What food in the diet is most often overlooked when it comes to supplementing for your hair, skin and nails? Calcium? Vitamin D? Anti-oxidants? No...it's oil.
Almost to the patient, any time I ask how much oil they are getting in their diet, I'm greeted with a somewhat blank, perplexed look. What do sufficient amounts of essential fatty acids have to do with the health of the skin, hair and nails? Plenty.
Assuming you are sufficiently hydrated (1/2 your body weight in ounces of water/day), oils are equally necessary for good health. Oil allows for the absorption and utilization of calcium (nails) and the transport of fat soluble vitamins to the skin, including the scalp.
We typically notice excessive breakage of nails and drying of the skin in the winter months...usually attributed to heat drying our home and office environment. No matter how much cream/conditioner we slather on ourselves, the dryness simply doesn't go away for very long. Simply by adding both saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids to the diet, you should notice a considerable difference in the suppleness of your skin, the dryness of your scalp and the brittleness of your nails.
Eating a diet high in good fats (coconut, olive, grape seed and avocado oil), seeds and nuts (sunflower, pumpkin, hemp, almonds and cashews), dark green leafy vegetables (calcium, Vit. D) and high quality protein, along with supplementing with a fermented vegetable source of calcium, you should begin to see a significant improvement in your dry skin and brittle nails within a few weeks.
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