How Beneficial is Paleo for My Skin, Hair and Nails?

One of the main benefits of the paleo diet that many women report is that the paleo diet is very beneficial to their hair, nails, and skin. The skin, hair, and nails reflect our nutrient intake and display any abnormalities in our body extremely fast. That’s why your hair drops out, skin gets sallow and your nails change color if you’re afflicted with any illness. Even though these parts are not essential to our survival, they are excellent indicators of our health.

People who go on a paleo diet consume nutrient-dense foods such as eggs, nuts, meat, and vegetables. These foods are rich in zinc, iron, and anti-oxidants which are extremely important for nail and hair strength and protection. The anti-oxidants protect our cells from the aging process. With sufficient nutrients, your hair and nails will be strong, thick, and have the glow of good health. The foods recommended in the paleo diet are often rich in biotin which is another foundational nutrient for good hair, nail, and skin health.

Did you know that your skin is never more than a month old? This is why many beauty products say that you’ll see results in 3-4 weeks; that’s how long it takes for the cells at the bottom of the skin to reach the outer surface.

The Dermis and Epidermis

The Epidermis

The epidermis is the outer layer of skin. If you look at the image above you’ll see that it doesn’t directly receive a blood supply. Blood supply is important because that is how our tissues receive nutrients and remove wastes. The stratum basale (the base layer of the epidermis) is the living layer of the epidermis. As the cells move toward the outermost layer (the stratum corneum) they basically shrivel up and “die” in a process called keratinization. Keratin is the main structural component of hair, skin, and nails.

This is how the foods and substances you put into your body affect the appearance of your skin. The good news is that you aren’t stuck with the skin you currently have. Improvements in your diet, primarily eating a whole foods diet, a paleo diet, will change the appearance of your skin. For the past 2 years, I’ve attended Paleo f(x) and one of the most glaring differences is how the people there glow compared to the rest of society.

The Dermis

The blood vessels in the skin stop at the level of the dermis. It is these blood vessels that supply your hair, skin, and nails with nutrients. This is also where hair growth originates. I belong to a number of paleo groups online and every so often people will post about improvements in their skin, hair, and nails. Some even claim that they have less gray hair from following the paleo diet!

In my opinion, the dermis is the most important layer when it comes to the skin’s appearance. Not only does it supply the outer surface of the skin with nutrients but it also contains collagen and elastin, two proteins that give the skin structure. When collagen and elastin lose their integrity wrinkles appear.

Our Chemical Life

The paleo diet contains more nutrients than the usual junk food that the average person eats which is just loaded with additives and unknown chemicals. Food should spoil, it should be able to grow mold because that means that it can support life. My food label reading began when I worked as an analytical chemist for a cosmetics company. Part of my job was odor evaluation of raw chemicals… There is an instinct that you get when you smell something that tells you if you should eat it or not. I’d go to the supermarket and see chemicals from work in food. BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) is one of those chemicals. It’s a white crystalline powder that smells like mothballs. They use in lunch meat, cereal, crackers, sausages, and of course skincare.

Focusing your diet on real foods with vibrant colors (vegetables and fruits), pasture-raised animals, eggs, nuts, seeds, and wild-caught fish will give you a far better complexion than the random chemical cocktail that is the Standard American Diet (SAD). When your cells divide to make new skin the resources they have to use come from what you eat.

It’s A Two Way Street

Your skin is the largest organ of your body. (The largest internal organ is the liver.) What you put onto your skin is absorbed into your bloodstream. That’s how nicotine and birth control patches work.

Did You Know: 

The United States has not passed a major federal law to regulate the safety of ingredients used in personal care products since 1938.

 

Over the past two decades, the European Union has banned close to 1,400 chemicals in the product formulas of personal care products and restricted the levels of over 250 more in such products. The United States has only partially banned 30 to date. [Beautycounter]

The products you use on your body should have someone assuring their safety from hazards like cancer, developmental toxicity, hormone disruption, and infertility. Our government hasn’t made any new standards since 1938 yet how many new products and ingredients have been created since then? In the last 80 years, no one has been looking out for these things unless the company takes it upon themselves to protect you.

Skin Conditions

Modern society has seen a rise in the number of skin maladies. This is a direct result of bad food choices and harmful substances in our foods and skincare products that we are not aware of. Leaky gut syndrome, inflammation, and other nutrient deficiencies affect our immune system and make our skin susceptible to skin problems. Combine that with what you put on your skin and you can quickly see the assault your skin is under.

The body works synergistically; It works as a whole. Everything affects everything else. If your gut is having problems, it will be reflected in the skin. One of my pet peeves is these before and after make-up photos. We live in a society that teaches women to cover up instead of addressing the root cause of their issue.

Here is a list of changes I see in my skin:

• If my skin looks dry and the fine lines are more noticeable; I need more water. (preferably from a non-plastic source)
• If the area around my nose is red; I have too much inflammation and I’ve likely eaten something I shouldn’t. Grains give me a red face.
• Dark circles under my eyes; I get these if I drink too much coffee and/or haven’t eaten enough greens.
• Acne breakouts around my jawline; If I eat dairy my face breaks out. It’s like clockwork.

Your diet more than anything else is the deciding factor in how healthy you will be. Your body keeps an accurate journal regardless of what you write down. It’s recording your eating habits even if you aren’t.

When you go on a paleo diet, you will eliminate sugar, grains, legumes, dairy, processed foods, artificial additives, and vegetable oils. Most people have a bit of a panic attack when I say no grains because we’ve been conditioned to live in a grain-based diet. Here is my article on 12 Reasons To Go Grain Free.

The Number 1 Paleo Rule: Food Either Makes You More Healthy or Less Healthy

Since the paleo diet is mostly comprised of wholesome foods and you are encouraged to have a balanced diet of vegetables and fruit, you will have an adequate intake of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. All these are crucial to gut health. If you have been following the research lately you’ll see that they are linking many chronic diseases to leaky gut. When your body has the nutrients it needs your skin, hair and nails will be healthy. Conversely, consuming empty nutrient foods such as soda means that the body will leech away essential nutrients from the skin and bones just to process these foods that are really of no use to the body.

Your skin, nails, and bones will definitely benefit from the paleo diet. You will look younger and feel younger. You will see your energy levels returning and little allergies and problems that may have seemed persistent and unexplained will disappear just as mysteriously. That is the power of the paleo diet.

Originally posted on September 30, 2018 @ 11:12

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