Beauty Food's co-founder Libby Babet reveals her top 5 tips for how to look 10 years younger, without surgery or creams - you better believe it's possible! Over to Libby...
Now, before we start, my first (and most important) tip for how to look younger is to smile and project warmth! It sounds so simple, but think about it… if you see someone walking around in a cranky mood, head buried in technology, they look like they've got the weight of the world on their shoulders. Whereas, if there's someone walking towards you with a smile on their face, they instantly look a bit younger because they are emanating a beautiful spirit!
Apart from that little trick, here are my five tips for looking 10 years younger without surgery or expensive skin creams:
1. Focus on your hydration
Staying hydrated has a huge effect on how we look and feel. This is because our body’s connective tissue (which runs through our entire body) is much like a sponge. It needs to be really nice and hydrated in order to have that elasticity in our skin, making us look healthier and younger. So, making sure you drink lots of liquids (and limiting caffeine – sorry!) is one way of looking after that connective tissue.
2. Reduce refined sugar
Sugar actually breaks down collagen, ‘hardens’ collagen and encourages your body to get rid of magnesium (an essential mineral). So reducing the amount you eat is a no-brainer. The other substance to think about is alcohol because it's full of sugar. It’s not such a big deal if you're having a small drink every now and again, but if you're having a few big glasses of wine every night it becomes an issue for your health and it will make you look older eventually (again – sorry!).
3. Move more
Movement really boosts connective tissue health and can therefore make you look younger. If you're not doing enough movement, including strength training, you’ll see a decrease in bone and muscle health, meaning the connective tissue around your muscles, heart and lungs will also lose strength. Movement and particularly multidirectional movement – twisting your body, reaching, stretching – actually helps to move hydration through your body and strengthen connective tissue. So going back to the sponge analogy, if you put a bit of water onto one part of the sponge, then you massage it through the rest, you could get it through to the middle, then to the other end. That's what happens with your connective tissue, when you exercise.
4. Improve your nutrition
I like to think of food as ‘information’ for your body. So, if you’re choosing between a piece of toast and a bowl of veggies, think about it this way: toast is really a processed food product and there's not a lot of information in it for your body to use. If you eat it, your body has to either burn it or store it. But when you look at vegetables, the amount of vitamins, minerals, micronutrients and water in the bowl means your body has a lot of information to convert for your connective tissue health, and to use to generate hormones that keep you feeling (and looking) younger. This will help plump out your skin, help your muscles operate better, give you energy and fire up your brain. I also like to think about ‘hydrating foods’, so fruits, veggies and whole grains soaked in water. Collagen supplementation is good to include here as well.
5. Consume collagen
Lastly, a little anti-aging secret that is beginning to trend now is actually consuming collagen, which supports our connective tissue heath. The beauty benefits of collagen are well publicised but new studies actually show that eating it (instead of just applying it to your skin) increases the anti-aging health benefits. Collagen is especially effective for the health of your hair, skin and nails as well. Luckily, there are lots of collagen protein supplements or protein bars/ balls (such as our tasty Beauty Food) on the market, so all you need to do is replace your 3 pm snack with a collagen protein snack to get all the benefits. It’s that easy!
