Boost your tan through your diet

We are immersed in the middle of summer, rushing hours of sun, enjoying the long days, forgetting about schedules and showing off a tan... you deserve it!

In these months we have been talking a lot about sun protection as a king cosmetic, to help us protect and prevent pathologies, a mandatory subject to maintain the health of the skin.

But once we are in the sun, how can we enhance our tan and make it last longer? How can we protect ourselves from premature aging and flaccidity caused by the sun?

Well, one of the easiest and most effective tricks is through our diet.

We know that the tan we get is due to the increase of melanin, as a natural protection factor of our skin, determined by our genetics.

The golden coloration of the skin comes, normally, from pigments called carotenoids, which our organism cannot synthesize, but we can get them through food intake.

We know that carotenoids, which are orange pigments found in some foods, besides giving us a luminous coloration, are great antioxidants that help protect the skin from UVA and UVB radiation.

In which foods do we find carotenoids?

The star food with the highest carotene content is the carrot, followed by cabbage, red bell pepper, tomato, apricots, persimmons...

Carotenes are precursors of vitamin A, so they will not only help us to maintain the health of our skin and mucous membranes thanks to their antioxidant power, but also our vision, thanks to the percentage of lutein they contain. In addition to providing us with many functionalities throughout our body.

We can incorporate them in our diet in a simple way. So much in salads, snacks or breakfasts in the form of smoothies.

Open the door of your creative power, and prepare colorful dishes, smoothies, desserts ... where you can benefit from the immense properties offered by these foods.

Angela Tejedera

Dietitian