Breaking
FoodNerdy Recipes Management System
Tag

Skin

Browsing
health

8 Foods for Beautiful Skin, Hair and Nails

In addition to the right care, nutrition also has a major impact on skin, hair and nails: These eight regional foods ensure a beautiful complexion, healthy hair and nails.

Food for beautiful skin: carrots

Everyone knows carrots – the fact that they are good for the eyes is also nothing new. But did you know that they are good for your skin and hair? Carrots contain a lot of beta-carotene: a precursor of vitamin A. This vitamin is important for the function and structure of the skin, it protects the skin from DNA damage that can be caused by the sun, for example.

A vitamin A deficiency can lead to hair loss, dry skin, dry hair and nails. In addition, vitamin A ensures the incorporation of iron, which is also important for the skin.

Men need about 1.0 milligrams a day and women need an average of 0.8 milligrams of vitamin A per day – this amount is already in a large carrot. Another plus point for the food for beautiful skin: carrots grow regionally in Germany from March to December.

Walnuts: biotin, vitamin E and omega-3

Walnuts are not only delicious, they are also really healthy: they contain biotin, vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids. Biotin is also called vitamin H and not without reason: it is important for the development of skin, hair and nails. A lack of biotin can result in skin disorders, hair loss, brittle nails and poor wound healing. The body needs about 30 to 60 micrograms per day. 100 grams of walnuts contain around 20 micrograms, which does not yet cover the entire daily requirement, but the content of other foods that you eat during the day must also be added.

In addition, walnuts can score with other important nutrients: Vitamin E protects the body’s cells through its antioxidant effect. If we don’t get enough vitamin E, our skin can become dry, blotchy, and wrinkled. It is also said to have a positive effect on neurodermatitis. Depending on age and gender, the body needs between five and 13 milligrams per day. 100 grams of walnuts contain around 6 milligrams. Walnuts are very rich in fat, they contain the essential omega-3 fatty acids, which are also said to have a positive effect on the skin.

Water: essential for life

The human body consists to a large extent of water – in adulthood 50 to 60 percent, with increasing age the proportion drops to 45 percent. This also explains why the skin becomes drier with age. In the body, water ensures that nutrients are transported to the cells and ensures that turgor is maintained – the state of tension in the skin.

A feeling of thirst is already an expression of a negative water balance. So if you’re thirsty, it’s high time to have a drink. Water is a better choice than soft drinks, juice, or coffee. The good thing about water: You already have it at home, because in Germany you can drink tap water without hesitation.

In Germany, the quality of tap water is specified by the Drinking Water Ordinance. And the health authorities ensure that the limit values ​​are observed. If you are unsure whether your tap water is really safe, you can test it yourself. You can order water tests online for little money.

Pumpkin seeds: zinc and iron

Pumpkin seeds contain zinc, the trace element is important for the immune system and the formation of connective tissue. Zinc is also involved in the synthesis of protein – without zinc, no skin cells and no hair are formed. It has a major impact on wound healing. The consequences of a deficiency can be cracked corners of the mouth, poor wound healing, hair loss and brittle nails. 100 grams of pumpkin seeds contain seven milligrams of zinc – this corresponds to the recommended daily amount for women and ten milligrams for men.

Another important nutrient contained in pumpkin seeds is iron: the main task of iron is to transport oxygen in the blood. As a component of the blood pigment hemoglobin, iron brings oxygen to every cell. If the iron intake is too low, the skin becomes pale, skin diseases, hair loss, brittle nails, cracked corners of the mouth and dry skin are also possible. With 12.5 milligrams of iron per 100 grams, pumpkin seeds are among the top iron-rich foods.

Food for beautiful hair: blackcurrants

Black currants are particularly rich in vitamin C. The vitamin is not only important for the immune system, its antioxidant effect protects the cells from aging processes, for example, it is important for the formation of collagen – which in turn is a component of skin, hair and nails. Vitamin C is also important for the optimal absorption of iron. A lack of vitamin C can lead to poor wound healing and bleeding of the skin.

With a content of 177 milligrams, blackcurrants are real vitamin C bombs after rose hips and sea buckthorn. Just 100 grams of blackcurrants can cover the daily requirement. However, it is best to eat them raw, because vitamin C is very sensitive to heat. The black berries also contain iron and potassium – potassium is important for the tissue tension of the body cells and the water balance. Unfortunately, the food for beautiful hair is only in season in summer.

Lentils: protein supplier for skin, hair and nails

Lentils are a good source of protein. Protein is found in each of our cells, it ensures the development and maintenance of skin, hair and nails – nothing works without protein. If there is a deficiency, the connective tissue becomes slack and wounds heal poorly.

Dried lentils contain an average of around 24 grams of protein, cooked it is still around nine grams. The body can absorb the protein particularly well if lentils are combined with other protein sources – for example lentil Bolognese with wholemeal pasta. Lentils also contain biotin, vitamin E, zinc, iron and magnesium. By the way, there are also lentils from Germany – more about this in the article “Soya and seitan are also available from Germany”.

Spinach: vitamins A, C and biotin

Most of us learned as children that spinach is healthy. Rightly so, because it contains many minerals, vitamins and protein.

Even if it is often claimed that spinach contains a lot of iron, it does not come close to the content of pumpkin seeds with three to four milligrams per 100 grams. Spinach contains vitamin C, vitamin A and biotin and is therefore a really healthy and regional food for beautiful skin, hair and nails.

Oatmeal: nutrient bomb for breakfast

Oat flakes are rich in zinc, iron, calcium, magnesium and biotin, and they are also a good source of protein. With a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, you can provide your skin, hair and nails with plenty of nutrients in the morning. You can combine porridge for breakfast very well with pumpkin seeds and walnuts – this is how the effects add up. In summer you can refine the whole thing with black currants.

Food for beautiful skin, hair and nails

In general, a healthy and varied diet with lots of vegetables, fruit, whole grain products, legumes, nuts, seeds and kernels is good for the body. Stress also has a strong influence on the body, which is why sufficient sleep, relaxation, exercise and mindfulness in everyday life are important components for beauty. Environmental factors such as pollutants also have an influence: It is therefore better to use organic food, as it contains fewer pollutants.

However, one should be careful with dietary supplements, because an overdose of some nutrients can have negative effects on health: For example, an overdose of vitamin A can cause headaches, skin changes, jaundice and liver failure.

Keep Reading
By
Cooking Tips

Peel Zucchini? Why the Skin Should Rather Stay On

If you don’t peel a zucchini, you not only save work and time: Read here about the advantages of peeling zucchini.

Do not peel zucchini – the skin is healthy

As with many other types of fruit and vegetables, the same applies to zucchini: the skin contains most of the vitamins. You also absorb important dietary fiber with the peel.

But it’s not just good for your health if you eat the shell. It also tastes better because the skin keeps the zucchini in shape as it heats. Without the skin, the vegetables quickly become mushy when they are boiled or fried. In addition, the pure pulp of the zucchini is not as aromatic as the skin.

So it would be a shame to throw the edible and particularly healthy part of a vegetable in the trash – especially since you have to do unnecessary extra work peeling it.

Also be careful with very bitter zucchini: If it tastes bitter, you shouldn’t eat it anymore. It’s rare, but if a zucchini tastes bitter, it contains too much curcubitacin, a toxic bitter compound. Neither cooking nor peeling helps against this substance, the zucchini is then no longer edible.

Pesticides on zucchini peel

Since the skin is eaten, you should pay particular attention to the origin of the vegetables: Zucchinis from organic farming are not treated with chemical-synthetic pesticides, but from conventional farming they are. Pesticides mostly remain on the peel. If you buy organic vegetables you ensure that the pesticides do not end up on your plate.

Also make sure that you buy zucchini seasonally and regionally. The zucchini season runs from July to October. During this time, the domestic zucchini are transported a comparatively short distance. Zucchini from distant countries, on the other hand, have long transport routes behind them, which means that significantly more greenhouse gases are emitted.

Keep Reading
By
Cooking Tips

Washing Fruit Properly: What to Do About Pesticides on the Skin?

You should wash fruit before eating it – especially fruit from conventional agriculture, because it is almost always contaminated with pollutants. We show you effective tips and home remedies.

Pollutants are everywhere

In conventional agriculture, pesticides are used as standard to combat pests, diseases and weeds – the consumption of which is usually also harmful to human health. Fruit and vegetables are also treated for transport so that they survive the long journey undamaged. You can find more information about pesticides here.

Consumers will therefore find food in the supermarket that is not suitable for immediate consumption, but should first be washed thoroughly. Although within the EU certain maximum residue levels of pesticides may not be exceeded, smaller amounts are almost always present.

In 2020, the Oldenburg Food and Veterinary Institute tested 79 samples of apples, of which only those from organic cultivation showed no residues of pesticides. Even if the EU only assumes a health-damaging effect above a certain value, the following still applies: the fewer pollutants, the better. We will show you what is important when washing fruit and vegetables.

Wash or peel fruit?

Most of the pesticide residues are on the skin of the fruit. So is it better to peel the fruit?

While this would actually be the most effective way to remove pesticide residues. However, most of the vitamins are also found in the peel. It is therefore advisable to wash the fruit well and eat the peel as well. Because it is precisely the peel that makes the fruit really healthy.

With organically grown fruit and vegetables, you can safely eat the peel after washing. You can read about the requirements that foodstuffs must meet under the EU organic seal in another article.

Wash fruit properly: This is how you remove the pesticide residues

Pesticide residues are mainly found on the skin. You have to wash them off before you eat them. However, some pesticides also penetrate under the peel and are not removed by simply washing.

For fruit with an edible skin, you should wash the fruit thoroughly under warm running water and then rub dry with a kitchen towel. The water jet and vigorous rubbing already removes a large part of the pesticides. Rubbing the apple quickly on the trouser leg, on the other hand, is of little use, as this only removes some dust and dirt on the surface. With more sensitive fruits such as berries or apricots, you have to be a little more careful when patting dry.

In general, only wash fruit just before eating it. Because fruits are surrounded by a natural protective layer. The water will damage it and the fruit will spoil faster.

Homemade fruit and vegetable cleaner

You can remove pesticides even more reliably than with water with a household remedy, namely with commercially available baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). This is according to a 2017 study at the University of Massachusetts. The scientists washed the apples treated with the fungicide thiabendazole and the pesticide phosmet in three different ways – with chlorine bleach, a baking soda solution and with tap water.

The baking soda and water mixture removed most of the pesticides on the skin, provided the baking soda solution was allowed to sit on the fruit for around 15 minutes. However, pollutants that had penetrated the skin of the apples were less successful in removing them with this method.

Washing fruit with a baking soda solution before eating is an effective way to remove pesticide residues. However, this means quite a lot of effort for a piece of fruit, especially the 15-minute waiting time. If you want to be on the safe side, organic products are still the best choice.

What you should also consider: Five tips for pesticide-free fruit

The easiest and most effective way to avoid pesticides is to buy organic fruit. There, chemical-synthetic pesticides are forbidden in cultivation.
Even if you peel the fruit, you should still wash it first. Because if you cut it up or peel it, pollutants on the peel get into the pulp. This applies, for example, to citrus fruits, avocados or melons.
Buy local and seasonal fruits and vegetables whenever possible. In this way you avoid long transport routes, for which the food is additionally treated. Fruit from the EU is also usually subject to stricter requirements with regard to the pesticides used. We help you to find regional products.
Avoid cleaning with dish soap. You get rid of a little more pesticides this way than just rinsing your fruit with water. However, residues from dishwashing detergent can also be harmful to health.

Keep Reading
By
Food

Which Pumpkin Can You Eat with the Skin on?

Pumpkin is delicious, healthy, often locally grown and always versatile. The processing can be exhausting because the shell is hard. But: With some varieties, you can simply eat the pumpkin skin as well – we’ll show you when to peel the pumpkin – and how.

For most varieties of autumn fruit, pumpkin season in Germany is from the end of August or the beginning of September to November. Since almost all species can be stored well, you can often still get home-grown produce well into spring – you can find all the details in the Utopia seasonal calendar.

Many peel the vegetables and also hollow them out. It’s a shame about the beautiful skin, because you can also eat it with edible pumpkins!

Can you eat pumpkin with skin?

In principle, you can eat almost any pumpkin with its skin on. But since the skin is often very hard, it takes much longer to cook than the flesh until it softens. Therefore, with some varieties and preparation methods, it may be advisable to peel the pumpkin. We have put together an overview of the individual pumpkin varieties for you.

Hokkaido

The Hokkaido is our most popular representative, you can get it in every supermarket. It is round, medium-sized, grooved and bright orange on the outside and inside. There is no need to peel a Hokkaido squash: the squash skin is safe to eat.

It doesn’t matter whether the Hokkaido is baked in the oven, made into a soup or fried: the skin can remain on and, according to some (hobby) cooks, even gives a better aroma than without the skin. But if you want to grate the Hokkaido to make vegetable pancakes or potato pancakes, you should peel the Hokkaido pumpkin, because the roasting time here may not be long enough for the skin to soften.

Butternut

The butternut is also very popular. Quite different from the Hokkaido, it has a pale yellowish smooth skin and is pear-shaped, its flesh is light orange, and it has a subtle buttery flavor. The butternut squash has a very thin but quite hard skin.

Peeling butternut is easy with a potato peeler. Whether it is really necessary or whether you can eat the pumpkin with the skin depends on the recipe. Basically, the butternut shell is edible – but it takes a relatively long time to soften.

If you want to roast the butternut squash in the oven, you can try it with the skin on. Even if you want to cook and puree the butternut for a soup until soft, you don’t necessarily have to peel it. But if you’re just sautéing it for a stir-fry, for example, it’s easier to peel it.

If you don’t want to throw away the peel, you can easily use it to make a delicious vegetable dish: Simply chop, fry or cook until soft – for example with onions, spices and coconut milk.

Basically you can eat butternut with shell. It is only advisable to peel the pumpkin for preparation methods in which it only cooks for a short time.

There is a delicious vegetarian butternut recipe for pasta on the minzgrün blog, you can find one for oven-baked butternut, for example, at Fleckenwohl. There are more recipes with butternut at eatsmarter.de. Here you will find a recipe for pumpkin jam and pumpkin chutney.

Nutmeg squash

The nutmeg squash is round but rather flat, grooved on the outside and usually larger than the Hokkaido or butternut – it can weigh up to 40 kilograms. The skin is green, brownish or orange and the flesh is yellow to orange. Nutmeg has a hard and rather thick skin.

In theory, you can eat the pumpkin with the skin on. However, the skin takes a relatively long time to soften during cooking, so depending on the dish, it may be advisable to peel the nutmeg pumpkin. If it is cooking for a long time (e.g. in the oven or for soup), you can leave the shell on, with shorter cooking times it is better to peel the nutmeg.

To peel the pumpkin or not: other varieties

Although there are actually hundreds of different types of pumpkin, we know two types in particular: Hokkaido and Butternut, and more rarely the larger nutmeg pumpkin. These three varieties alone are versatile and tasty.
But at weekly markets, in well-stocked vegetable and organic shops or at self-service stands on the side of the road, you can find many more pumpkin varieties that you should definitely try. The same applies here: you don’t have to peel many of them.

Patisson:
Small (approx. 10-25 cm in diameter), its shape is reminiscent of a UFO. It is available in yellow, white, green and even two-tone. The Patisson does not keep as long as other varieties. You don’t have to peel it: you can eat this variety well with the skin, very small specimens even in one piece and raw. Patisson is also very suitable for filling and cooking in the oven.

bishop’s cap:
Medium-sized, round, rather flat representative with a cap-like “attachment”, also known as a Turkish turban. Should not be eaten with the skin on. Because of the shape, it is difficult to cut the flesh out of the squash, so it is often cooked hollowed out and filled.

Spaghetti Squash:
Elongated, rather small, with a beige to yellow skin and threadlike flesh. Cook the spaghetti squash whole (pierce the skin first!). You can then cut it in half and pull out the “spaghetti” or just spoon them out of the bowl. We have more delicious spaghetti squash recipe ideas for you.

Yellow hundredweight (giant hundredweight):
Round giant pumpkin with orange skin and yellow flesh that can weigh up to 50 kilograms. Good for desserts – and hollowing and carving for Halloween. Theoretically edible with pumpkin skin, but it is quite hard and is therefore usually removed.

Baby Bear:
Small, round (approx. 10 cm in diameter), with a dark orange, ridged skin and yellow flesh. Good for soups and desserts. The skin is very hard, so it’s better to peel this pumpkin – or scoop out the flesh.

buttercup:
Rather small, round fruit vegetable with a small cap-like top, dark green skin and orange flesh. The skin is very hard, so it’s easier to eat it without the skin, but peeling the squash isn’t always easy. Good for stuffing, casseroles or baking.

Keep Reading
By