Eat your way to perfection, from top to toe

So, you want a body like J-Law, skin like J-Lo and hair like Kate Middy? Well then, you need to do two things: make ‘you are what you eat’ your mantra and read our guide for top to toe perfection.

For sensational skin
It doesn’t matter how much your skin cream costs or how many treatments you go for, perfect skin starts with perfect nourishment. Just like you apply moisturiser to cure the outside, eating the right foods will feed your skin the right nutrients it needs to cure from the inside – leaving you blemish, line and problem free and really, isn’t that every girls dream?

Image sourced via Pinterest

Broccoli and strawberries
Not only will a good old dose of Vitamin C (found in both these super foods) help you starve off those bugs, it will also help give you radiant and blemish free skin. Oh not only that, foods containing Vit C also help produce collagen which, as we all know, is your essential tool in turning back the clock. Also worth a mention are oranges, kiwi fruits, blackcurrants and vegetables including kale and sweet potato.

Tomatoes
Tomatoes house one of the highest concentrations of selenium. But what’s selenium, we hear you ask? Well, its another antioxidant, a really powerful one that can, if taken correctly, protect your skin against skin cancer, sun damage and even age spots. So where else do you get it? Eggs, shellfish, broccoli and brazil nuts.

Sunflower seeds
Not only are they said to help ward off depression, sunflower seeds are also one of your skin’s superheroes. Thanks to their high potency of Vitamin E, they can help prevent any damage you might throw at your skin.

Meat
Yes, yes, we know no one wants too much oil in their skin but trust us, zinc, found in huge levels in meat, will give you the good kind – the kind that helps stabilise oil production and help protect your skin. Where can you find it? Beef, lamb and chicken.

For delightful digestion
There is no worse feeling than a heavy stomach, full of last nights dinner. Of course exercise is the best way to trim a tum but if you want to take care of that bloated belly from the inside out, here’s what to buy on your next supermarket sweep.

Image sourced via Shutterstock

Lemons
Little known fact about me, I drink warm lemon water like it’s going out of fashion. Why? Well where shall I start? It encourages digestion by loosening toxins in the digestive tract and helps eliminate indigestion and bloating. It’s a great source of vitamin C, and most importantly, it enhances enzyme function, stimulating your liver and getting your gut working at full whack.

Yoghurt
There’s good bacteria and there’s bad bacteria and yoghurt is most definitely good bacteria. Full of probiotics, it helps ward off intestinal infections and keep the digestive tract healthy – meaning less gas and bloating for you. Not only that, but studies have shown that the fat in yoghurt can actually help burn fat – sounds like a dream to us.

Banana
They’re filling, they’re delicious and what’s best of all, they’re full of fibre and potassium which not only helps keep your bowels nice and healthy, the potassium helps eliminate water retention.

Olive oil
This is our favourite fact of all. Not only delicious, olive oil has been found to reduce stomach fat due its concentration of a chemical called oleic acid, which helps break down fat in the body. Amazing.

Cucumbers
Not only are they delicious when dipped in hummus, but cucumbers are low in calories and also act as natural diuretics which helps flush out excess water weight.

Heavenly Hair
If you have been having one too many bad hair days of late, it might not all be your hairdressers fault. Just like our skin, when we are not right, neither is our hair. So, for luscious locks like something out of a Timotei advert, here’s what to eat.

Image sourced via Pinterest

Heavenly Hair
If you have been having one too many bad hair days of late, it might not all be your hairdressers fault. Just like our skin, when we are not right, neither is our hair. So, for luscious locks like something out of a Timotei advert, here’s what to eat.

Salmon
Well, really what you are looking for for healthy hair is a combination of protein and vitamin D but if you can throw some omega-3 fatty acids in there too, you’re golden. Enter salmon with its magic potion of ingredients that keep your hair shiny and your scalp moisturised. Notable mentions go out to herring, trout and mackerel which also contain all three elements – just not in such large doses.

Walnuts
We dye it, we blast it with hair driers and most of all, we let it fry in the sun. Our poor old hair. Give it some love with walnuts, which, as they contain copper, will keep your colour rich (natural colour that is ladies) and luscious.

Eggs
Eggs are literally a little handful of goodness. Full of protein, iron, sulfur and zinc, (all essential for a happy, healthy body) it’s the iron we are looking out for here. Helping carry oxygen to the hair follicles, we all need zinc to keep our locks well fed and ward off the dreaded dryness.

Blueberries
Not only are they delicious, but blueberries are one of the bodies main go-to in terms of super foods. When it comes to hair, due to the fact that they are rich in Vitamin C, they help with circulation of the scalp and ward off hair breakage.

Top image sourced via Shutterstock

Thanks to Poppy for writing this article!