With their 6 grams of energising protein, 4 grams of hunger-fighting fiber and nutrients including magnesium and vitamin E, it’s no wonder that almonds are known for being one of the healthiest snacks around. But did you know that almonds could be one of the tastiest steps in your skin care routine, too?
Several key nutrients found in almonds are linked to skin health, making them a delicious addition to daily beauty regimens:
• Almonds are rich in antioxidant vitamin E, which may help protect cells from the damaging effects of free radicals caused by pollution, UV rays from the sun, cigarette smoke and other environmental and intrinsic factors. One serving of 23 almonds (about an ounce) provides 50% of your daily recommended vitamin E needs.
• You’ll find 8% of the Daily Value for zinc. Zinc contributes to the integrity of healthy skin.
• Two B vitamins contribute to the maintenance of normal skin. Almonds offer 25% of the Daily Value for riboflavin and 6% of the Daily Value for niacin.
• Almonds are a good source of copper, which plays a role in skin and hair pigmentation.
• Linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid, helps prevent skin dryness. A one-ounce serving of almonds has 3.5 grams of linoleic acid.
Skin deep findings
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that a daily snack of two servings of almonds in place of other nut-free snacks helped reduce measures of wrinkle width and severity in a study group of postmenopausal women.
In this 16-week randomised controlled pilot study, 28 healthy postmenopausal women with Fitzpatrick skin types 1 or 2 (characterised by an increased tendency to burn with sun exposure) were randomly assigned to one of two groups:
• The intervention group, which ate almonds as a snack, accounting for 20% of total daily calorie intake or 340 calories on average (about two one-ounce servings, or 60 grams).
• The control group, which ate a nut-free snack (a cereal bar, granola bar or pretzels) also accounted for 20% of daily calories, averaging about 340 calories per day.
Aside from these snacks, study participants ate their regular diets and did not eat any nuts or nut-containing products. Skin assessments were made at the start of the study and at four-week
intervals ending at 16 weeks. At each visit, facial wrinkles were assessed using high-resolution facial imaging and validated 3-D facial modelling and measurement.
The skin barrier function was also assessed. By the end of the study at 16 weeks, photographic image analysis showed improvements for participants in the almond snack group compared to the control group:
• Wrinkle width decreased by 10%
• Wrinkle severity decreased by 9%
There were no significant changes in skin barrier function between groups. There are a few limitations in this study that should be noted:
• Aging is a long-term process so the findings from this 16-week study may be difficult to reproduce and generalize to extended periods of time.
• Skin ageing is multi-factorial in nature and, although certain groups were excluded, there is variance in ageing confounders, which were outside the scope of the study.
• This study was limited to cosmetic evaluation, as no measurements were made regarding collagen production.
• The study did not evaluate disease or younger subjects, so results are limited to otherwise healthy postmenopausal females.
• This study served as a pilot study with a limited number of participants enrolled.
Source: Almond Board of California (www.almonds.com)
