Cause and Effect – Avocados for Your Skin

Last week, I noticed that my skin was really dry and itchy, sorry I know you don’t need to know that. But it was annoying—and I’m not interested in putting lotions on my skin because when I do I hear this little voice in my head saying, “You shouldn’t put anything on your skin that you wouldn’t put into your mouth.”

I don’t actually go that far—I wouldn’t eat my shampoo. I wouldn’t eat the products I put on my face (but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t hurt me if I did). As a result, since there are some instances for which I don’t follow the skin-food rule, I like to make the effort to follow the rule when it’s feasible for me to do so.  Did you know that you absorb more water through your skin during your morning shower than you drink in a whole day?!  I learned this recently, and it certainly placed getting a water filter for the shower higher on the priority list. The issues with tap water are significant and far-reaching, but I’ll talk about that another time.  Kimberly Snyder has a good post about drugs in our water if you want to start reading. This isn’t the only issue, but it’s an interesting one to start with!

The permeability of our skin, which is the largest organ in our bodies, can be used to our advantage when we want things to be absorbed—you can massage magnesium oil or other minerals onto the skin (and even be strategic about location—armpits, groin, backs of knees, tops of feet, high heart area of the chest) to maximize absorption into the lymph system. I’m a big fan of using the skin’s strengths to my advantage in this way—-mineral baths are totally awesome for you!

My experience this week, though, has more to do with how to affect the skin’s health from the inside. Because I didn’t know what to put on my skin to address the dryness, I just started eating avocados. Yup, one avocado a day this week (you may have noticed the repeat avocado pudding pictures…). On three days I put it on a salad, the other days I made pudding, and last night I had an extra serving of it in Joe’s red pepper soup (wow!).

So, it’s Avocado Week!  My skin is softer all over, and no more itchy dryness. None. Not kidding.  The other benefit of eating so many avocados is that they are really filling due to their high content of healthy fats and fiber. So, this week I’ve also eaten less overall, and had not a single craving for junk food. Maybe it’s a fluke, but instead of writing it off, I think I’ll keep testing it.