Summer Foods Your Skin Will Love. Bonus: Summer Nourishing Mask

Summer is a time for the beach, parties, weddings, graduations and barbecues...and with the summer, our acne gets aggravated by sweat, sunscreens, sunless tanning, diet and a number of other factors. So here's how to use the bounty offered by the summer to do something good for your skin.   Summer foods can actually protect your skin from the inside out.

1. Choose foods with large amounts of omega-3. Omega-3 has anti-inflammatory properties. Grill your wild salmon, and trout. Make yourself a fresh herring salad. The powerhouse of omega-3, the sardine, is even packed with Vitamin D too.
2. Start picking those berries. Strawberries, blueberries and blackberries have catechins that protect skin from UVA rays. So have them as snacks, add them to salads and yogurt, or make a delicious natural sorbet drink blending them with a bit of spring water and ice.
3. Feast on tomatoes and watermelons. Great to eat by themselves or not, tomatoes and watermelons contain lycopene, which protects your skin against UVA rays.
4. Discover broccoli sprouts. Broccoli sprouts have the richest source of glucoraphanin, the precursor of sulforaphane, which is credited with increasing the skin's ability to protect itself from cancer.
5. Love the "fuzzy" kiwi (not a bird - the FRUIT- silly). One kiwi has more Vitamin C than a lemon; it is rich in many microelements including zinc that is great for acne prone skin and also contains a load of antioxidants. You can add this fuzzy cute fruit to salads, eat it with your cereal, use on frozen yogurt to add a color to your desert or simply eat it as an apple.

Summer makes your skin work very hard. Sun, wind and sweat may exacerbate symptoms of acne and irritate the skin. Dry skin may actually stimulate the sebaceous glances to produce more sebum; overall summer stress can result in making skin very sensitive. Try this moisturizing mask to help your skin cope with summer stress.

What you need:
1 cup plain yogurt
2 ½ tablespoons of unflavored honey 
½ to 1 teaspoon of lemon juice (for oily skin only)
Cotton pads (optional)
Warm water 

Preparation:
In a bowl, mix together the yogurt and honey. For oily skin, you may add ½ to 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to help absorb excess oil.
You might want to do a patch-test with the mixture first, behind one ear. Wait one hour, watching for any irritation.    

How to use it:
With clean hands or cotton pads, apply the mask liberally to your freshly washed face and neck (even your décolletage), and leave on for 5-10 minutes. Gently wash off with warm water.

Happy Summer!

With a promise of clear skin,

Dr. A