You’re probably familiar with the maxim, “Beauty is only skin deep.” What that means exactly…
You’re probably familiar with the maxim, “Beauty is only skin deep.”
What that means exactly is that a person’s physical appearance, flawless skin, for example, is superficial.
Although the saying implies that a person’s intellectual, emotional, and spiritual qualities are more important than good looks, flawless, radiant, healthy skin is not only superficial. It’s internal as well.
You see, the appearance of your skin is a manifestation of how healthy the internal environment of your body is.
Acne isn’t something you just catch like a cold. It’s an indication that something is not right in your body. Specifically in your gut. Your gut is like your second brain. As a matter of fact, your gut communicates with your brain and vice versa. And the healthier your gut, the healthier your immune system. That’s because approximately 80% of your immune cells reside in your gut.
What does having a healthier gut and immune system have to do with having beautiful skin?
Everything.
Having a healthy gut means you have enough good bacteria to overwhelm the bad. In fact, the percentage of good to bad bacteria shouldn’t be just a slim majority. Rather, it should be an overwhelming 85/15% majority, approximately. But when you don’t have enough of certain kinds of bacteria and too much of other kinds of bacteria, all kinds of problems can happen.
Including bad skin.
That’s why we’ve put together 5 best ways to improve skin … by improving your gut health.
Best ways to improve skin #1: drop some acid!
Here’s another trite wellness maxim for you: ‘you are what you eat.’
True. But only to a certain extent. That’s because even if you eat green leafy veggies like a good boy or girl every single day, if you can’t digest those nutrients, all those vitamins and minerals won’t do you any good.
And the reason why many people can’t digest and absorb nutrients very well is because lack of stomach acid. Low stomach acid is one of the biggest reasons why some people struggle with skin problems, even if they are years or decades removed from the hormonal nightmare that is puberty.
Commercials for heartburn and acid reflux lead you to believe otherwise, however, it’s too little stomach acid, not too much, that is generally the problem. And here’s how insufficient stomach acid manifests as skin problems….
When all those undigested food particles flood the bloodstream, they have to exit somewhere. And what better place to do that than out of our biggest organ, the skin!
So how can you score some acid? You can buy an HCL/Pepsin supplement. HCL stands for hydrochloric acid, which along with pepsin are your main gastric juices.
Best ways to improve skin #2: digestive enzymes
Typically, if you have insufficient stomach acid and not enough good bacteria, you most likely don’t have enough active digestive enzymes. Enzymes help break down food into usable nutrients. Take lactase for example. Lactose is milk sugar. Lactase is the enzyme that breaks it down. And one theory why many people are lactose-intolerant is not because of a milk allergy, but rather the pasteurization process that renders lactase enzymes inert.
To put it simply, if your enzymes can’t break down food into individual nutrients, your skin will suffer.
The solution: again, pop a pill. Digestive enzymes are a low-cost supplement like HCL/Pepsin. Look for a “full-spectrum enzyme” supplement.
Best ways to improve skin #3: bone broth and collagen
Collagen is the building block for tendons, ligaments and bones. And also your hair, teeth, nails. And guess what else? Yes, your skin! It turns out that bone broth and collagen protein products (Protein Coffee, Collagen Peptides) are great for your skin for a couple major different reasons.
First, the collagen from animal sources, helps heal leaky gut. It does this by repairing the lining of your GI tract. Leaky gut is a root cause of inflammatory diseases such as autoimmune disorders. And remember, you need a healthy gut to have healthy skin.
Second, consuming products with collagen like LonoLife Bone Broth can regenerate your own body’s collagen. In other words, you’re eating the collagen of an animal to strengthen your own body’s collagen. This is important because when the collagen in your skin starts wearing down, you get wrinkles, fine lines and other blemishes. Now keep in mind that there are roughly 20 main types of collagen. But only types 1 & 3 support your skin. And guess what LonoLife Bone Broth and collagen protein products are rich in? That’s right, types 1 & 3.
Therefore, one of the best and easiest things you can do for your skin is consuming at least one serving per day of either bone broth or other collagen protein product.
Best ways to improve skin #4: Probiotics
You’ve got two choices here in order to boost the friendly microscopic critters in your gut that help keep disease at bay and improve your skin. You can either eat foods that are naturally high in probiotics such as sauerkraut, kombucha, tempeh, kimchi, natto, kvass, and other exotic-sounding fermented foods. (Yogurt, too, but stick to plain, whole-fat.) Or, if you can’t stomach fermented foods, buy a high-quality multi-strain probiotic supplement with at least 10 billion colony forming units per capsule.
Best ways to improve skin #5: Fiber
If your diet lacks fiber, your good bacteria won’t have enough of its own food to feed on. Although the bacteria in our gut don’t pay rent, they do pull their own weight by feeding on insoluble fiber. That’s the type of fiber that provides bulk to our poop. We need to have enough fiber to feed our gut dependents. And, we need enough probiotics to help break down the fiber. See the symbiotic relationship? Moreover, fiber, especially the fiber we can digest–soluble–helps our body eliminate excess hormones. When hormones aren’t flushed out, this can create ripe conditions for skin problems. So do like mom says/said and eat your vegetables!
