Do you remember the old adage you are what you eat? Obviously this does not mean that you will start looking like a carrot after incorporating carrot juice into your daily routine, but it does mean that your diet contributes to not only to the state of your health and how you feel but also to how you look.

You eat low fat foods exercise regularly because you want to keep your arteries clear and keep your heart healthy, right? You limit your alcohol consumption in order to keep your liver healthy (not to mention keeping your foot out of your mouth). What have you done for your skin lately?

Your skin is actually an organ of your body just like your heart or your liver and it performs vital tasks for the body just like other organs do.

The job of your skin is to protect you from the outside world. The skin is a barrier between your body and the air and anything else that touches you. Your skin also rids your body of toxins by sweating through the pores and it metabolizes the suns rays into vitamin D that is essential to our health.

So, maintaining healthy skin is just as important as maintaining heart health. But what does your skin want from you?

First, your skin wants a balanced diet just like the other organs, muscles and tissues in your body. A healthful diet that is high in fruits and vegetables, low fat foods, complex carbohydrates with limited protein and fat is the best diet for all the parts of your body, including the skin.

Healthy skin comes more from the inside of you than it does from the outside. No matter what kind of exclusive, expensive and luxurious skin care products you may slather on your skin, it will still be best served by a healthy diet.

It may seem just too simple that a good diet can eliminate such skin problems as dry skin, oily skin, itchy skin, and even some much more serious conditions such as eczema.

Many dermatologists strongly recommend a diet makeover for patients who suffer from recurring skin problems because the foods you eat affect every part of your body and your overall health.

Just as the rest of your body requires lots of fresh water to keep it cleansed and hydrated, so does your skin. It is now known that drinking enough water is a better cure for dry skin than many external treatments are.

Because your skin is actually hydrated mostly from the inside and a moisturizer simply helps keep that moisture intact, drinking enough water everyday is a very healthy diet solution for your skin.

You may find it helpful to do a little experiment with this. Make a commitment to eat right and drink enough water for two weeks.

If you are unsure about what constitutes a healthy diet, go online or to the library and search for the food pyramid. This food pyramid is the best way to understand how much of what kinds of foods you should be eating everyday.

After two weeks of eating right and drinking enough water, make an assessment of how you feel inside and out. How does your skin feel? Check in with yourself and be honest enough to admit it if you actually feel like you have done yourself a great favour.

A good diet is so important to all facets of our busy lives. Not only does it keep the invisible parts of us in good shape, but also some of the most visible parts we own, our skin! Remember that nothing looks as good as good health and healthy skin starts from the inside with a good diet.