Curly, smooth, short or long, hair they are an important business card, a significant indicator of a person’s psychophysical well-being.
Like the skin, in fact, they can represent the indicator of internal problems such as hormonal disorders, mineral deficiencies, anemia, depression. Just think of how the hair changes after periods of intense stress or incorrect eating habits perpetrated over time due to drastic diets, mainly based on the calorie count of foodscompletely unbalanced and often devoid of essential substances for the skin and its annexes.
More generally, then, our hair is put to the test by the aggression of weathering in every season of the year, from low temperatures to excessive exposure to sunlight. If we add to these pollution and smog, salt, wind, humidity and chlorine, the stem weakens and the foliage, day after day, becomes more and more dull and lacking in vigor.
So how to ensure healthy and strong hair?
The solution comes from nature. To maintain healthy hair, good nutrition is first of all important.
Fatty acids to counteract hair loss
At the center of the attention of scientists today is the grasso. A useful resource for the body and not just an accumulation to ‘destroy’ to be beautiful and get back in shape.
“This approach – explains the prof. Pier Luigi Rossi, university professor and medical specialist in Nutrition Sciences and Preventive Medicine in Arezzo and author of the book ‘A new body, know your healthy fat and live healthily (and for a long time)’ (Aboca edizioni) – is now outdated. Current scientific research recognizes al adipose tissue a positive and protective role in both women and men.
Each anatomical site has its adipose tissue, its stem cells, its own adipocitiits immune cells, its adipose microenvironment. Including the dermis. There is a dermal adipocyte axis and hair follicle that generates the hair. Hair, hair, wound repair and thermoregulation are managed, that is, by the dermal adipocytes. Each of their variations is highlighted in one hair loss and in a variation of hairs on the skin surface “.
And it is precisely the daily diet that influences the dermal adipocytes. “It is necessary that these have within them the righteous fatty acids in which oleic acid dominates, mainly contained inextra virgin olive oiland short-chain fatty acids that are also found in goat cheeses, in addition to being produced by the microbiota with water-soluble dietary fiber ”, explains prof. Rossi.
“On the contrary, the saturated fatty acids long-chain (palmitic, myristic, stearic acid contained in foods of animal origin) damage the dermal adipocytes and therefore the hair “.
Sulfur amino acids for hair beauty
Then, the spotlight is on sulfur amino acids. “Methionine, cystine and cysteine – continues prof. Pier Luigi Rossi – fortify the hair and protect it from external aggressions as they intervene in the constitution of the keratinthe protein that together with water, fats, pigments and trace elements such as sulfur, zinc, copper and magnesium form and give texture to the hair.
It is therefore necessary to eat fish at least three times a week, white meat twice and once red meat, eggs, ham ”, continues the expert. “Particularly useful for this purpose are: legumes (lentils and chickpeas, which are better tolerated by the intestine than beans); oats; quinoa; amaranth and, in first place, the mile. It is a cereal rich in sulfur amino acids, zinc and silicon, which contains above all interesting doses of sulfur, the mineral of beauty ”, assures prof. Pier Luigi Rossi.
Based on the indications of the international tables, sulfur constitutes 0.30% of our body: a very high percentage which demonstrates the importance of the precious trace element for the human body. The daily diet must therefore include foods rich in sulfur such as garlic, onion, shallot, potatoes, carrot, red beet, topinambur, celeriac, radishes, turnips, daikon. But also cabbage, lettuce, radicchio, peppers, aubergines, courgettes, spinach, chard and chard, asparagus, thistles, fennel, eggs, fish, rabbit, white and red meat. However, the simple consumption of these foods is not enough.
“Important – points out prof. Pier Luigi Rossi – is that foods that contain sulfur come eaten raw. It will therefore be useful to consume vegetables as soon as possible after harvesting: if your diet consists mainly of processed and cooked foods, you can be sure that you are not getting a sufficient amount of sulfur in your daily diet “.
“Let’s not forget that a sulfur deficiency, zinc and especially copper in the scalp can cause loss of color (premature gray hair) and hair texture “.
The best natural remedies
Further help can come from the world of natural complexes. Horsetail, millet, brewer’s yeast and royal jelly can be particularly effective for hair health. Royal jelly has, in fact, great restorative properties for the organism under stress, while horsetail and millet, with their high content of silicic acid, they help strengthen the hair. Brewer’s yeast, on the other hand, is rich in B vitamins, useful for the activity of the bulbs from which the hair is born, as well as copper, a feature that makes this food a good natural “medicine” for the health and beauty of hair.
To these nutritional advice must be added the choosing the right water. “I therefore recommend checking the sulphate value on the label and choosing those with a value greater than 80-100 mg / liter of sulphates. The waters with sulfur among other things, they are also useful for having healthy intestinal hygiene “, concludes prof. Pier Luigi Rossi.