What to eat this summer for gorgeous skin !

The summer is great for so many reasons, like going to the beach and wearing dresses with floral patterns, but it’s also great because some of the tastiest fruits and vegetables are in season! These fruits and veggies are more than delectable treats for your palate, they actually provide some amazing benefits for your health and can keep your skin glowing—even after a day in the sun! Here’s a list of ten of Tata’s favorite summer fruits and veggies and the benefits that come with them:

Avocado: Obagi Avocados’ are often thought of as vegetables since they’re more savory than they are sweet, however the benefit they serve to your skin comes from the high levels of monounsaturated fat—typically thought of as “good” fat. Monounsaturated fat moisturizes skin and also replaces oil that  gets removed from washing your face (that is, if you use a cleanser with soaps or detergents, which we don’t recommend. Maybe try the Regenerating Cleanser instead, for preserved moisture?

Plum: The plum is one of many sweet fruits that just happen to also be good for your skin! Plums have a lot of antioxidants and are a great source of dietary fiber (like many fruits). Fiber helps in ridding your body of harmful toxins by ushering them through the digestive tract.

Mango: Mangoes are a triple threat: great health benefits, good for your skin and amazing taste. Mangoes are rich in vitamin-A and antioxidants, which together help combat skin ageing, regenerates skin cells and restores the elasticity of skin.

Blueberries: For small fruits, blueberries have a lot of benefits! It’s been found that certain compounds in blueberries, as well as other berries, lessen inflammation and oxidative damage to your skin and body at large (two things that usually appear for age-related reasons).

Red Bell Peppers: Vegetables also have tremendous health benefits—in fact, a medium-sized bell pepper contains about 200% of your daily needed vitamin C. Vitamin C has been reported to repair DNA damage caused by the sun’s harmful UV rays on your skin, an extremely useful tip to remember for summer!

Carrots: Eating carrots can help keep your skin glowing throughout the whole summer! Carrots contain two carotenoids called beta carotene, an antioxidant that converts to vitamin A inside the body, and lycopene that help protect skin from the sun’s harsh rays and the damage they cause your skin. Not to mention, a lack of vitamin A can causes dry skin, so eat up!

Corn: Like carrots, corn also contains a carotenoid that helps your skin, it’s called lutein and it also shields your skin from UV damage. Corn is grown in the spring and summer in the northeast, however frozen fruits and vegetables will provide the same benefits when they’re out of season, since fruits and vegetables are usually frozen at their ripest, which is when they are the most nutrient-packed.
Spinach: Spinach (along with kale and other dark green leafy vegetables) is  packed with folic acid, vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E, and also other components that boost the skin’s natural shield against the damage caused by the sun’s UV rays. Not to mention spinach can help reduce your chances of getting skin cancer! Spinach is another veggie that seems to be made for summer.

Tomatoes: Tomatoes, as we all know are actually a fruit and not a vegetable, are rich in lycopene, a UV-protecting compound, which is what makes tomatoes red but actually prevents your skin from looking red! Sunburn protection increases as you eat more tomatoes, while simultaneously enhancing your natural collagen levels to help prevent skin sagging and wrinkles. Fresh tomatoes are better than nothing, however heat helps concentrates lycopene levels in the fruit, so more of it is actually contained in processed or cooked tomatoes found in ketchup, paste, soup and juice.

Strawberries:  Strawberries are just one of the many fruits filled with vitamin C, and it has been shown that eating more vitamin C packed foods can actually help in warding off problems related to your skin’s aging, like dryness and wrinkles.  Vitamin C basically has skin-smoothing effects, since it is able to absorb the free radicals produced from the sun’s (sometimes) harmful UV rays and the role it plays in collagen production.

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This list was just a small showing of how great fruits and veggies can be for your skin—all of these are in season during the summertime, so make a day of it and go to your local farmer’s market, if you can. Eat up and enjoy!

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