Sometimes you feel like a nut? Improving skin aging through nutrients.

Skin Nutrition Study: "Almond Consumption Improves Photoaging in Postmenopausal Women."

Published last month in Nutrients, researchers investigated the effects of almond consumption (20% total energy intake) on signs of photoaging (wrinkles, pigmentation, sebum production, skin hydration, and water loss). Postmenopausal women are more susceptible to the development of facial-aging-related changes. In a randomized controlled study, participants were assessed at Wk 16 and 24. Researchers found that wrinkle severity and facial pigmentation intensity significantly decreased and increased sebum production in those who consumed almonds daily.

So why are almonds good for skin health? They're nutrient-dense in key vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, and antioxidants, especially vitamin E. It has been shown that bioavailable almond consumption can elevate circulating alpha-tocopherols (vitamin E). Additionally, previous studies have shown that the ingestion of alpha-tocopherol-containing supplements can improve facial wrinkles in postmenopausal women. Alpha-tocopherol has antioxidant and photoprotective functions, especially against ultraviolet, implicated in the development of wrinkles and pigment unevenness.

Skin aging is a complex and lengthy biological process, which is affected by genetic and environmental factors. There is growing evidence that nutrition and eating habits can contribute to morphological changes in the skin and modulate oxidative stress and inflammation.Modulating skin aging, namely inflammation, collagen synthesis, and oxidative/UV stress through dietary management, has become an inevitable trend. The functional anti-aging ingredients in food mainly relieve skin aging by the anti-aging ingredients (such as protein peptides and essential fatty acids) entering the skin as a precursor after digestion and absorption and participate in the synthesis and metabolism of skin components.

Limitations: Our current understanding of diet to improve skin aging is still insufficient. Diet causes skin aging or improves skin aging but is challenging to apply to clinical research. The experimental period is too long to control the diet of volunteers for a single, long duration, and the uniformity of clinical experimental conditions is not guaranteed, resulting in preliminary experimental results and insufficient credibility. Improvement in skin aging through diet needs more clinical studies because skin aging caused by diet and improved aging performance by diet are long-term processes. There is also the problem of metabolic processing of food and nutrients until they reach the skin. They have to travel a long way, and there is still a lot to study in this process.

Those clinical study limitations aside, the daily consumption of almonds raw, roasted or sprouted may be an influential contributor to improving facial wrinkles and reducing skin pigmentation among postmenopausal women. In a culture of expensive skin care treatment almonds are an easy, inexpensive, and delicious skincare habit worth investing in.

Source: Rybak I, Carrington AE, Dhaliwal S, Hasan A, Wu H, Burney W, Maloh J, Sivamani RK. Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial on the Effects of Almonds on Facial Wrinkles and Pigmentation. Nutrients. 2021 Feb 27;13(3):785. DOI: 10.3390/nu13030785. PMID: 33673587; PMCID: PMC7997170.