You’ve probably seen organic skincare products. There are cleansers, moisturizers and all kinds of creams and lotions made without pesticides or strange chemicals, and with any animal products coming from animals that lived relatively happy and natural lives.
You may choose organic because you want to be more careful about what goes into your body, and you may like the environmental benefits or the improvements in animal welfare. No matter why you do it, if you’re going organic in skincare, you may want to go organic with food as well.
There’s lots of debate about the health effects of organic food, with much of the research still in the early stages, but you’re probably most interested in what it does for your skin and how you look. There are certainly some experts who think it may do you some good.
In particular, organic food may have a role to play in reducing your risk of developing acne. You probably know that acne has a lot to do with hormones – that’s why it tends to make its most dramatic appearances in the teenage years. Well, non-organic meat and dairy often comes from animals that have been treated with hormones to artificially boost their growth.
Organic meat and dairy don’t have these increased hormone levels, so eating them doesn’t risk increasing your own hormones with potentially unfortunate side effects. Some people find that switching to organic reduces their breakouts.
Of course, everyone’s different in terms of what their skin reacts to and what it doesn’t. If you’re particularly sensitive, any change may help clear things up – or it may make things worse. As always, pay attention to your body and its reactions.
Your skin health is also dependent on your overall health. Skin can become dry and tired because of a range of conditions or nutrient deficiencies. If organic food does have higher levels of good nutrients and lower levels of potentially harmful chemicals, that’s going to be good for your body as a whole, and that’s likely to be reflected in your skin.
We all know that diet can have a powerful influence on how your skin looks and feels. Research into the impact of organic food may not be conclusive, but it makes sense that a significant change to what you eat could also change how you look.