Sure, aging is a natural fact of life, but who says you can’t look good while you do it? As you might have guessed, one of the best ways to counteract visible signs of aging is to take proper care of your skin. Aside from the obvious ways of keeping your skin looking young like keeping it moisturized, using a quality face cream, and protecting it from the sun, you may want to also consider the “raw diet”.

You are what you eat! While this may not literally be the case, you know very well what it means. The food you ingest into your body has a direct physical effect and in many cases also a psychological effect. Your skin is no exception to this rule.

Recently, celebrities Donna Karan and Carol Alt have endorsed the raw diet, bringing it into the public eye and causing it to rapidly grow in popularity. However, this isn’t some sort of self-depraving Hollywood diet. It’s simply a highly effective diet that focuses on overall health and well being, as well as anti-aging!

As the name implies, the raw diet consists mainly of raw foods. Ideal foods are those which have not undergone any processing and that have not been cooked. Organic foods should be used whenever possible.

Make no mistake, the raw diet is not the same thing as the vegetarian diet, but this is a fairly common misconception. However, the raw diet does usually contain pretty hefty amounts of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, but many people also include red meat, poultry, or fish into the raw diet as well. Dairy products and unpasteurized cheese is also acceptable.

The reason that the raw diet is so effective is because it allows you to ingest many live enzymes that are not available in food that has been cooked. Raw foods are actually much higher in nutrional value than foods that have been cooked. Along with those enzymes, “good” bacteria and other types of micro-organisms that aid the body in digestion are present in many raw foods. This added value helps the body digest food and deliver energy to the body much more efficiently.

It is recommended that while on the raw diet that you also supplement your diet with Vitamin B12, as your daily intake may be somewhat reduced by switching to this type of diet. Certain types of nuts and seeds are also rich in B12, which should also be taken into account.

When the raw diet is properly executed, the antioxidants in raw food have been shown to make people not only look younger, but also feel younger from the additional energy provided.

No anti-aging strategy is really complete without making some sort of adjustment to the diet. The raw diet is a simple and very effective way to go about doing so.

Best of luck!