“Fruit is the number one anti-ageing beauty food. No other food group contains the sheer abundance of rejuvenating compounds as fruit. Fruit makes you cute.”
– Star Khechara, The Facelift Diet
FRUIT: Anti-ageing miracle food
Fruit has been unfairly maligned by the media and online diet gurus for years and it’s time to set the record straight. Far from being obesity-causing ‘sugar water’ fruit is actually one of the main sources on the planet for anti-ageing beauty nutrients that keep your skin young and gorgeous, as well as helping rejuvenate the whole body. It would be very difficult to get enough vitamins and anti-oxidants if we didn’t eat fruit. Fruit is an all-round excellent food – it contains healthy carbohydrates, small amounts of healthy fat and even adequate protein – in addition to high-levels of vitamins and minerals.
Fruit is your friend if you’re vin. It contains rejuvenating nutrients that de-age your skin from within. You may have hear beauty gurus wax lyrical abut the anti-ageing properties of ellagic acid, vitamin C, polyphenols and papain – what do all these scientific-sounding ingredients have in common? They all come from fruit, and by including them in your diet on a daily basis you can experience a fruity facelift. How delicious!
A few of the fabulous rejuvenating phytochemicals found in fruit:
• Ellagic acid
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E
• Pro-Vitamin A & Carotenoids
• Papain & Bromelain
• Polyphenols
• Lycopene
• Lutein
• Silica
• Bio-flavonoids
• Quercetin
• Anthocyanins
FRUIT: abundant, diverse & delicious
Many of the foods you eat are actually fruits rather than vegetables. Here are the fruit classifications I
use in The Facelift Diet®
• Sweet fruit: dates, dried fruit and bananas
• Sub-acid fruit: apples, pears, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, nectarines, apricots and grapes
• Acid fruits: strawberries, pineapples, oranges, lemons and limes
• Non-sweet fruits: tomatoes, cucumber, bell peppers, avocados
• Vegetable fruits: mainly the squash family (courgettes, butternut squash, pumpkin)
Fruit is quite the miracle food and our best anti-ageing resource on the planet. Fruit makes you cute.
TOP 10 FACELIFT FRUITS
1. Oranges
The humble orange is jam-packed with vitamin C, folates, pro-vitamin A and calcium. Juice them with a citrus press to ensure maximum pulp content (the pulp is where the most nutrients are). I love to start my day with fresh juice from 8-12 oranges. If you’re over 30 this is a must-have breakfast drink as high amounts of vitamin C (this juice contains 470g of it) is essential for the formation of new collagen.
2. Mangoes
These tropical teasers are a treasure-house of vitamin E and Pro-Vitamin A. Just 1 mango provides 150% of the RDA for A and 20% of your vitamin E needs. Eat your mangoes ripe, they should have a rubbery texture and should slice ‘like butter’.
3. Red Grapes
The media tells us to drink red wine for the healthpromoting benefits of Resveratrol (a polyphenol antioxidant) and yet where does red wine come from? That’s right, red grapes. Consider how unhealthy alcohol can be and its dehydrating affect on the skin, it is far better to get you Resveratrol from red grapes than from wine (at the risk of being a bearer of bad news).
4. Apples
Another lowly and over-looked (often over-cooked) fruit. Apples are high in the anti-ageing nutrient quercetin which has been scientifically proven to have a rejuvenating affect upon senescent (dormant/dead) fibroblast cells which are responsible for making new collagen. Apples are also high in the soluble fibre pectin, which can help to detoxify the bowels (health skin starts in the colon!) and bind to heavy metals force them out of the body.
5. Watermelon
Sharing the stage with tomatoes, watermelon is praised in the beauty world for its high levels of lycopene, a powerful anti-oxidant which has shown to protect the skin from suninduced cellular ageing and damage.
6. Berries: Strawberry, blueberry and raspberry
These all are fabulous for skin because berries are the #1 anti-oxidant fruit. They are a major source of hard to find anti-oxidants such as ellagic acid (which is also the wonder chemical in pomegranates). Ellagic acid protects the skin from UV damage.
7. Avocado
More of a salad vegetable than a fruit but its significance in skin-health is huge so it deserves its place in the top ten. Unlike most plant fats, avocado is mostly rich in monosaturates which have a proven protective effect on the skin, decreasing wrinkling and having an antiinflammatory action. Avocado is rich in B vitamins, vitamin E and Zinc making it an ideal beauty food. Botanically a fruit, the fatty green avocado can easily be a savoury food or used to make delicious chocolate puddings.
8. Lemon
With super levels of vitamin C, bioflavonoids and an antiageing phytochemical called limonene; lemons are a daily medicine to keep wrinkles at bay. Utilise both the juice and the rind to get a good dose of limonene – add slices to water, grate fresh rind into smoothies (adds a yummy fizzy taste_ and create delicious lemony puddings. It’s also great in dips, sauces and as a salad dressing.
