In this post, we talked rituals that nourish the skin from the outside in. Now we flip the bird. Not literally – keep those middle fingers in check. Let’s go from the outside in to the inside out.

Here’s a budget-friendly truth bomb; as fun as face masks, naked backyard body scrubs and pissing your cat off by taking the time to cleanse your face before you feed them brekkie can be, the simplest way to foster glowing skin is to up the antioxidants and beneficial fatty acids in the diet.

My delightful book baby discusses antioxidants and nourishing fats at length. She’s not due for another few weeks though, so until you can get your mitts on her hilarious and insightful chapters including;

• Spicy Smiling Va-J-J Veggies
• Buttery Blended Nuts, and
• Medicinal Macadamia Muffins

Allow this post to tide you over. I’m talking you through 5 of the many skin-loving foods I enjoy weekly, including 2 serving suggestions for each. I’ll also mention 3 common dietary exposures that compromise skin health and little hacks on how to avoid them without missing out. Loving the skin you’re in needn’t be bland or expensive. I mean it. Health can be fun and a freakin cakewalk (mmmm cake – *bitch slap* – Rach, stop drooling) to execute.

The Humble Avo

Avocados are a foodie dream. They are so delicious that both health nerds and lay people alike sing their plump, luscious praises. On top of that, they provide a whopper dose of vital nutrients – including skin essentials; monounsaturated fats (like olive oil and macadamia nuts) and glutathione, which is needed for liver detoxification, Nothing like liver congestion to clog the skin also. You can use avos in topical face masks as well but when I fork out the money for a ripe avo, my tastebuds get jealous if I slap it on my face for 10 minutes before composting. Fair enough taste buds. Avo toast it is.

Serving Suggestions

• Toast an organic, ancient grain sourdough bread, such as spelt, rye or oat flour. Check that no added wheat is used as a filler. My book talks you through why Mr Wheat ain’t such health-conscious choice. The ingredients should be organic grain (oat, spelt etc.), sourdough culture, olive oil, sea salt and filtered water. That’s it. Top with mashed avo and extras of choice; fermented veggies, chilli flakes, sliced tomatoes and black pepper etc.
• Make an easy salad dressing from mashed avo and your fave fresh herbs. Then toss through your fave greens veggies, roasted pumpkin, toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and organic sultanas.

Organic Broccoli

I love broccoli and eat it nearly every day. Organic is best as regular broccoli is sprayed with chemicals that can disrupt hormone balance (hey there mood swings and undesired weight gain) and annihilate gut flora (so-long happy poos). Mr Broco is rich in fibre (helps with healthful elimination so thatchy skin doesn’t have to resort to acne or hives to ‘push’ toxins out through the skin. He’s also a glorious source of sulphur which aids in liver detoxification.

Serving Suggestions

• Steam until vibrant green and toss through some fresh coriander or parsley trimmings, a dollop of fermented veggies and a ‘dressing’ made from turmeric, ground pepper, pink salt, fennel seeds and your fave nut or seed butter.
• Mash Mr Avo (above) with fresh chopped chives and grated carrot. Toss through steamed broccoli. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve on a bed of steamed brown rice or quinoa.

Snazzy Pumpkin

From Jap and Kent, to Butternut and Queensland Blue, it pays to find a glorious pumpkin that works for you. Rach, stop rhyming you pathetic poetic. Good call. The inspiring orange flesh shared by all pumpkin varieties is a nod to their beta carotene content. Beta carotene is converted to vitamin A by our dependable livers, and vitamin A is essential for healthy skin cell repair. Pumpkin skins also boast antioxidants – and fibre, so much poo-pushing fibre – which keep the morning train running on time, all the whilst protecting the body – including the skin – from damage via oxidants.

Serving Suggestions

• Roast up beautiful pieces of diced butternut (de-seeded but leave skin on) in coconut oil at 180 degrees C for 50 minutes or until caramel golden. Enjoy in salads, on top of cauliflower rice with a massive drizzle of tahini or as a stand alone brekkie, lunch or snack with fresh guacamole or natural peanut butter.
• Pumpkin puree (steamed and pureed pumpkin flesh) is a dream in porridge. Add 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin to a small saucepan with 1/3 cup rolled oats, 1 cup coconut milk and a pinch of cinnamon. Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer, stirring constantly until thick and creamy. Serve your orange yumminess with a dollop of almond butter and a drizzle of 100% pure maple syrup.

Bloody Beaut Berries

No one likes to get berry stains on a white shirt because the rich pigment is almost too powerful to wash off. While our laundry many not be a fan, our skin would freakin bathe in warm berry compote if given the chance. Berries are rich in oxidant-pacifying antioxidants (again, refer to my book baby for a whimsical chemistry lesson if you haven’t a clue what an oxidant is) and also contain impressive amounts of vitamin C – which is required for collagen production. The skin is made of collagen fibres, so even developing subclinical scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) will have you looking duller than the story line of a television series in it’s 16th season.

Serving Suggestions

• Buy fresh organic berries when they are in season and thus cheaper than normal. Freeze and enjoy straight from the freezer as ‘ice lollies’. I love starting my lunch with these sweet delights and then indulging in a homemade peanut butter sandwich made with organic oat flour sourdough.
• Fresh or frozen berries are delicious stuffed inside baked purple sweet spuds that have been ‘buttered’ with macadamia butter and smothered in natural coconut yoghurt. Sprinkle with pink salt and chilli flakes to get really snazzy and balance the sweetness of the berries and spuds with seasoning and spice.

Dark Chocolate*

Your fucking welcome! I’m adding cacao to the list because as much as I wanted to give space #5 to nuts and seeds, I’ve already included them in the serving suggestions above. Besides, I’m about to suggest avoiding sugar and alcohol and need to earn myself some literal brownie points first. Cacao – the bean from which chocolate is made – is a fucking nutrition bomb! It’s just that when we add milk powder and white sugar we’re fucking with nature’s nourishing intentions. Cacao is rich in magnesium – a mineral which helps the body relax. Stress is the number #1 ageing culprit, so anything we can do to chill the fuck out – including eating cacao – is a glorious idea. Cacao butter (the fat in cacao beans) is an ingredient in most body butter formulations because of the deeply rejuvenating antioxidants and fatty acids content. Fuck this paragraph gives a lot of fucks. Fucking marvellous! In potty chocolate-eating mouths I trust.

*If you’re going to eat dark chocolate by the square, look for one that contains at least 70% cacao and is sweetened with a less refined sweetener such as coconut syrup or monk fruit.

Serving Suggestions

• Add a Tablespoon of raw cacao powder to your fave green smoothie to get high on the fact that you just downed a detoxing elixir that tasted like a choccie milkshake. I do this every morning without fail. This is why I’m constantly mistaken for Pollyanna and Father Christmas’ secret love child.
• Melt 100% pure cacao buttons in a glass bowl sitting over a pot of boiling water. Stir through a mixture of your favourite dried fruits (aim for ones without vegetable oil or preservative 220), shredded coconut, raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds), walnuts and pecans. Drop dollops of this mix onto a lined baking tray and transfer to the fridge to ‘set’. This is my take on coconut rough.

Steer Clear Where Possible

• White Sugar: sugar inhibits vitamin C absorption – goodbye Mr Collagen. What’s more, non-organic sugar cane crops are normally sprayed with herbicides – Miss Liver does not approve. Aim to satisfy a sweet tooth with fruits and root veggies. Learn to love the likes of green leaf stevia pure maple syrup for occasions that call for additional sweetness.
• Alcohol: if you want to age your skin prematurely, get on the piss regularly. If you want to show your skin the R-E-S-P-E-C-T that it so deserves, swap the knock off stubby or ‘thank-fuck-its-the-end-of-the-week’ spirit celebration for this sweet concoction; 200ml chilled filtered water mixed with 1 Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and 1 teaspoon of pure maple syrup.
• Artificial Additives, Preservatives and Flavours: Holy shitsicles are these dudes bad news! Ironically, that which makes a product more shelf stable often has the opposite effect on your glorious skin cells; ageing them like no tomorrow. Here’s my rule of thumb. I avoid buying pre-packaged foods where possible, and make exceptions for single ingredient delights such as pulse pasta (simply made from legume flours) and coconut aminos (a blend of fermented coconut nectar and sea salt).

If you’re looking at those last 3 and thinking how the flying fuck am I supposed to avoid these and stay sane? Maybe you’d like a one-on-one foodie coaching call with your truly. I am a qualified Nutritionist who loves helping individuals find snazzy ways of making a healthy lifestyle work for their unique circumstances, budgets and preferences. Check out this post and this page to get a feel for whether a candid convo is something that gets you more excited than a pulsating clitoris. PS: I don’t make reference to erectile bodies in good platonic humour during professional conversations. I reserve this cheek especially for my writing and speaking gigs.