Author: Mei-Lana Chow

I’m dedicating this post for my clients and those who have faced challenges in their quest to have clear, bright radiant skin!

Purposeful Skin Care With Nutrition

What I love most about being a skincare specialist, medical aesthetician, and holistic nutritionist, is that I have built long lasting relationships with you–my clients, and that we get to work together–to uncover the things that could be dulling your overall glow. I reach beyond what happens in the natural facial treatment room to what is happening in your kitchen everyday.

Keep in mind: Healthy and well-nourished skin requires less work.

How Does Diet Affect Your Skin?

Have you ever considered that perhaps, what you eat on a daily basis can have an effect on your skin?

Think of this scenario: you go to a birthday party and eat that delicious birthday cake, or indulge in a cheesy piece of lasagna, then  wake up the next day with a new blemish or rosacea flare up? The truth is that having clear skin may just lie in the food choices you make every day.

The body is always looking to achieve homeostasis. When our bodies are low on nutrients, exposed to allergens, and dehydrated, our skin can look sallow and dull. When we have an abundance of the right nutrients and ultimate hydration, our bodies function optimally and our skin will GLOW. Glowing skin is always smoother, brighter, with less wrinkles, less red rough patches, and less brown spots.

Lifestyle, food choices, overall hydration, and genetics all play a role on your complexion. Your skin, at the end of the day, is a reflection of your internal health.

I encourage you to eat whole, unrefined, and unprocessed foods that have all the vital nutrients in complete balance–which aids in proper assimilation and absorption. Your skin has a better chance looking smooth and radiant when removing the sludgy residue that junk food, trans fats, sugar, and conventional dairy leaves behind. When your digestive system is running smoothly with good quality foods and there are no food sensitives at play, you can usually get away with little indulgences. We all need to live a little right? ?

Top 10 Tips on How to Keep Your Skin Clear

Below, I give you tips on how to gain more control on your glow!

Hope you’re ready for the challenge. I have faith in you that you can make these adjustments to your daily life to see the results you deserve: clear, radiant skin!

1. Eat more fresh veggies and fruit. This keeps your skin hydrated and provides antioxidants, minerals and vitamins–crucial for smooth radiant skin. Also, add foods that help correct acne problems such as turmeric, ginger, green tea, nuts, dark purple and red foods like grapes, berries, beets, carrots, and dark greens ?like kale and spinach. Check out my other article, Eat Like Your Skin Depends On It for more information on how to eat clean.
2. Keep a food journal. If you bite it, you write it! ? Keeping track of everything you eat can assist you in recognizing what your body is reacting to. Write down what you eat, and also how you feel (stress level), skin reactions, and frequency of bowel movements. Sometimes it takes 24-48 hours for symptoms like pimples and rashes to surface. Looking back on your food journal will help provide insight and remind you of what you ate. One thing to note here is that stress shuts down the digestive system. Learning to manage stress and release one self from anxiety and worry can be a key to healing the body. Meditation and exercise can help with this.
3. Elimination diet. Once you have an idea about what foods you react to, you can then eliminate them one by one from your diet and test out how you look and feel. Contact me for additional information on this process.
4. Consider doing a liver cleanse. Spring time is wonderful time to this. The signs of an overloaded liver can show up on your face with acne, blotches, and eczema. I recommend CanPrev Detox-Pro caps or SISU Milk Thistle Complex supplements for a minimum of 3 weeks. Try these supplements and eat liver-supporting foods like broccoli, sprouts, garlic, artichoke, and beets. As well, see the benefits after eliminating sugar, gluten, alcohol, dairy, and caffeine from your daily diet.
5. Watch your sugar consumption. For most people, the combination of refined wheat and white sugar can be the worst! Avoid cakes and pastries etc. if you want to have smooth, firm skin. Simple sugars spike blood sugar, increases insulin, and throws hormones off balance which can result in acne breakouts. Sugar is also the one thing that breaks down the skin structure as it hardens and snaps collagen peptides, resulting in loose, sagging skin.
6. Stay away from dairy. It’s confirmed, dairy causes acne. Try cutting out ALL dairy (even in your morning coffee) for 2 weeks and discover the difference it has on your skin!
7. Take digestive enzymes, especially when consuming foods in question or you know cause digestive upsets or breakouts. This will help to prevent excess stress on the digestive system, which translates into less stress that shows up on your face.
8. Increase healthy anti-inflammatory fats like Omega-3 fish oil and  Evening Primrose oil which is high in Omega-6. I recommend Bend Skincare – the anti-aging formula will calm inflammation in the body and allow the healing process to begin. Then, as it heals itself, support its rebuilding by using Marine Collagen + Co-Factors for strengthening of collagen structures of your skin to improve its overall condition and tone. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing as these products are available in our clinic.
9. Take acne fighting supplements like Evening Primrose Oil (1,000-1,500mg 2 x daily), Zinc Citrate (30mg daily), Vitamin A (25,000 IU a day,  *for only 3 months* and not while pregnant), Vitamin E mix tocopherols (400 IU daily, and *not alpha tocopherol*), Vitamin D (1,000 IU daily), and finally – probiotics, especially with Lactobacillus acidophilus (I recommend Perfect Probiotic 30 Billion with Prebiotic by Progressive Nutritional.
10. Don’t touch or pick your face! This is where deep cleansing, natural facial treatments come in to play, ultimately helping to prevent scarring and manage clogging, so you don’t have to pick and dig at your own skin. Let the professionals take care of tricky extractions! Also, keep your cell phone clean by wiping it down with alcohol, wash your eyeglasses and sunglasses with dish soap everyday, and change your pillow cases often.

Trust the Process

This process can feel like it’s going to take forever to see the results, but trust me…good things will come with patience and persistence.

Taking this holistic approach to skin care is not a band-aid effect (like most conventional methods.) This is YOU getting to know your body and what it reacts to. You will gain the personal power of choice and be able to control what you expose your body to!

Feel free to boost your efforts with additional guidance from me, and drop a comment below! I’m here to help you through this whole process. I want to see you glow with confidence and beauty for many years to come. ✨

~Mei-Lana Chow RHN

Want healthy Glowing skin? Create a healthy body!

How do you create a healthy body? By making smart food and lifestyle choices. We’ve all heard it before… stay out of the sun, don’t smoke, or drink alcohol, don’t eat refined sugar, or processed foods. Why eliminate these things? Because they cause inflammation in the body.

Inflammation is a Beauty Killer

Inflammation occurs when your body is stressed. The trigger could be stress from work, it could be from eating nutrient deficient processed foods, or it could be from eating foods that you’re allergic to, the list goes on. Everyone is exposed to things that can stress their bodies out, let me help you find more balance and bring back your personal power of choice.

Top 4 Food Groups for Reducing Inflammation

Below I have listed four healthy food groups that reduce inflammation, are packed with nutrients, and that contribute to clear, youthful skin. Incorporating all these foods daily and eliminating the beauty killer’s REALLY does make your body healthy and skin more radiant!

#1 Greens! Ohh those glorious greens! Green leafy vegetables give you a nutritional boost!

Greens are totally affordable, easy to prepare, and gives you basically every micronutrient your body will need! Greens are full of antioxidants and anticancer compounds, proven to fight heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimers, and stroke. The antioxidants are especially important for your skin because they neutralize free radicals! The vitamin content in greens goes through the roof with A and B vitamins, that help to fight acne, and repair damaged skin. Greens are also rich in Folate, Beta-carotene, Vitamin E, Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium. These are all the beauty vitamins in one place!!

Fatten up those greens! Add grass fed butter, ghee, raw olive oil to assist the absorption of fat soluble vitamins, and add satiating power.

Eat more: Broccoli, lettuce, arugula, spinach, kale, collards, dandelion greens, beet greens, spinach, watercress, brussels sprouts, cabbage, bok choy. Eat raw, add to smoothies, or cook sautéed, baked or roasted.

#2 Fruit! Don’t be afraid of the sugar in fruit. Second to greens, fruit is the most nutrient dense beauty superfood!

If you want glowing radiant skin, always eat the whole fruit! When the whole fruit is eaten, it has lots a fibre to slow down the absorption of sugar. The fibre and water content in fruit helps to fill you up, aids digestion, and keeps energy levels up. Avoid “dead” pasteurized fruit juice in the grocery store which contains only sugar, artificial colour and flavours. *Fresh juice* is the only exception to the rule, which still contains some enzymes, vitamins and minerals. Be careful with consuming these liquid calories, as it won’t provide you with that same feeling of fullness the whole fruit would.

Did you know that consuming too much refined sugar is linked to sagging skin, wrinkles and also acne? eeek! There is something that happens in your skin when you consume too much white refined sugar, this my friends, is appropriately called Advanced Glycation End (AGE) This is when sugar molecules bind to proteins in the skin, creating inflammation, causing collagen and elastin to harden, clump up, weaken and breakdown.

The solution? Really, really try hard to eliminate candies, pastries, and cakes etc. Once your taste buds readjust, you will enjoy fruit soooo much more! Try to alternate your fruits. The rotation of different varieties will expose you to the different combinations of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. A great way to start your day is with fresh or frozen fruit! Add to smoothies, top granola, or organic unsweetened yogurt or dairy free yogurt, and add hemp seeds, or nuts.
Keep in mind serving size does count here. Aim for 1 cup of fruit per serving and consume no more than 5 servings of fruit per day.

Eat more: Apples, peaches, pears, papaya, pineapple, mango, berries, banana, grapes, cherries, oranges, lemon, cantaloupe, plums, papaya, grapefruit, avocado, and tomatoes.

#3 Fats keep your skin plump and radiant! Eating the right kinds of fats are crucial to having amazing skin!

They call them essential fatty acids (EFAs) because they are essential to life, and are only available from food sources. These are the Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, helping your body to produce healthy cells, including skin cells. They also aid the production of sebum, which keeps your skin hydrated and youthful.
If your not consuming enough in your diet, your skin will be dry, dehydrated, inflamed, and more prone to breakouts and eczema. Inflammation in the body is the underlying link to acne, psoriasis, rosacea, and eczema. Eating too much processed foods will result in an imbalance of these oils as they contain mostly Omega-6 fatty acids. When the balance of 3 and 6 are off, inflammation runs rampant in your body.

The solution? Avoid processed foods and focus on consuming NATURAL, whole, fatty foods!

Eat more: Fatty fish, coconuts, olive oil, organic grass fed butter and ghee, avocados, Brazil nuts, almonds, walnuts, flax, hemp, sunflower, or pumpkin seeds. Eat nuts and seeds raw, and cook with high flash point oils like avocado or grape seed oil.

#4 Funky fermented foods! Healthy skin starts with a healthy digestive tract.
When you begin to consume fermented foods on a daily basis, you are flooding your body with feel good probiotics, vitamins and live enzymes. Fermented foods have been used for centuries to heal us from the inside out by aiding digestion, fighting disease and bringing us vital nutrition. They provide your body with good bacteria, which we want plenty of in our intestines. This good bacteria is extremely beneficial for the entire body by giving us strength, vitality, reducing signs of early aging and creating a brighter, more clear even skin tone.

Eat More: Kombucha, miso, organic unsweetened yogurt, kimchi and/or sauerkraut from the refrigeration section in the grocery store.

Just one more thing…

Stay hydrated with plain old filtered water!

Ok, I know water is not a food, but I have to mention it, because we would not exist without water!

We are made up of 70% water. If we did not have clean water to drink, then we would die. Now think about what happens to your body when it’s dehydrated, you become groggy, headache set in, energy decreases, your lips crack, your mouth feels dry like sand paper, you become lethargic and moody. Every cell in your body is suffering a slow death!

Water yourself! To stay hydrated you need to drink half your body weight in ounces in a day. The key is to drink water before you feel any signs of dehydration. Caffeine, salt ,and sugar will dehydrate your body, you will need to drink 2 glasses of water to replace the lost water from consuming just one of these beverages. I’m not saying caffeine is bad, just replace the water so your body doesn’t suffer.

Matcha tea and Moringa leaf powder have an abundance of minerals, vitamins and are packed with antioxidant power. These drinks will protect cells and skin from damaging effects of free radicals and can decrease wrinkles and promote the quality and quantity of collagen and elastin. If you want to drink something to provide an energy boost, choose these healthy drinks in place of coffee.

In Conclusion

I hope this post has provided some inspiration and knowledge for you to start eating like your skin depends on it! Keep in mind, I would like to see you all eating more of these foods listed above, however, I encourage these as high lights to reduce overall inflammation. A balanced diet with lean protein, whole grains and vegetables are necessary for building your healthy body. Balance is key!

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions, or drop me a comment below! I would love to hear from you.

Yours truly,
Mei-Lana Chow RHN xo