Having gorgeously glowing skin is undoubtedly something we’d all be proud of if we had it.
But with endless skincare products on the market promising to provide radiance and heaps of advice out there on how to reach skin perfection, navigating your journey to a luminous face can be confusing.
Luckily, a new study claims to have found the secret behind achieving a golden complexion- and it really is so simple.
It’s all just down to living a healthy lifestyle full of fruit, vegetables, exercise and sleep.
A study, led by the University of St Andrews, found a balanced and healthy lifestyle focused on becoming fitter, avoiding stress and sleeping more all gave skin a more healthy looking colour.
This is because eating a diet full of fruit and veg can actually increase skin’s yellowness, making it look healthier and generally more glowing.
This change in colour is triggered by the build up of coloured pigments in the skin from plants like carrots and tomatoes.
These pigments, called carotenoids, also play an important role as antioxidants, which protect against toxins from every day life that can damage your DNA, working to neutralise them.
Lead scientist for the study, Professor David Perrett, from the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, explained, “We worked with 134 students, measuring fitness from heart rate while walking and running on a treadmill.
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“We measured skin colour with a device that records how a rainbow of colours is reflected from the skin. We found that both high fitness and low body fat were associated with a higher skin yellowness.
“This yellower skin of fit individuals was not due to a better diet or from a suntan from being outdoors more.”
The research team also looked at whether a change in health changed skin appearance by following 59 students from sports clubs to measure how much training impacted their completion.
It was found that those who became fitter or lost body fat showed an increase in skin yellowness.
A questionnaire also showed that decreased stress and more sleep was associated with an increase in skin yellowness.
