October 23 2017 by Jess
Before spending your hard earned dollars on expensive skin and hair care products, try some of these tips from our nutritionist.
Before you start getting fake nails and hair extensions, my recommendation would be to explore more of an inside-out approach, and see if we can restore any nutritional or biochemical imbalances. This will have a far-reaching positive impact, and not only address thinning hair, or broken skin, but also help to make you healthier, which could add quality years onto your life.
The health of your body is influenced by tons of factors like genetic makeup, environment (humidity or dryness, etc), nutrition, beliefs and biochemistry.
Your body communicates via signs and symptoms, so when you have dull hair, thinning nails and broken skin, it’s trying to tell you something.
Your body has a hierarchy of needs, and when you're going through a stressful period, with stress hormones through the roof, energy is given priority to our vital functions such as our heart health, brain and other vital organs.
Non-vital processes such as nail strength, hair, brow, and eyelash lush factor are not deemed as important, so they're put on the back burner and nutrients are channelled away from these processes. The bottom line? Stress has a huge impact on our physical appearance.
Great food, nutrients in abundance, hydration, digestion, sex hormone balance, liver, healthy thyroid and kidney function, and stress at low levels.
When our body has all these factors in balance, and nutrition optimised, the body can work as it should and the raw materials are in place for nails, skin and hair to be strong, with a radiant glow.
The main culprits for dry skin are not getting enough healthy fats, suffering poor digestion or choosing the wrong skin-care product. With lowering temperatures in the winter, this tends to be more of a common issue.
Greasy skin or a greasy scalp tends to be a sign that your sex hormones are out of whack. If your skin is particularly greasy leading up to your time of the month, this can be another indicator of out of balance sex hormones.
On the other end of the spectrum we can have a dry or flaky scalp. Again, this can happen for a number of reasons. Gut dysbiosis could be one of the reasons. This is when your gut environment is out of balance with some less-than-friendly bacterial species living in your large intestine, often due to high levels of sugar in the diet and not enough fibrous and prebiotic foods (such as green leafy vegetables, leeks, onions, and oats).
Alternatively it could be due to a vitamin A or essential fatty acid deficiency. If you believe that for you it is more likely to be your gut health, trial eating zero refined sugar for four weeks, keeping your carbohydrates from whole food sources such as root vegetables.
Four weeks should be long enough to see a noticeable improvement. Amp up the greens and the whole food fat in your diet as well.
Nutrients for skin: vitamin C, A, riboflavin (B5) and zinc all contribute towards healthy skin.
It’s normal to lose hair (just not large amounts), but if you’re noticing that you are losing more hair than usual then it will reflect an internal process that needs support.
Some areas worth seeking the guidance of a health professional about are thyroid health, adrenal function, iron and vitamin D status and sex hormone balance.
Split ends are perfectly natural, but are made more common by bleaching or using heating appliances. To protect your ends from splitting, there are a few habits you can adopt:
If thinning eyebrows is coupled with low energy, anxiety or low mood, this is almost always a sign that the thyroid needs some tlc. Again, seek the help of a health professional.
Nutrients for hair: Zinc, copper and selenium all contribute towards healthy hair.
cheese flavored cashews, poppy seed onion sticks and roasted pumpkin seeds
edamame beans, spicy chickpeas and black pepper cashews
roasted hazelnuts, redskin peanuts, jumbo raisins and cranberries
One of our nutritionist's favorites - dried sour cherries, soft dried pear slices and California walnuts.
chopped dates, raw almonds and superfruit pieces of real orange & cacao nibs
A sweet mix of raspberry fruit strings, almond slivers, raspberry infused cranberries and vanilla cookie drops.
our classic rustic rolled oat flapjack with comforting apple and cinnamon flavors
rustic rolled oat flapjack with honeycomb and chocolate drizzle
our delicious oat flapjacks with raspberry and strawberry infused cranberries
roasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds with soy sauce
Going in with a multi-pronged, holistic strategy when it comes to addressing any concern is recommended. By all means ‘fix’ the concern externally if you can, but it’s also important to address the route cause behind these symptoms as your body uses these symptoms as a way of communicating potential imbalances which if left unaddressed, could lead to other health or beauty concerns.
By Jess, graze nutritionist.
Our nutritionist extraordinaire, Jess trained at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition and is a registered practitioner with the British Association for Applied Nutrition & Nutritional Therapy. She's the creator of our health badges, to help you choose the snacks and boxes that are right for you. Check out everything from Jess on our blog, with recipes and tricks to help you keep making better choices, or go to Jess's blog at jessipes.co.uk for even more.
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