Eat your way to good skin with these six steps

Your skin reflects what you put into your body. Skin irritations are usually caused by an imbalance of your skin’s pH levels and the most common reason for this is: gut health.  

How? Your body contains trillions of microbes, most of which are beneficial. The most dense microbe population is in your gut, where they play a critical role in digestion, immune function and weight regulation. What you eat can quickly change your microbes, therefore it’s important to eat food that is going to promote healthy microbes. Ecodiva shares six tips to help you choose the right foods to make your gut and therefore your skin health that much better. 

1. Eat a wide range of plant-based foods. A healthy gut has a diverse community of microbes, each of which prefers different foods.
2. Eat more fibre – fruit, vegetables, pulses, nuts and wholegrains feed healthy bacteria. Try to get organic fruits and veggies if possible. Introduce more fibre to your diet slowly, as a sudden increase can cause wind and bloating. This is less likely if you make gradual changes and drink extra water.
3. Stay away from highly processed foods with high levels of refined sugar. They often contain ingredients that either suppress ‘good’ bacteria or increase ‘bad’ bacteria. 
4. Take Probiotic supplements to assist in producing healthy gut bacteria.
5. Choose extra-virgin olive oil over other fats when you can. It contains the highest number of microbe-friendly polyphenols.
6. Antibiotics kill ‘good’ bacteria as well as ‘bad’. If you need antibiotics, make sure you eat lots of foods that boost your microbes afterwards.