A dermatologist’s guide on what to eat for your most beautiful skin - By Dr. Vanessa Lapiner (Specialist Dermatologist from TASH360 and founder of root4)

 

Dr Vanessa Lapiner, specialist dermatologist and founder of root4, South Africa’s first clean medical-grade dermo-cosmetic skincare and nutraceutical range, explains how to apply her groundbreaking DR. L protocol to defend, renew and liberate all 3 pillars of the gut: brain: skin axis to ignite the head-turning inside-out beauty that comes from understanding that the gut is where the seeds of beauty are planted.

Do you want to know the secret to achieving your healthiest, most radiant skin?

I’m a dermatologist with a decade and a half’s worth of analysing and optimizing skin health with the most cutting-edge dermo-cosmetics and technologies at my fingertips and just knew intuitively that my management protocols were somehow incomplete.

But with the wave of the wellness movement and the mounting research around gut health came my ‘aha’ moment…

You need to feed your skin what it needs to glow.

The heart of beautiful, healthy skin is more than a shelf full of serums, anti-wrinkle injections, laser and collagen stimulating treatments. Yes – these are all powerful tools, but we need to start with the foundations first. That means thinking about our whole body –what we eat, how often we move and how long we sleep.

THE GUT: BRAIN: SKIN AXIS

Did you know that 70-80% of your immune system lives in your gut? So it makes sense that when your gut (and specifically the ecosystem of bacteria or ‘beauty bugs’ living in your gut) is not happy, that it is going to reflect on your skin as inflammation. 

Now let’s take it one step further: stress or anxiety can actually make your digestive system sluggish triggering what is commonly known as ‘leaky gut’. This is like a breakdown of our frontline of defense against unfriendly bacterial by-products and molecules which drive inflammation. The result? An unhappy skin with eczema, psoriasis, acne, rosacea or accelerated ageing. 

Am I saying that your addiction to sugar-packed Freezochinos and your tendency to eat what’s left over of your kid’s fast food meals (because who likes waste right?) could be the root cause behind your breakouts? Well – it’s a little more complex than this but ultimately – YES! Your diet and lifestyle could be the sneaky saboteurs behind your skin sorrows.

It turns out that the continual, bidirectional ‘talk’ happening all the time between our brain, our gut bugs and skin cells is the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to achieving the skin of our dreams. 

But it’s not all doom and gloom – we can use this to our advantage!

I’m the kind of person who can gaily eat what I want without it impacting my weight (don’t hate me). In full disclosure – I used to eat a slab of chocolate a day. It took understanding what the sugar and pro-inflammatory milk in that chocolate was doing to my insulin levels and my overall health and skin to finally get me to ditch the terrible habit. Chocolate causing weight gain? Wasn’t an issue for me. But milk chocolate 

AGEING me? Time to overhaul my eating habits!

It was a complete mind-shift to look at a plate of food and view it as an opportunity to kick-start harnessing its power to unleash clear, radiant skin. Nutrients need to start being recognized for what they actually are - cofactors and coenzymes for thousands of enzymatic reactions. It’s time to delve a little deeper into biochemistry in order to unlock the alchemy within the food that we eat. Don’t worry – I’ll be gentle! 

The KISS principle.

Science can feel daunting. I get it. I’m a scientist and a dermatologist and clinical data fills my nerdy soul with joy. But I’m also really practical and practise medicine according to the KISS principle: Keep It Simple Stupid. I needed to find a way to funnel the wave of research supporting nutrition as a therapeutic tool into something I could practically apply for my patients. After years of research and tangible results from in-practice patient experiences, my DR. L protocol was born.

The DR. L protocol

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-x_ago-Q4fA&feature=shared

OK – I’m listening and fully on board with this…so what should I be eating?

Let’s start with what you shouldn’t be eating…With the festive season just around the corner, before you put your foot on the accelerator en route to your most gorgeous skin – let’s navigate around some food hurdles in your way.

Now that we’ve got unobstructed roads ahead – let’s get your body filled up with the fuel it needs to amp up your glow on your journey to your healthiest skin. 

Here are my top 10 tips to achieve that head-turning radiance from the inside out:

1. Polyphenols to make you pretty - Plant foods are bursting with polyphenols which protect and repair the skin from the warzone of skin-damaging free radicals we are exposed to daily. Fill up on green leafy veggies, sip on green tea, snack on berries and indulge in a piece of dark chocolate. Switch on your body’s own antioxidant powerhouses with minerals such as selenium iron, zinc, manganese and copper to unleash the power to neutralise millions of free radicals every single second!

2. Reinforce your sunscreen from the inside – lycopene from tomatoes or watermelon has been shown in studies to lessen the damaging effects of sunlight on the skin by up to 33%.

3. Stop inflamm-ageing – counteract the inflammation that pollution and our frenetic lifestyles are causing with foods that calm and regulate the immune system. Add sulforaphane-superweight broccoli and omega-rich salmon and avocado together with nuts, seeds and spices such as turmeric to your healthy ageing arsenal.

4. Add some ‘spark-plugs’ to support detoxification such as glutathione-rich onions and garlic. Remember that we need to support our liver, sweat and encourage healthy stool patterns to eliminate toxins.

5. Rejuvenate the skin and encourage the production of more youthful skin cells by speeding up our skin cell turnover cycle with Vitamin A-rich foods from liver, herring or sweet potatoes.

6. Nourish your gut ‘beauty bugs’ with the fibre, prebiotics and fermented foods they love.

7. Bolster your skin’s building blocks: while the 3 skin saboteurs (smoking, sugar and sunlight) break down the collagen and elastin keeping your skin looking youthful, you can help build it back up again with foods to fight those wrinkles such as bone broth, eggs, hydrolysed collagen powders and Vitamin-C-rich foods.

8. Switch on your skin’s mitochondrial energy powerhouses with fatty acids, pistachios and grass-fed protein sources or introduce intermittent fasting.

9. Regulate your hormones with zit-zapping zinc to support methylation pathways, hormone-balancing and Vitamin B3-rich sweet potatoes, liver-supportive foods such as grapes and green tea, phytoestrogens from edamame beans and flaxseeds together with green leafy veggies to jump-start oestrogen elimination.

10. Water for the win - Hydrated skin appears plumper, smoother and less dull. Start your day

with a warm glass of water with lemon juice, fresh ginger, and turmeric to hydrate after a good night’s sleep and to stimulate digestion. A pro-tip is to eat your water with water-rich foods such as cucumbers, spinach and apples which release water slowly from their cells.

Have I got you excited? Let’s get cooking!

Lycopene-laden Shakshuka

With the weather heating up and the summer season almost upon us, focus on protecting your skin against damaging UV rays while boosting collagen and elastin production with this delicious recipe.

Serves 4 

-180mls olive oil 

Brimming over with mono-unsaturated fatty acids

-4 small onions, chopped 

This will increase your natural glutathione levels – our most potent antioxidant we can produce!

Pro-tip: Use anthocyanidin-rich red onions rather than white onions for even more antioxidant protection 

- 1 clove garlic, crushed – another glutathione-making powerhouse

-6 large carotenoid-packed tomatoes, chopped 

cooking tomatoes releases the lycopene from their plant walls

- 4 Vitamin C-rich red & yellow bell peppers, chopped 

- Bone broth 

Boost those collagen levels

If making bone broth, add apple cider to the pot to help extract all the beneficial nutrients from the bones 

If buying bone broth, choose bones made from pasture-raised/organic animals

- 6 to 8 eggs packed with L-glutamine to repair your gut lining and proline to boost collagen production

- 2T Vit C-rich parley which also contains Vitamin K to counteract dark under-eye circles

- 1T rosemary to prevent collagen damage

- 2T coriander to support digestive enzymes

- 1/2 t thyme to stimulate blood flow for a glowing, youthful skin

- 1/4t anti-inflammatory truffle salt

- 1t carotenoid-rich chilli paste 

- Vitamin E-rich Za’atar spice 

- Turmeric powder

- Potently anti-inflammatory Bay leaves 

- Salt and pepper, to taste 

- Vit C-rich Sriracha, optional 

Method: 

1. Add olive oil to large pan, the add onions & garlic and sauté for 5 minutes over medium heat. 

2. Add chopped yellow & red sweet peppers, and then add parsley, rosemary, thyme & coriander. 

3. Add bay leaves & cook on high heat for 5 to 10 minutes.

4. Add the chopped tomatoes & add the chilli paste. Season with salt & pepper according to taste. Add sriracha sauce if desired. 

5. Add ½ tsp. Za’atar spice, turmeric powder & truffle salt. 

6. Place lid over pan, cover and cook for 15 minutes on a low heat. 

7. As the sauce thickens, keep adding in the bone broth. 

8. Now, add the eggs. Create a ‘well’ in the sauce for each egg, and then add the egg in slowly - be careful not to break the yolk!

9. Add another sprinkle of truffle salt, and then cover the pan, Simmer on low heat for a remaining 10 minutes. 

10. Garnish with fresh coriander. 

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Your skin deserves root4.

Dr Vanessa Lapiner, MBChB, MSc Med (Cell Biology), FC Derm (SA), is a dermatologist, scientist and leader of innovation in the field of dermo-cosmetology. Her research interests include pigmentation disorders, the gut: brain: skin axis, nutrition as a therapeutic tool in dermatologic disease management, healthy skin metabolomics and cosmeceutical formulation technologies. She is the founder of TASH360, South Africa’s first integrative dermatology centre, as well as root4, revolutionary skincare formulations marrying advanced science and safety. She is an active member of the DSSA, the SASDS, the VSSA, the Xeroderma Pigmentosum Society and is an acclaimed speaker both locally and internationally.

For more information visit 

Website 

https://root4.skin/