Get the Most Beauty Out of Your Food

Blend Your Kale. Worried that you won’t get enough nutrients when they come in juice or smoothie form? Actually, the exact opposite is true. “When you put foods like raw kale in the blender, the blender breaks them down and your body will absorb more of the nutrients,” says Perko. Kale, which has as much calcium as a glass of milk, is a beauty powerhouse because it’s filled with antioxidants as well as vitamins A and C. If the thought of adding greens to your smoothie is less than appetizing, try adding a ripe banana. The natural sugars in the banana help sweeten your concoction and blunt the veggie taste. 

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Eat fruit on an empty stomach.  Because fruit is composed of simple sugars, it digests very quickly in the stomach. If you eat fruit for dessert after a heavy meal, it takes longer to digest, and the fruit starts to ferment in your stomach, says Snyder. This can lead to bloating and poor digestion. Enjoy fruit as a stand-alone snack or before your largest meal of the day.

Increase surface area to add spice. If aversions to certain flavors (like fish) keep you from consuming good-for-beauty foods, try this trick: increase the surface area and pile on the spices or flavorings. “If you cut an eight-ounce piece of salmon into six bias cut slices, you can then put more garlic, spices and herbs on it to add more flavor,” says Perko. By adding surface area, you add more seasoning options. 

Cook with Coconut Oil. “By far the most beautifying cooking oil is coconut oil, which is a cholesterol-free natural plant oil,” says celebrity nutritionist Kimberly Snyder, C.N., author of “The Beauty Detox Solution.” Why?  It’s made up of medium chain fatty acids that tend to be converted to energy rather than stored as fat. Cooking with vegetable oils can be harmful to your beauty because they oxidize when heated to high temperatures, thus creating aging free-radicals in the body, explains Snyder.

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Steam steam steam. Whether you’re using a microwave, charcoal grill or stove, it’s the heat and amount of time you’re cooking that affect nutrient losses, says Funk. The longer and hotter you cook a food, the more you’ll lose certain heat and water sensitive nutrients, especially beauty boosting vitamin C. “Steaming vegetables is a great way to retain most nutrients in vegetables,” says Funk. One thing to avoid: boiling your veggies, because many of the nutrients leech out into the water (which you then pour down the sink). 

Do something to your tomatoes. These juicy red veggies contain the antioxidant lycopene, which has some great inner body benefits (might help fight aging, stroke and heart disease), but it also may keep your skin healthy by protecting against sunburn and sun-induced skin aging, says Funk. The best way to get your lycopene? From cooked tomatoes, canned tomatoes or tomato paste, which can increase the availability of lycopene more than eating tomatoes raw, says Funk.