The Beauty Diet (24 page)

Read The Beauty Diet Online

Authors: Lisa Drayer

For fabulous hair, you need certain minerals in tiny amounts. These trace minerals affect everything from the growth rate of your hair to its color and texture—and the ideal way to obtain them is by eating the variety of whole, natural foods included in my Beauty Diet.

IRON

Iron plays a role in hair health because it helps red blood cells carry oxygen to the hair follicles. While anemia is sometimes an undiagnosed cause of hair loss in women, even if you are not clinically anemic, you can experience hair loss simply from not getting enough iron in your diet. It has been well established that women with alopecia (hair loss and baldness) often have low levels of iron in their blood. For these women, supplementary iron helps hair growth. Iron deficiency can also leave you with lusterless, dry, brittle hair. Among my Top 10 Beauty Foods, the best sources of iron are oysters, spinach, and tomatoes. Other animal sources of iron include clams, lean beef, turkey, duck, lamb, chicken, pork, shrimp, and eggs. Good plant sources of iron include soybeans, lentils, beans, and bran. (For more information on iron, see the end of this chapter.) Plant foods contain nonheme iron, which is not as well absorbed as the heme iron in chicken, fish, and lean beef; however, you can enhance your body's ability to absorb nonheme iron by consuming vitamin C in the same meal.

BEYOND THE BEAUTY DIET

The Lifestyle for Lovely, Luxuriant Locks

Follow these guidelines for thick, gorgeous, captivating hair:

Get some exercise.
Take some time to exercise daily, if only for a few minutes. Exercise improves the blood flow to your scalp, which hastens the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to hair follicles, which leads to healthier hair.

Avoid rapid weight loss.
A harsh truth is that dieting can make your hair fall out! Crash diets often lack proper nutrition, and rapid weight loss in itself is a stress on the body and can also trigger metabolism changes that affect hair growth. If you lose more than 10 percent of your body weight over a couple of months (e.g., more than 15 pounds if you weighed 150), you can lose hair. Additionally, nutritional deficiencies can contribute to increased hair shedding by weakening hair shafts that cause breakage to the hair and slow regrowth.

Avoid low-protein diets.
Hair is 97 percent protein. If you are vegan, make sure you are getting enough protein. Diets that are based on eating mostly rice or mostly fruits do not provide enough protein for beautiful hair.

If you smoke, quit now.
Smoking creates free radicals, fills your blood with toxins, and interferes with your body's ability to deliver fresh nutrients to your scalp and hair follicles.

Don't stress!
Stress is closely linked to hair loss. Chronic stress interferes with abundant blood circulation in the scalp, which restricts the amount of oxygen and nutrients that reaches your hair follicles. Severe stress—either physical or emotional—causes large numbers of hairs to stop growing and to shift into a resting phase. Two to three months later, all the resting hairs begin falling out. The good news is that eventually this hair grows back.

COPPER

In addition to playing a role in the structure of hair shafts, copper is important to the color of your hair. Because copper is essential to the formation of hemoglobin, it also is involved in bringing oxygen to your hair follicles. If you follow my Beauty Diet, you will not need to worry about your copper intake. A deficiency usually comes either from genetic problems or from taking zinc supplements, which can inhibit the absorption of copper in the body.

SELENIUM

Any discussion of healthy hair has to include selenium, because this trace mineral is important to the scalp. Selenium helps keep skin supple and elastic by preventing cellular damage from free radicals. Ironically, too much selenium (selenosis) can cause hair loss. Among my Top 10 Beauty Foods, you'll find significant amounts of selenium in salmon and oysters. Brazil nuts are an extraordinarily good source of selenium. Other selenium-rich foods include tuna, crab, whole wheat bread, wheat germ, garlic, eggs, and brown rice. (For more information on selenium, see
Chapter 2
.)

SILICON

This element is found in abundance in our environment, although as we continue to deplete minerals from the soil, our consumption of silicon has declined. In the human body, silicon is found in high concentrations in skin and hair. It is important to the health of your scalp, plus it helps strengthen your hair. High-fiber diets contain lots of silicon, which is widely distributed in whole grains. Silicon is also found in bananas, root vegetables, rice, soybeans, and many other foods.

SULFUR

This trace mineral matters because it is present in cysteine, an amino acid that is crucial to hair growth. This means sulfur helps your body create longer, stronger hair. Sulfur is readily available in a wide variety foods, including eggs, meat, fish, dairy products, onions, and garlic.

ZINC

We know zinc is important to terrific tresses and a healthy scalp because low levels of zinc can cause hair loss and even a loss of eyelashes. A zinc deficiency can also cause the scalp to become dry and flaky. As an antioxidant, zinc helps guard against free-radical damage to your scalp (and elsewhere). Many people are deficient in zinc, but taking zinc supplements can throw off your body's natural balance between zinc and copper. Among my Top 10 Beauty Foods, oysters are an extraordinarily good source of zinc, and yogurt is also helpful. Other foods that contain zinc include seafood, beef, lamb, eggs, whole grains, and nuts. (For more information on zinc, see
Chapter 3
.)

Nutritional Strategies for Taming Dull, Dry, Brittle, Frizzy Hair

If you have healthy, straight, shining hair like Demi Moore or Heidi Klum, congratulations—you're the exception, not the rule! Most women have to use various tips and tricks to persuade their hair to behave.

Unhealthy hair is dull and dry, with breakage and split ends. Hair that lacks moisture is lightweight, which makes it unmanageable and flyaway. Short, broken strands escape any attempt to control them. If your hair is curly as well as frizzy, you could have a cloud of fuzzy hair instead of gleaming strands. If you suffer from dry, frizzy hair, be sure to check out my Beauty Diet Rx for nutritional solutions to bad hair days.

Gray Hair: Love It or Leave It?

When my friend Rachel discovered her first gray hair, she shrieked—then immediately got her tweezers and plucked

THE BEAUTY DIET RX

For Dry, Brittle Hair

If you are eating an adequate diet, you are probably getting a sufficient amount of protein, plus enough of the trace minerals like copper, sulfur, selenium, and silicon. In addition to following the lifestyle for lovely locks and the maintenance tips for healthy hair discussed in this chapter, you'll want to do the following:

Get plenty of iron for building strong hair shafts.

Drink lots of water to help keep your hair hydrated from the inside out.

Consume more omega-3 fatty acids. Your scalp needs quality fats to produce the sebum that keeps your hair under control.

Include beta-carotene-rich foods in your diet. From beta-carotene, your body can synthesize vitamin A to keep your scalp healthy.

Consume plenty of B vitamins, which help keep hair from becoming weak and brittle. They all work together, so eat many different foods to make sure you get enough of each.

Consume lots of vitamin C–rich foods.

Focus on foods rich in zinc to keep your scalp healthy and to help hair growth.

Include vitamin E–rich foods in your diet to protect the lipids in your scalp from free-radical damage.

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