Your Avocado Addiction Has Some Serious Skin Benefits

 

Dear Avocado, we’re just writing to say we love you. Your silky deliciousness. Your endless adaptability. Your off-the-charts vitamin content. Guacamole.

You are perfection in a pod.

 

If you feel like we do about avocados, you’ll be glad to know that in addition to just being delightfully delicious, and nutritionally advantaged, avocados have some serious benefits for your skin as well. Beyond being everyone’s current favorite toast-topper, the avocado is a radiance-maker. Here are four ways avocados enhance skin health.

 

Antioxidant Advantage

Avocados are rich in antioxidants, including vitamin C, E, and A giving skin protection from UV-induced damage and inflammation. Additionally, the lipids in avocado enhance bioavailability of fat-soluble nutrients in other foods. Vitamin A, which gets converted by the body into retinoic acid (retinoid), in particular benefits from your avocado consumption because many foods high in vitamin A are low in fat. While your kale salad may be loaded with vitamin A, you’re not absorbing much of it. Add an avocado to your kale salad to maximize the skin-enhancing benefit. Studies show that adding avocado can enhance carotenoid absorption and conversion to vitamin A by as much as 12-fold.

 

Enhance Skin Structure & Elasticity

Vitamins A, B, C, E, K, potassium, phosphorus and calcium are plentiful in avocados.

Your body needs these nutrients, especially vitamin C to make collagen, the main structural component of skin and the source of its elasticity and firmness. Oleic and essential fatty acids in avocados are another contributor to collagen synthesis and decreased inflammation. Hyaluronic acid, the key to skin elasticity, also gets a noteworthy boost.

 

Improve Barrier Function

All those healthy fats in avocados aren’t just important for the structural integrity of skin. These nourishing lipids support the intracellular skin matrix by increasing hydration and helping to maintain healthy ceramide production, which keeps the surface of the skin functioning properly. A healthy barrier protects skin from environmental stressors and irritation, and keeps skin looking and feeling resilient. 

 

Reduce Age-Accelerating Inflammation

Avocados are loaded with fiber, which means they are a low glycemic food, something that’s critical in protecting skin from the age-accelerating effects of inflammation. When glucose levels get raised, sugar molecules bond with proteins and create advanced glycation end products (AGEs), a type of inflammation that causes protein fibers to become stiff and irregular. High fiber foods like avocado slow digestion, regulate blood sugar, and counter the effects of glycation.

 

High on fiber and low on sugar (only about 0.2 g sugar in half and avocado), this nutrient and phytochemical dense food has also consistently demonstrated positive heart healthy and blood pressure-regulating effects. Ready to make some guac?!