Learn how you can solve skin problems with foods, such as spices and healing herbs that are beneficial to heal the skin in a natural way.
Spices can play an essential role in your favorite recipes, but these natural wonders can also be secret ingredients in your skin-healing regimen. Many spices contain high levels of antioxidants, anti-inflammatory agents, and the nutrients that skin and hair need to look healthy.
Herbs to heal the skin
Read on to find out how herbs and spices can fight wrinkles, calm redness, and keep skin glowing, all of which help heal skin in a completely natural way.
Cinnamon for a radiant complexion
Cinnamon contains a high level of antioxidants, substances that help heal the skin. Cinnamon has more antioxidant value than half a cup of blueberries. For an easy antioxidant boost, sprinkle half a teaspoon of cinnamon on your coffee grounds before brewing.
To ensure that you are using the strongest spices, you need to discard bottles that are more than two years old; likewise, spices can be stored in a dark cupboard, as the heat from the stove and sunlight diminish their potency.
Turmeric to reduce inflammation
The turmeric has been used in India for thousands of years; the herb has powerful anti-inflammatory benefits due to its high concentration of the antioxidant curcumin. Research has shown that curcumin can also help fight melanoma when the affected skin is treated topically with turmeric.
Add turmeric to stuffed eggs and potato salads, as well as hearty salty soups, or use with brown rice. Mixed with ginger, it can also make a tasty and very beneficial tea to heal the skin.
Red clover to relieve eczema
Herbalists have long used red clover to help heal skin, with benefits to soothe the reddened, scaly, and maddeningly itchy skin that afflict eczema sufferers. Herbs like red clover help flush out toxins in the bloodstream that seem to trigger inflammation.
Red clover can be ingested as a tea or applied topically. If you are going to have the tea, add two tablespoons of dried flowers to hot water for half an hour, and enjoy two to three cups a day to reap the benefits. If you want to take red clover as a supplement, 40 to 160 mg per day is recommended. Ointments are also available, and these contain 10 to 15 percent of the red clover flower.
Hot peppers to fight wrinkles
Hot peppers like chili, paprika, cayenne pepper, and jalapeño do more than put your palate on alert, they are also an ally in healing the skin. Vitamins A and C in peppers fight free radicals, and prevent the breakdown of collagen to maintain the integrity of our skin.
Red bell peppers also contain capsaicin, which acts as a sunscreen to protect the skin from UV damage.
You have to ingest peppers to enjoy their regenerative powers, although capsaicin works wonders for the skin, if used topically it can cause skin damage. Hot peppers are easy to add to any dish. Try putting jalapeño or cayenne in guacamole and chili peppers in curry sauce or you can also make a fish dish with paprika.
Green tea to protect yourself from the sun
The green tea has a high concentration of catechins, which have strong anti- inflammatory, antioxidant and anti – aging effects on the skin.
Green tea used topically can also help strengthen the epidermis, speed wound healing, and inhibit an enzyme in the skin that causes pigmentation, which means fewer sun blemishes on the face. Studies have shown that using a lotion or serum containing green tea for 30 minutes before going out in the sun can reduce DNA damage and the risk of sunburn.