You might roll your eyes at the phrase “beauty starts on the inside,” or “you are what you eat”. However, while ideal health and happiness cannot be found in a diet or a exercise routine, it may well be found in a jar! What we eat and drink and put into our bodies has a direct impact on our skin, which is why consuming a diet chock full of healthy fats, amino acids, anti-inflammatories, and don’t forget those antioxidants can literally turn your visage from puffly, dull, wrinkled, and droopy to radiant, taunt, fresh, and glowing. These superfoods do wonders for you complexion: 1. Lemons Vitamin C is an oft featured ingredient in skin care products, but it’s also a natural component of lemons. Despite their pucker-producing taste, lemons are actually an alkalizing fruit, meaning they balance out the acidic pH in our bodies, which is so often the prime source of skin inflammation, irritation, and sensitivity. Lemons help keep a balanced pH by alkalizing the blood and undoing the damage caused by consuming fast foods, alcohol and caffeinated beverages. Alkalizing foods, like lemons, also encourage elastin and collagen production, which gets us closer to those firm, glowing skin goals.

Coconut oil gets a lot of hype. Traditionally a cooking oil, over the past few years many have touted it as a “super food” for treating everything from high cholesterol to promoting luscious hair and glowing skin. Coconut oil is made by extracting a mixture of of lauric acid, saturated fats (specifically medium-chain fatty acids) from raw coconuts. It’s these medium-chain fatty acids that have been linked to an array of skin benefits—including healthy hydration, reduced redness and inflammation, banishing acne breakouts, and even encouraging cell regeneration and wound healing. Here are a few of the many scientifically-backed benefits of coconut oil for skin health: 1. Coconut oil reduces frequency of breakouts Another embarrassing breakout before a big event? Apply a bit of coconut oil directly to whiteheads and let the natural anti-inflammatory and antibacterial benefits banish zits for good. Dermatologists recommend coconut oil over harsh benzoyl peroxide for a good reason—this oil is loaded with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as a bacteria blasting secret weapon known as lauric acid. In fact, more than 50% of the healthy fatty acids in coconut oil is lauric acid, which eradicates a specific strain of bacteria, known as Propionibacterium acnes (or P.