Your Skin Loves Carrots

For healthy, glowing skin, make like a rabbit and eat your carrots.

The crunchy snack and Bugs Bunny prop is loaded with vitamin A -- a good-for-your-eyes antioxidant that appears to be great for skin, too. It helps balance the pH of the skin's surface, making it slightly acidic. That's good news, because slightly acidic skin fends off bacterial invaders. Here are more skin-boosting nutrients.

In addition to getting enough vitamin A in your diet, keep an eye on how much fat you eat. A recent study suggests that eating too much fat will suck moisture from your skin, which means fine lines and wrinkles have no place to hide.

Should you drink more water? It can't hurt. Water provides your skin with more moisture, and it helps balance pH. But there's no reason to overdo it. Read this article about the eight-glasses-of-water-a-day myth.

So what kind of pH do you want, when it comes to your skin? Ideally, it should be slightly acidic: A pH ranging from 5.4 to 5.9 is good. When skin pH is outside this zone, it can interfere with normal skin functions, such as protecting against bacteria and repairing or protecting itself against damage.

Other nutrients that might affect skin acidity: calcium and beta cryptoxanthin -- but only in men, according to a recent study. Researchers speculate that hormonal differences between genders may be the reason certain nutrients affect men's skin, but not women's.

Human skin condition and its associations with nutrient concentrations in serum and diet. Boelsma, E., van de Vijver, L. P., Goldbohm, R. A., Klopping-Ketelaars, I. A., Hendriks, H. F., Roza, L., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2003 Feb;77(2):348-355.

Potentials and limitations of the natural antioxidants RRR-alpha-tocopherol, L-ascorbic acid and beta-carotene in cutaneous photoprotection. Fuchs, J., Free Radical Biology & Medicine 1998 Nov 1:25(7):848-873.