6 reasons eating avocados is great for your skin

6 reasons eating avocados is great for your skin

You’ve heard that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Well, an avo a day may keep skin issues away – including acne, ageing, and blemishes!

Avocados are one of the world’s most nutrient-dense plant foods. They’re a perfect mix of essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and fibre – all the things that nourish your skin from the inside out. Eating avocados every day could be the most natural way to maintain a healthy, youthful complexion while also dampening any inflammation.

Let’s explore the benefits of avocado for face wrinkles, avocado benefits for skin acne, and why this amazing fruit is so good for your skin in general.

1. Skin-soothing fats

Avocado is packed with the very best in “healthy” fats. Around 70% of avocado fat is monounsaturated and another 15% is polyunsaturated. Just what your skin needs! Every one of your skin cells is encased in two layers of fat known as the phospholipid bilayer. This layer relies upon monounsaturated fats to keep skin cells hydrated and supple. In other words, plump!

Monounsaturated fatty acids also help to protect the skin from the photoaging effects of UV rays by reducing nasty oxidative stress and warding off insulin resistance.

2. Amazing anti-inflammatories

Inflammation of the skin – known as “inflammaging” – can wreak havoc on your complexion by breaking down the structure of the skin cells. This can result in the loss of important nutrients such as collagen, hyaluronic acid, and various anti-aging molecules such as chondroitin. The result? Sagging, wrinkles, and a general loss of elasticity.

Send in the avocado! The alpha-linolenic acid in avocado is a type of plant-based omega-3 fat which works to suppress inflammatory factors in the body. It can help to reduce acute conditions like skin blemishes and many painful skin conditions like acne, psoriasis, and eczema.  Over time, this protection can help prevent the early signs of ageing.

3. A little sun protection

Polyhydroxylated fatty alcohols may not sound very exciting, but they could be great for saving your skin from the sun! These special lipid molecules have been found to provide what scientists call “non-sunscreen protection” against sun damage in skin cells. PFAs can not only protect skin from harmful UVB rays but also reduce inflammation and boost the repair of damaged skin cells.

4. Free-radical fighting

Our skin is constantly at the mercy of harmful free radicals generated by ultraviolet light, environmental toxins, alcohol, smoking, and other everyday “stuff”. Antioxidants play a big part in warding off these nasty molecules which can damage skin cells and speed up the ageing process.

Avocados contain a host of fantastic antioxidants: vitamin C and E, carotenoids, and a variety of compounds called phenolics. Vitamin E is the real superstar: it can also absorb the energy from UV rays and prevent further free radical damage to the skin.

5. Keeping up the collagen

Collagen is a buzzword in skincare – and for good reason. Collagen is a kind of ‘scaffolding’ protein that provides skin with its smoothness and elasticity. Once we hit our 20s, collagen production diminishes by 1.0%-1.5% a year.

One study found that adding unrefined avocado oil to the diet significantly increased the content of soluble collagen in the skin. This is a big plus for helping skin maintain its strength and texture.

Vitamin C is one of the main promoters of collagen formation and also acts as a cofactor for the specific proteins (proline and lysine hydroxylases) that stabilise the structure of the collagen molecule.

6. Help with healing

As well as revving up your collagen production, the linoleic acid and oleic acid in avocados may help with healing injured skin and speeding wound repair. These nourishing oils have been found to reduce numbers of inflammatory cells following a skin injury and accelerate the wound healing process.

Niacin (aka vitamin B3) also plays a part in restoring damaged skin, and avocados contain a decent 6% of your daily recommended intake. Niacin has been shown to boost the synthesis of keratin, one of the most important building blocks of your skin. Niacin also stimulates ceramides, the lipids that make up 30-40% of your skin cells.

Mother Nature couldn’t make it easier to love your skin from within. Chuck an avocado or two into your day and your skin will love you back!