Ep. 10 - What to Eat for Healthy Skin After 50 (Science-Backed)

If your skin has changed after 50—duller, drier, more reactive—this episode will shift how you think about skincare entirely.

Because here’s the truth: you cannot out-skincare what’s happening inside your body.

In this episode, I’m breaking down the five areas I focus on with my clients for healthy, radiant skin after 50—starting from the inside out. We’re talking about gut health, how to build collagen naturally (without relying on supplements), the power of antioxidants and phytonutrients, why protein matters more than you think, and what to drink for truly healthy skin.

I’ll also share one of my favorite simple strategies—what I call “eating your retinol”—and how to do it in a way that actually works for your body.

This is about creating the internal environment where your skin can thrive—not chasing products.

And if you want to go deeper after listening, I’ve put together a full resource page for you with next steps, trainings, and ways to work together.

You can find everything here: SophieUliano.com/podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

If you're a woman over the age of 50 and you want to know how to create radiant, glowy skin without necessarily going to the dermatologist or the beauty store, Sephora, and buying all those expensive creams and serums, then you are listening to the right episode because this is episode 10 of Tea with Sophie. And I'm going to be diving into how you can create glowy, radiant skin through food, through food and beverages. So in this episode, I am going to go over the five pillars, if you like, that are the pillars of focus for healthy skin after 50. This is going to be your gut health, building collagen naturally, antioxidants and phytonutrients, how to maximize those, protein, because that's important for radiant skin, and what to drink. I'm going to go over what to eliminate, what ages your skin really fast. And I'm going to share one of my favorite strategies at the end, what I call eating your retinol. So let's quickly dive in. This is going to be a fun, informative episode, and I am putting on my nutritionist's hat for this episode because as a nutritionist, I love how what we eat can have such a significant and dramatic impact, obviously, on our health, but on our skin. Now, our skin is no different from our health. In fact, our skin is a reflection of our health. So when we are in good health, when our digestion is good, when everything is running as it should, um, it that is going to be reflected in lovely glowy skin. Now, when we're younger, obviously, we have better digestion for the most part, we have a good digestive fire, everything is running smoothly, or for most of us, hopefully it is, except for bouts of junk food eating and you know not getting enough sleep, which will be reflected in your skin even if you're younger. But as we get older, things change. After the age of 50, things really change. Our estrogen plummets. Estrogen is one of the hormones that sort of plumps up the skin. We don't have as much collagen as and elastin. Obviously, we're going to start seeing wrinkles, a different texture in our skin. Um there's some things that we can't control, obviously, without having laser or procedures or whatnot. And if that's what you uh decide to do, then that's fantastic. I have absolutely no opinion or judgment on whatever little cosmetic procedure anybody wants to do to their skin. Um, all good as far as I'm concerned. But what I'm really talking about here is healthy skin, healthy, radiant skin. And there's so much that you can do even without the different procedures and skin lasering, change the texture of your skin and whatnot. And the the the answer really is found in your kitchen, and so that's what's really exciting. And I want to empower you to do the best with what you've got. So over 50 hormones, plummet, that's going to affect your skin. Your gut changes, that's going to affect your skin. Inflammation tends to ramp up, that's going to be reflected in your skin. Um, insulin, being more insulin resistant, that's going to be reflected in your skin. So everything is going to be reflected in the biggest organ of your body. Now, the biggest organ of your body, which is your skin, um, does two things. It keeps stuff out, so it's it's it should act as a protective barrier. And it also is porous, so it absorbs what we put on it as well. I will talk about more about that in the next episode that I'm going to do, which is actually about skin care. So we've got our beautiful skin, but for this episode, I want you to think of skin as just being another organ in your body that you want to be as healthy as possible. All right, so that being said, let's look at the foundation of our health, which is our gut health. Now, when you're younger, pre-perimenopause, you are probably going to have a healthier gut microbiome when we go into menopause, perimenopause, but definitely when we go into menopause. Unfortunately, one of the many things that happens is that the diversity of our gut microbes, which make up our microbiome, diminishes. And like anything in the world where there's less diversity, there is less less health. And the studies are showing us that post-menopausal women start, not only do they have less diversity, but the really important microbial strains, strains for health, become less or become non-existent. And then that can give rise to more of the kind of, if you like, bad bacteria, the pathogenic bacteria. It's important to understand that in our gut we have both. We have the sort of good and the bad and everything in between. But what we're aiming to do is to encourage the growth of good bacteria and of as much of it as possible because it's this affects absolutely everything, our immunity, our mood, um, our information markers, and the list goes on and on. So when you have gut dysbiosis that so often happens in menopause, you might start experiencing obviously digestive issues, such as maybe more constipation, maybe bloating and gas where things aren't running through as smoothly as they used to. You might start experiencing more inflammation in your body, systemic inflammation, leaky gut, which is the little junctures in your gut lining, they're not closed up as well as they should be. So what should stay in your gut is now getting outside of your gut into your bloodstream, so your system doesn't recognize that. It's like, wait, foreign toxic invader here. So mounts an inflammatory response, and then that can causes even more systemic inflammation. So, all this to say is that you need good gut health for beautiful skin. So, how do we do that? You need fiber, and you need lots of fiber, and you need lots of different kinds of fiber. You will not find this in a fiber supplement. These are really called probiotic fibers. Yes, you can buy a probiotic product or a probiotic supplement, but as a nutritionist, I'm always food first. Let's get as much as we can from food. So if you're eating a whole food plant-based diet, which is very diverse, all the colours of the rainbow, you're probably getting a lot of the different fibers that you need. Now, what do these fibers do? They feed the good bacteria in your gut, okay, in your colon. The good bacteria reside in your colon. You are basically eating for trillions of these good bacteria. And as I've said before, if you don't feed them, they're gonna die off. They're dying off after menopause anyway, but if you don't feed them, it's gonna be even worse. So you really want to feed them. And when you feed them, they are gonna be so, so happy that they are gonna give you a gift. And the gift that they're gonna give you is something called short chain fatty acids. So they're going to digest all these different fibers and different fibers for different uh microbes. That's why we need all the different ones, and they're gonna go, thank you. Here you go. I'm gonna I'm gonna give you these metabolites, short chain fatty acids, which will help heal your leaky gut, will reduce inflammation markers, will regulate your appetite, all of which is going to be reflected in your skin. You need short chain fatty acids, and the only way that you can get them is through eating whole plant foods. So lots and lots of fibre. And also, if you think about it, obviously, if you're constipated, then things aren't, you know, toxins are recircling in your system. Everything's not flushing through as it needs to. That will be reflected in your skin. On the other hand, if you have a lot of loose stool or diarrhea or sort of IBS IBD symptoms, then you're not absorbing the all the nutrients that you need for beautiful skin. That's why, you know, if we're on a really extreme diet and not eating a whole bunch of nutrients or maybe some of the weight loss medications, you might be missing out on some of these skin-loving nutrients that are so important for beautiful glowing skin as you get older. So I'm gonna highlight a few foods here that I want you to put on your shopping list this week. Kiwi fruit. Most of you can eat kiwi. Very occasionally, I have a client who is allergic to kiwi. So don't worry, if you're allergic, that's okay, there's other things. But if you're not, fall in love with kiwis. A couple of kiwis a day, peeled. You can just eat it as a fruit, you can toss it into your smoothie, chop it up, put it on a yogurt, a plant-based yogurt, a steel-cut oatmeal, however you're going to eat it, eat your kiwi. Cherries. I love cherries. Frozen organic cherries are always a staple in my freezer. I'll pop them in a smoothie. I'll just slightly thaw them out and have them as a beautiful dessert with a dollop of plant-based yogurt and a sprinkle of cacao nibs. Absolutely delicious. So there's many different ways, obviously, fresh cherries, but they're not very often in season, and we want to make sure that they're organic. You can even get tart dried cherries unsweetened, but the fresh or frozen are going to be better. Cheer and flax, wonderful, particularly flax for your skin. Because as we get older, just as a little side note, our skin becomes more and more dehydrated. And so there's been studies showing that flax is incredibly beneficial for beautiful skin. And you've got your omegas, obviously, in flax and chia. You want to eat it ground so you can have it ground, sprinkle it on whatever you want to sprinkle it, or if you buy the whole seeds, you can pop it in your smoothie high-speed blender where it's all ground up. You also want to eat fermented foods, which are so gut-friendly, not pickles. Pickles are not fermented foods, but fermented foods you'll find in the refrigerated section of your grocery store, such as kimchi, sauerkraut. I have a particular love for, it's a brand I think it's called Wild Brine, and they do a fermented beet and cabbage that I love. And I add a big spoonful to my salad every or my grain bowl every single day. Also, kefir, so you can get a non-dairy kefir, or you can obviously get a dairy kefir. Do not get any of the ones that are flavoured or have any added sugar, please. Um you can also have uh water kefir and um a little bit of kombucha, so all those lovely fermented foods are so wonderful for your gut. Okay, so heal your gut by feeding it, not restricting it, and that is the foundation not only of your overall health, but your skin, your skin health. Two, build collagen naturally. So um, not just supplements. I've done um an earlier episode, so you can check that one out, all about collagen. And I talked about collagen should you take a supplement for joints and/or skin. And the evidence, scientific evidence, is so weak, I honestly don't really recommend it. Um, just in most cases, it's a waste of money, particularly for your skin. Um, so it's not something you take, but it's something that your body has it can build. Your body builds collagen only if you give it the right nutrients. So you need vitamin C, amino acids, which is basically protein broken down, and um, and we need to keep the inflammation in your body as low as possible. So vitamin C rich foods, you want kiwi, again, very high in vitamin C. Every kind of berries, particularly strawberries. I buy them again, frozen, organic in the freezer, um, citrus, all kinds of lovely citrus, bell peppers, red bell peppers. I want you to think of um really bright red and purple veggies because they contain anthocyanins, which are wonderful for your skin. So that could be red bell peppers, it could be purple potatoes, purple sweet potatoes, sometimes they're known as stokes, so wonderful for your skin, and dark leafy greens in as many of them as you can possibly eat. So without vitamin C, your body can't create collagen effectively. So just think about every which way you can get a lot of vitamin C in. Okay, next. So number one was gut. Number two, putting this in points so it's easy for you to remember, is building collagen naturally. Number three is your antioxidants and your phytonutrients. So aging, what is it? It's oxidative stress, isn't it? It's almost think of your body and your cells rusting. So we need our antioxidants. Now, you don't have to pop antioxidant supplements. In fact, the supplements have been shown to be, you know, pretty ineffective. But we can get it from our food by eating all the phytonutrients and the phytochemicals. Phyto means they come from plants. So you're not going to get them any from any other place other than plants. Um, now there is something called the Orak score. Now, the ORAC score is a scoring system to show how many antioxidants are in any given food. So we want to look for foods that are very high up on the aura score. So here's a few of them. Goji berries, love them. Pop them in a trail mix, you can pop it in your oatmeal, you can throw them in your smoothie. Amala powder, also known as Indian gooseberry powder, amla spelt A-M-L-A. Pecans, very high up there. All berries, particularly cranberries, are very high up there. Um, so again, keep frozen cranberries in your freezer and not just on the holiday season, eat them all the year round in your smoothie. Um, greens, dark leafy greens, they come up almost every time. And don't forget your spices, because your spices, um all the different peppers and hot peppers and spices, very, very high in antioxidants. And what I want you to remember is that when you eat these foods that are very high in these phytochemicals and phytonutrients, also known as antioxidants, what they do is they activate antioxidant pathways in your body. So you want to be eating them every day, as many as you can in every meal, because unfortunately, the body is rusting as we get old. It just is. And antioxidants have a short shelf life. So you can't just eat it at breakfast, some blueberries, and then hope that you're good for the day. You want to get them sort of as the day progresses. The more color, the more the variety, the more protection you, your body, and your skin gets. Okay, number four is protein. Yes, you need protein, and you need to have, particularly after the age of 50, you need to have enough protein. I I would say between 1 to 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of a healthy body weight for most women over 50. This is going to equate to about 90 to 100 grams of really healthy anti-inflammatory protein. Now, plant proteins are probably going to be better, well, definitely, not probably, definitely going to be better for your skin. Why? Because plant proteins contain fiber, antioxidants, and phytonutrients, whereas animal flesh, animal muscle does not. So that's why you always want to uh favor plant-based proteins, lentils, beans, tofu, um, tempeh, etc., your skin will be so happy with these foods. Um, your skin can't rebuild without enough proteins, so you do need enough. And definitely going in the plant-based direction, as far as your protein um is concerned, is going to give you so many other benefits as well, in terms of lowering your risk of chronic disease. Just overall health, again, reflected in your skin. Okay, what to drink? I'm gonna say obviously, but lots of filtered water. Remember, our skin does become more dehydrated as we age, so we're probably gonna need a little bit more water, about six cups of filtered water every single day, and that's on top of all if you're eating a plant-rich diet, you're gonna be eating a lot of water anyway, and your non-starchy veggies. Think of things like celery and radishes and cucumbers and those sort of foods that have a lot of water in them. And so you're gonna eat a lot of your water. I want you to think of eating water, drinking water. Um, if you're having something like a smoothie, then you're gonna be having that's a lot of liquid as well. Um, teas. So, green tea is one of the most anti-aging beverages that you can drink. Um, it can be white tea, green tea, oolong tea, all come from the same plant, which is called the Camellia Senesis plant. If you want to know more about tea, watch episode one of Tea with Sophie because I do a really big deep dive into tea. Highly recommend that you listen to that or watch that. Um green tea, organic, loose leaf is best, matcha as fine, but drink, you know, two to three cups of green tea every single day. Um the science shows us that it actually has protective um compounds in it that can actually help you protect your skin against UVA and UVB damage, as well as so many other um very high in polyphenols and very specific polyphenols for radiant skin. All right, so um let's see what else. So uh oh, um, okay, we'll get to what not to do in a second, but um little bonus here is eat your retinol. So eating your retinol is going to be eating foods that are very high in beta-carotene. So this could be think orange, think eating orange, so eating, not oranges, but eating foods, vegetables that are orange, so carrots and sweet potatoes, um, because that is vitamin A. And you're eating it, and it does have an incredible effect on your skin. So you could make a beautiful salad with grated or ribboned carrot. That's one of my favorite things to do. And I'll also throw some red cabbage in there or some ridiculous. So now I've got the orange and the red, and I'll put some seeds in there, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc. I'll put some vinegar on it, balsamic vinegar. And you just remember though, that whenever you eat a food where you, it's really any plant food, like your greens and particularly your foods that have the beta-carotene in, you need a fat with you need to eat fat with it in order for your body to be able to absorb the beta-carotene. I don't recommend sloshing lots of olive oil on it because it's just so high in calories for women who, over 50, who want to release fat, nine calories per gram, 120 calories per tablespoon. So if you are concerned about weight loss, then you're much better off eating whole healthy fats instead of the olive oil. Have olives. And then nut seeds, avocados is really the way to go. Sprinkling, I'm always sprinkling seeds on absolutely everything. Tahini as well is wonderful. I make a lot of my dressings with tahini, which is basically ground-up sesame seeds. Um, okay, so uh let's see what else that is. I'm just seeing if I've got any questions. Uh yes, so a lot of ladies sent me questions in saying, well, what do I need to avoid? If I want to have beautiful, healthy skin, what should I avoid? First thing is alcohol. Um, very dehydrating and inflammatory. Um, coffee is has is so has so many health benefits to it, can be a little dehydrating as well. But you know, having a cup of coffee a day is again, there's lots of antioxidants and health benefits in that. But really, the what is hugely dehydrating is alcohol. And women metabolize alcohol very differently after 50. It really doesn't do us any favors, just in any way, shape, or form, raises your risk, increases your risk of breast cancer, and it's just it shows up in your skin. You know, you you see if ladies who drink a little bit more, you know, a couple of glasses of wine or cocktails on the weekends, you're gonna see it reflected in their complexion. And so I would honestly recommend to eliminate or minimize alcohol as much as you can, and instead have beautiful mocktails, your sparkling mineral water, splash of kombucha, splash of coconut water in there. There's so many beautiful drinks that you can make. You could even put a little bit of green tea in there, and then you've got this skin-loving drink or cocktail. You obviously want to avoid ultra-processed foods that are very high in sugar and very low in nutrients. I think that goes without saying. You want to avoid foods that are very high in fat, sorry, in saturated fat, particularly. Saturated fat drives up inflammation. And saturated fat are main source dietary sources from animal flesh, you know, animal products and dairy. And in the plant kingdom, it's from coconut oil or palm oil. So you really want to dial those down. You don't want saturated fat, uh, or you want to get you're going to have a little bit of it. They're saturated fat in olive oil, but you want to have as as less as possible. Finally, you want to avoid ages or your body creating ages, which are advanced glycation end products. And advanced glycation end products are the worst thing for your skin. They will basically cause the proteins in your skin to sort of um deform is the best word that I can come up with. And they it won't be forming these proper intact beautiful proteins. And so ages, advanced glycation and products are for our health, but particularly our skin health, you really, really want to avoid them. So, how do you avoid them? Very simple sugar. Sugar, eating refined sugar, added sugar, not natural sugars from fruits where there's all the fibre and the water, but any kind of added sugar, your body will create advanced glycation end products. And also food that is cooked at very high temperatures, so fried foods you want to avoid. And animal fat that is grilled, roasted, or fried at high temperatures, advanced glycation end products, avoid if you want beautiful skin. You want to eat as many vegetables and fresh, raw, and cooked as you possibly can. I cannot overstate this as a nutritionist. All right, so let's quickly recap. So for beautiful, glowy skin, gut health, that's number one, your focus, um, and eat those foods that I mentioned. Uh, two, collagen. You're going to build your own collagen by eating lots of vitamin C rich foods and getting enough protein. Antioxidants, phytochemicals, phytonutrients, um, protein. We talked about protein, probably best to go more towards plant-based protein for beautiful skin, and um hydration and the right kind of hydration. So, healthy skin after 50, it's not about chasing products, fun, love products, going to be talking about skincare products in my next episode, but it really is about creating the internal environment where your skin can actually thrive. And this really was about how to eat for healthy skin. But I should just mention that obviously getting enough sleep, really managing your stress, is equally important. But given the fact that you can eat for beautiful, healthy skin, let's do it. Um, okay, so that's it from me. As I've said, in the next episode, we are going to be chatting about skincare products. Can't wait. Love chatting about this. So we'll be talking about just collagen work to put on topically, vitamin C, retinal, all those, all those, those fun things to chat about. And I would encourage you to go to SophieYuliano.com forward slash podcast where you can listen to all my other episodes because there may be episodes that you might have missed. Be sure to follow if you're on any of you the platforms where you listen to your podcast. That really helps me. Please leave a review and um and subscribe if you are following me on YouTube. And I will see you next time.