Less Salt for Prettier Skin?
I wholeheartedly believe that a diet that is too high in sodium can make your skin look terrible. Why is that? Well, sodium is very deyhydrating, and it literally sucks the moisture right our of your skin. Also, seemingly opposite, it leads to water retention, which makes the skin look puffy, tired and overall “older”.
I’ve often noticed that after a heavy sodium meal, my skin tends to look pretty rough. It generally looks more puffy, not as youthful, and just generally older. Have you ever noticed after eating a lot of salt how thirsty you are? That’s because sodium makes your body feel like it needs more fluids.
Excess sodium is bad for your heart because it increases blood pressure and leads to water retention. That’s why so many people who have dangerously high blood pressure or heart problems are put on diuretics.
Diuretics are drugs that make you pee a lot more, so that you pee out a lot of the excess sodium you’ve taken in, and so that the water retention never reaches critical mass.
Eating a low sodium diet tends to make your skin and face look more “defined” without looking dehydrated and sallow, as a diet high in salt tends to do. Your coloring is usually a lot healthier.
One of the reasons that I recommend everyone take a high quality fish oil or omega 3 supplement, such as krill oil or flax oil, is because I believe it really helps your skin to retain moisture, from the inside.
This is why people who eat a lot of fish or get a lot of omega 3 fatty acids in their diet through other means such as raw almonds, walnuts, avocados and such, tend to have really beautiful, luminous skin.
Omega 3′s really lend themselves to a healthy, vibrant complexion. It’s not accident that they also happen to be excellent for heart and circulatory health, just the opposite of salt. Funny that two things that are good and bad for the heart and also good and bad for the skin, but hey, that’s usually the way the body works.
In addition to internally hydrating the skin, I recommend that you really give your skin a good dose of heavy external moisturizer at night and in the morning. This way, it helps to keep the moisture in the skin and keep that protective barrier up, so that if you do happen to consume too much salt, at least you have some “insulation” against dehydration of the skin.
Trust me, hydration equals beautiful skin!
