Antioxidant summer skin savers

The low down on nutrients to help protect your skin this summer

As we all know from living in Australia, excessive sun exposure can be damaging to our skin and cause sunburn and premature ageing and potential long term cell damage.

Sun-induced skin damage and the resulting premature skin aging is thought to be primarily due to UV-induced free radical formation in the skin.

Mother Nature has kindly given the skin an inbuilt antioxidant system to manage this damage, so foods high in antioxidant nutrients may help protect again some of this environmental stress. Many of these nutrients also assist collagen production too so would be of great benefit during the summer.

Antioxidant rich foods for summer

• Betacarotene: carrots, rockmelon, broccoli and spinach
• Lycopene: red tomatoes and tomato products (e.g. tomato paste), watermelon, pink grapefruit and papaya. Cooked tomato products consumed with dietary oils (e.g. a tomato-based pasta sauce with olive oil) may improve lycopene’s bioavailability
• Lutein: dark green leafy vegetables (e.g. spinach, kale), egg yolks and sweet corn
• Vitamin C: capsicum, blackcurrants, strawberries, citrus fruits and watermelon
• Vitamin E: cold-pressed vegetable oils (e.g. wheatgerm), spinach, sweet potatoes, egg yolk and soya beans

Did you know?

Betacarotene, lutein and lycopene all belong to the carotenoid family, a family with at least 600 members. Carotenoids are a group of yellow, orange and red-coloured compounds found widely in fruits and vegetables and also some animal foods (e.g. egg yolk, salmon). In plants, carotenoids assist in photosynthesis and protect plants from oxidative damage.