer prevention agents, one member reported thicker and hydrated skin.

Their skin was also less harsh and flaky, less vulnerable to sun-induced burns, and advised for exposure to more nutrients in their blood stream (33Trusted Source).

One study demonstrated that eating 20 grams of high-cancer prevention agent dark chocolate daily could allow your skin to withstand twice as much UV radiation before copying, in comparison with eating low cell reinforcement chocolate (34Trusted Source).

Multiple investigations have yielded comparable findings, noting improvement for any kinks present. Yet note that only around one of them found major impacts (34Trusted Source, 35Trusted Source, 36Trusted Source and 37Trusted Source).

Choose dark chocolate that contains at least 70% cocoa to maximize its health benefits while limiting added sugars.

11) Green Tea

Green Tea Won’t Wreck Your Skin Green tea may help protect against damage and premature aging of the skin, offering additional defense from environmental stresses and threats.

Green tea contains amazing compounds known as catechins which work wonders on skin health in more ways than one.

Green tea contains cell-protecting food sources which may help safeguard against sun damage to skin (38Trusted Source, 39Trusted Source and 40Trusted Source).

One 12-week study including 60 women found that daily consumption of green tea could reduce redness caused by sun exposure by up to 25%.

Green tea was found to help improve skin moisture, roughness, thickness, and versatility (41 Trusted Source).

Green tea can be an exceptional source of nourishment for healthy skin, however there is some evidence to suggest that milk could reduce its effectiveness (42Trusted Source).

12) Red Grapes

Red grapes are well known for containing resveratrol, a compound produced in their skin that provides health benefits.

Resveratrol has many medical advantages, one being to mitigate the adverse effects of aging.

Test-tube studies suggest it could also aid with limiting the production of damaging free radicals that attack skin cells and cause signs of ageing (Reference 7 and 43, respectively).

Unfortunately, evidence does not exist to demonstrate whether the amount of resveratrol found in red wine will have any beneficial impact on skin.

Furthermore, since red wine is considered a cocktail drink, there can be detrimental health implications to imbibing too much of it.

As much as there may be potential medical advantages from drinking red wine, its consumption should gradually increase over time – just be sure to include red grapes and berries!