Add these healthy eating foods to your beauty detox diet plan
and get Ultra Beautiful in no time
Everyone knows that cardiovascular exercise is great for your heart, lungs and mood – but another reason to get moving is that exercise is one of the keys to beautiful skin. Include long sessions of running, cycling or power walking into your beauty detox routine and you’ll not only burn fat and tone muscle, but also stimulate the circulation to pump oxygen and nutrients to the skin cells, flushing out cellular debris and plumping and smoothing the surface of the skin.
Running is a brilliant type of exercise, and pounding the pavement really helps your face and body shows its true beauty: putting on your trainers and getting out in the fresh air (or treadmill) a few times a week makes your heart and lungs fitter, your immune system stronger, stress levels fall, plus it burns around 500 calories an hour. If you see a runner on her way back from an outing, you’ll notice that she has a glow in her cheeks and a real radiance.
To maximize the benefits, you need to eat the right things to make sure you’re feeding your muscles and your skin. Whether you’re a recreational exerciser or a competitive racer, there are certain things you can eat to really improve your performance, stave off injury and boost that fat-burning.
Before exercise:
Oats
I call oats the perfect 10. Sports nutritionists recommend that runners and gym enthusiasts get 60 percent of their daily calories from carbohydrate to maximize performance. Choose the right type and you’ll also get a skin-friendly boost, such as the anti-ageing, anti-inflammatory chemicals naturally found in oats - which help to keep your skin looking smooth, youthful and without red patches or irritation from the cold weather.
That's not all: old-fashioned porridge is a high-fibre, low-glycemic index food, so the energy it provides is long-lasting. A Penn State study found that men were able to exercise significantly longer after a breakfast of old-fashioned oatmeal than after a high glycemic index breakfast of puffed rice. Just make sure you choose rolled oats, not instant oat cereal which doesn’t have the same effects!
Cherries
Cherries are the most antioxidant-rich fruit on earth. They contain particularly large concentrations of a type of antioxidants called anthocyanins. Antioxidants provide a host of beauty benefits, maintaining healthy blood vessels and therefore glowing skin, and slowing down the ageing process and wrinkle formation. Not just a pretty face though; they’re also good for athletic performance. In one study, the addition of cherry juice to the diet of competitive rowers significantly reduced the amount of strength loss and muscle soreness they experienced after a strength test designed to cause muscle damage compared to a group of fellow rowers who received a placebo.
They’re one of my favourite fruit because they taste really sweet but are actually very low in calories plus have one of the lowest GI scores ever – a rock bottom 22! Low glycemic index (GI) foods mean the carbohydrate in them is released slowly into the body. Low GI foods can help control blood sugar levels and therefore your appetite, and may enhance performance because of their steady release of energy.
Dip cherries in dark chocolate for a nutrient-packed dessert (see below for dark chocolate’s angelic properties).
Salmon
You probably know already that I love salmon for its supreme beauty-enhancing properties, so I’ll keep this short. Salmon is the king of fish. Besides being an excellent source of high-quality muscle-building protein, salmon is one of the best food sources of omega-3 fats. These essential fats balance the body's inflammation response and massively slow ageing - especially important when your muscles and joints are put under regular stress, not to mention the damage that the outdoor elements can do to your skin!
Tea with honey
Your body loses electrolytes when you sweat, so when you’re running a long race, or planning an hour-long gym session, you need to replenish them by drinking something other than water. Don’t buy expensive sports drinks which are full of skin-dulling sugar; just mix black or green tea (which contains caffeine, a stimulant) with honey (which contains sodium and potassium) and you’ll create an effective endurance drink. Green tea is especially good: A recent Colorado State University study found that the brew’s main antioxidant (EGCG) can help raise your VO2 max, a measure of how well your body uses oxygen. Other studies have shown that green tea reduces free radical damage to muscle tissue during exercise.
Performance boosters: Before a race
Coffee
Ok ok I know that I am against regular coffee drinking for it’s skin-unfriendly properties – but if you’re running a race and want optimal, peak performance – strong coffee before a race has been shown repeatedly to increase endurance and speed. Caffeine boosts performance in races of every distance by stimulating the nervous system and reducing perceived exertion, which simply means that you don’t feel as tired. Strong black coffee is my drink of choice before running in any competition, over and above the usual water and certainly instead of sports drinks. It’s my secret weapon along with one or two ripe bananas pre-race. Add almond or soya milk if you want.
Raisins
Dried fruit is easily digested into the simple sugar glucose, which is the most important sugar in human metabolism and what your body needs to sustain exertion. And raisins are an especially good option because they’re so small. (Dried mangos and apples can also work.) A new Louisiana State University study found that when cyclists ate raisins, their finish time, power, and perceived exertion weren’t any different from when they ate Jelly Belly Sport Beans, a speciality item. (For every day, they strangely also help to steady blood sugar levels. An alternative is a banana which I call "nature's power bar", and deserves its reputation in the fitness world. Bananas are loaded with potassium and rich in vitamins C and B6, as well as fibre, which gives them an edge over sports drinks when it comes to boosting performance and balancing electrolytes.
After a workout or a race
Sweet potatoes
These orange root vegetables should be on the plates of runners year-round. Just a single 100 calorie sweet potato supplies more than 250 percent of the recommended daily allowance for vitamin A in the form of beta-carotene, the powerful skin-friendly antioxidant that we love for the way it gives the skin a natural glow without fake tan. Sweet potatoes are also a good source of vitamin C, potassium, iron, and the two trace minerals manganese and copper. Many runners fail to meet their manganese and copper needs, which can have an impact on performance since these minerals are crucial for healthy muscle function.
Canned black beans
One cup of these beauties provides 30 percent of the RDA for protein, almost 60 percent of fibre (which is important to keep the digestive tract moving, flushing out toxins), and 60 percent of folate, a B vitamin that plays a key role in heart health and circulation.
Eggs
One egg fulfills about 10 percent of your daily protein needs. Egg protein is the most complete food protein short of human breast milk, which means the protein in eggs contains all the crucial amino acids your hard-working muscles need to promote recovery. Eat just one of these nutritional powerhouses and you'll also get about 30 percent of the RDA for vitamin K, which is vital for healthy bones. And eggs contain choline, a brain nutrient that aids memory, and lutein, a pigment needed for healthy eyes. Choose omega-3 enhanced eggs and you can also increase your intake of healthy fats.
Berries
Your legs can take a pounding from high-impact activities like running; soreness you feel after a hard run may be caused by micro-tears in the exercised muscles. That's why, in addition to their high fibre content, berries are a good option for endurance exercisers: the vitamin C and potassium they contain help the body repair itself. Read this to find out more about the super-skin nutrients that make berries an Ultra Beauty favourite.
Soya yoghurt
Running, power walking and other weight-bearing exercise can help you improve your bone density. But calcium is essential part of the equation, and many people don't get enough. One cup of yogurt contains a third of your recommended daily intake of calcium. Plus, soya yogurt has protein - important for building muscle and recovering from tough workouts.
Soy to replace protein shakes
Ultra Beauty followers may be wondering how to replace whey-based protein shakes with a non-dairy alternative. Luckily, soy is a great source of post-exercise protein to promote muscle recovery. Researchers at the Ohio State University recently published a study showing that soy protein is as effective as whey protein in promoting muscle growth in response to training. Soy is a bona fide superfood and is incredibly versatile – think tofu, edamame and soya milk. It is also an excellent source of a type of antioxidants called phytoestrogens which are very important for skin. Phytoestrogens keep skin producing collagen (the stuff that makes it looks plump, elastic and defined) as you get older and is extremely important for menopausal women whose skin typically reduces production of this key nutrient.
Finally… Dark Chocolate
Here’s an indulgence you can feel good about. Chocolate contains potent antioxidants called flavonols that can boost heart health. In one study, a group of football players had lower blood pressure and total cholesterol levels, and less artery-clogging LDL cholesterol after just two weeks of eating chocolate daily. Other research suggests that the chocolate flavonols ease inflammation and help prevent blood substances from becoming sticky, which lowers the risk of potential blood clots – and keeps your skin glowing. But not just any chocolate will do. Dark chocolate (I dare you to try Lindt 99% Cocoa) contains more flavonols than milk chocolate, and less dairy. Watch out for the amount of caffeine it naturally contains – I have to avoid dark choc in the evenings if I want to get any sleep!Please sign up to receive this blog straight to your inbox, at the top of this page!
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