Do you want to know the secret to achieving your healthiest, most radiant skin?

I’m a dermatologist with a decade and a half’s worth of analysing and optimizing skin health with the most cutting-edge dermo-cosmetics and technologies at my fingertips and just knew intuitively that my management protocols were somehow incomplete.

But with the wave of the wellness movement and the mounting research around gut health came my ‘aha’ moment…

You need to feed your skin what it needs to glow.

Here are my top 10 tips to achieve that head-turning radiance from the inside out:

1. Polyphenols to make you pretty – Plant foods are bursting with polyphenols which protect and repair the skin from the warzone of skin-damaging free radicals we are exposed to daily.  Fill up on green leafy veggies, sip on green tea, snack on berries and indulge in a piece of dark chocolate. Switch on your body’s own antioxidant powerhouses with minerals such as selenium iron, zinc, manganese and copper to unleash the power to neutralise millions of free radicals every single second!
2. Reinforce your sunscreen from the inside – lycopene from tomatoes or watermelon has been shown in studies to lessen the damaging effects of sunlight on the skin by up to 33%.
3. Stop inflamm-ageing – counteract the inflammation that pollution and our frenetic lifestyles are causing with foods that calm and regulate the immune system. Add sulforaphane-superweight broccoli and omega-rich salmon and avocado together with nuts, seeds and spices such as turmeric to your healthy ageing arsenal.
4. Add some ‘spark-plugs’ to support detoxification such as glutathione-rich onions and garlic. Remember that we need to support our liver, sweat and encourage healthy stool patterns to eliminate toxins.
5. Rejuvenate the skin and encourage the production of more youthful skin cells by speeding up our skin cell turnover cycle with Vitamin A-rich foods from liver, herring or sweet potatoes.
6. Nourish your gut ‘beauty bugs’ with the fibre, prebiotics and fermented foods they love.
7. Bolster your skin’s building blocks: while the 3 skin saboteurs (smoking, sugar and sunlight) break down the collagen and elastin keeping your skin looking youthful, you can help build it back up again with foods to fight those wrinkles such as bone broth, eggs, hydrolysed collagen powders and Vitamin-C-rich foods.
8. Switch on your skin’s mitochondrial energy powerhouses with fatty acids, pistachios and grass-fed protein sources or introduce intermittent fasting.
9. Regulate your hormones with zit-zapping zinc to support methylation pathways, hormone-balancing and Vitamin B3-rich sweet potatoes, liver-supportive foods such as grapes and green tea, phytoestrogens from edamame beans and flaxseeds together with green leafy veggies to jump-start oestrogen elimination.
10. Water for the win – Hydrated skin appears plumper, smoother and less dull. Start your day
    with a warm glass of water with lemon juice, fresh ginger, and turmeric to hydrate after a good night’s sleep and to stimulate digestion. A pro-tip is to eat your water with water-rich foods such as cucumbers, spinach and apples which release water slowly from their cells.