I’m a doctor – here’s the cheap superfood swap that keeps your skin young… and it works BETTER than expensive skincare
AGING is the natural course of life and there’s nothing wrong with your face showing signs of it.
But there’s a lot of products out there that claim to stop wrinkles in their tracks – and many of them are on the expensive side.
As the cost-of-living continues to bite, access to affordable products is more important than ever.
If your pursuit of an age-less complexion has lead you to spend hundreds of pounds on sunscreen and anti-aging creams, a doctor has shared a hack that might interest you.
And it doesn’t require you to shell out on yet another product.
Instead, it involves an edible ingredient you might already be consuming, which experts have dubbed a ‘superfood’ – a buzzy word in health these days.
Dr Adam Sayedi – one half of the Herb Docs duo who make TikToks on herbal and lifestyle medicine – claimed to know “one superfood that will that will save you time and money and skincare products”.
“I’ve always said on this channel seeds are earth’s own currency,” the medical doctor stated in a video.
According to Dr Adam, sunflower seeds are no exception – and they’ll also give your skin a boost.
The little seeds are packed with vitamin E, the doctor said, a “strong antioxidant which helps to protect your skin against the effects of UV light”.
Ultraviolet radiation (UV) is a source of energy that is released naturally by the sun and artificially from sunbeds.
Aside from aging your skin, prolonged exposure to UV light can damage your cells and cause skin cancer, according to Cancer Research UK.
Dr Adam emphasised that eating these seeds shouldn’t replace your daily sunscreen application.
Aside from helping protect your skin against UV rays, vitamin E is also vital in the production of collagen and elastin, which keep your skin firm and bouncy, Dr Adam said.
Big skincare companies like like Olay and Elemis are already onto this and use the powerful vitamin in their products, he continued.
“They sell you vitamin E face masks and night creams,” Dr Adam said.
If you’re looking to spot the vitamin on their ingredient list, you’ll find it under Alpha Tocopherol.
Eating just a handful – 30g- of sunflower seeds will equate to 66 per cent of your recommended daily vitamin E intake, according to Dr Adam.
According to the NHS, women need about 3mg of vitamin E a day, while men should have 4mg.
You should be able to get that just through eating a varied and balanced diet, it wrote. It cautioned against taking too many vitamin E supplements, as this could be harmful.
As it’s a fat soluble vitamin, it’s best to eat the seeds with a ‘healthy source of fat’, Dr Adam said.
“I have mine with porridge, berries and natural yoghurt in the morning,” he explained.
Other good sources of vitamin E are:
- plant oils – such as rapeseed (vegetable oil), sunflower, soya, corn and olive oil
- nuts and seeds
- wheatgerm – found in cereals and cereal product
According to healthline, eating sunfolower seeds could help lower blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar as they also contain, magnesium, protein, linoleic fatty acids and several plant compounds.
Aside from eating them with yoghurt, you can sprinkle them on top of a salad, add to baked goods or use in place for nuts in a pesto, for example.