Nutritionist Shares 3 Key Nutrients for Youthful Skin

Okay, next, there are many perks to aging. Experience, wisdom, a lifetime of memories, but it can also bring challenges of course, including sagging skin and wrinkles. That's right. Enter Daniel Monaghan. He spoke with a nutritionist about natural ways to slow down, bother time, maintain a youthful appearance. Let's hear it, Daniel. Best-selling author and nutritionist Nick Zanetti has worked with elite musicians and athletes, helping them optimize their diets for physical and mental well-being. One key theme in his work, staying youthful naturally through nutrition. Zanetti explains the skin has three layers, the outer epidermis, the middle connective layer called the dermis, and the deepest fatty layer, the hypodermis. He says the dermis is especially important when it comes to maintaining youthful skin. It is where we have two proteins, extremely important, collagen and elastin, which are the ones that they start to like, essentially, they start to lose their strength once we cross 45 and even more after 50. And it's a little bit more like a house which starts to collapse. And that's when you start to see the signs of aging, like the wrinkles and so on and forth. Zanetti says nutrition can make significant difference. He focuses on three key nutrients to improve skin appearance and vitality. The first is zinc. So I want to start with zinc, which is the least talked about. But zinc is basically like compulsory for skin production. And it's also compulsory for like the cells to replicate themselves. So it is the one nutrient that very few people consider when they think about what they can do internally for skin care. He says the best sources include oysters and other seafood. Beef is another strong option. For vegetarians and vegans, pumpkin seeds, chickpeas and lentils are good alternatives. So all of these five foods, they can give the right amount of zinc. So the body has, let's say, the nutrients to start to repair the skin, obviously without expecting miracles, because I don't know how to make miracles. The second key nutrient is vitamin C. Now for collagen to be with the correct structure, we do need vitamin C. So vitamin C helps the collagen reach the correct structure. And therefore, if we are like below a minimum of 80 milligrams of vitamin C per day, and it can be even more if someone really needs to do like a strong protocol, like the collagen production, it's not going to work in a really, really good way. Top sources include red bell peppers, broccoli, kiwi, oranges and tangerines. The third nutrient is collagen itself. Collagen is found mostly in very few foods, like the main ones are fish with skin and bone broth. The SMASH guideline highlights some of the healthiest fish choices, salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines and herring. The portion is the size of a pound, two to three times a week. And if possible, if we keep the skin on, like mackerel, for example, or the sardines, it's very easy and you don't taste the skin. Bone broth is another option. When it comes to bone broth, which is really, really, I really like that kind of food because it helps with several things, including like helping our gut. But I would say probably like the size of like a cup, like a couple of times a week. You can buy bone broth pre-made. Or you can make your own. Like on the internet, there are many, many recipes on how to do like super nice bone broth. Zanetti says collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body. So our tendons, parts of our joints, like parts of the skin, like there is like this important part made of collagen. And everything we discussed today can have a positive impact, again, without expecting miracles, also at the level of the joints. You can find Zanetti on social media at NickZanettiOfficial, where he gives talks on nutrition almost every night. Here's to staying young, naturally. Daniel Monaghan, NTD News.