How to Naturally Reduce Wrinkles with Food

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

After my video on dates blew my mind, showing that eating just a few dates can significantly reduce the duration of labor during childbirth and improve the progression of labor, when I saw that there were randomized controlled trials showing that peanut balls could decrease the length of labor, I didn’t bat an eye, but no, this is the peanut ball they were talking about. But there are some surprising benefits attributed to nuts in randomized controlled trials, like how about a study on the effects of almond consumption on wrinkles? Where’d they even come up with the idea?

Well, population studies have found that healthy diets are associated with less facial wrinkles, like a meat and junk-predominant eating pattern was associated with more wrinkles, whereas a fruit-predominant pattern was associated with fewer wrinkles. In terms of single foods, yellow vegetables and soy appear protective, but wine may make things worse. Their thinking is that it might be the antioxidants in healthy foods decreasing the oxidative stress load, or the anti-inflammatory benefits, or protection from sun damage, or improved collagen production, or better DNA repair. I have videos on most of those topics. The bottom line is that eating healthier may reduce wrinkling, which could actually save lives if people started eating healthier to maintain a more youthful appearance––and get all the chronic disease benefits as a happy side effect.

Other studies have found the same thing, supporting recommendations for more healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Here’s another study that landed on yellow vegetables, and greens as well. In this study, a high intake of vegetables, beans, and olive oil appeared to be protective against spots of precancerous sun damage, whereas a high intake of meat and dairy may make things worse. Prunes, apples, and tea seemed particularly good, but this was a cross-sectional study, meaning just a snapshot in time. Maybe people who eat more meat are out barbequing in the sun, or people who eat more prunes use more sunblock. You can’t know for sure if foods actually affect wrinkling until you put them to the test. But we had no such studies…until now.

Why study almonds? Because it was paid for by the Almond Board, of course. The researchers didn’t know who was in the nut group, though, and who was in the control group, until they were looking at the results. The nut group were given two ounces of nuts a day, like two palmfuls of nuts, and the control group was instead given nut-free snacks to eat instead, like nut-free granola bars or pretzels. Before and after, they got high‐res facial photographs to quantify facial wrinkle depth and severity using a computer‐based photographic analysis. And…boom, the almond group had significantly decreased wrinkle severity compared with the control group by the end of the 16-week study. The paper concludes: “Our study demonstrates that daily almond consumption may reduce wrinkle severity…”

Now, they used a relatively large dose––two ounces a day––whereas you can get cardioprotective benefits of nuts from even less than a half an ounce. So, who knows, maybe they could have gotten away with using less. Here’s the low-dose nut study they referenced, showing a significant drop in LDL cholesterol within six weeks eating just a few almonds a day—10 grams, which is just like eight almonds a day.

That’s the nice thing about healthy foods, they just have good side effects; so, global disease prevention strategies might benefit from emphasizing that a healthy diet is also linked to less facial wrinkling, and maybe vanity will help us prevent a few heart attacks in the bargain.

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• Bagherzadeh Karimi A, Elmi A, Mirghafourvand M, Baghervand Navid R. Effects of date fruit (Phoenix dactylifera L.) on labor and delivery outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2020;20(1):210.
• Grenvik JM, Rosenthal E, Saccone G, et al. Peanut ball for decreasing length of labor: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2019;242:159-65.
• Foolad N, Vaughn AR, Rybak I, et al. Prospective randomized controlled pilot study on the effects of almond consumption on skin lipids and wrinkles. Phytother Res. 2019;33(12):3212-7.
• Mekić S, Jacobs LC, Hamer MA, et al. A healthy diet in women is associated with less facial wrinkles in a large Dutch population-based cohort. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2019;80(5):1358-63.e2.
• Cosgrove MC, Franco OH, Granger SP, Murray PG, Mayes AE. Dietary nutrient intakes and skin-aging appearance among middle-aged American women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;86(4):1225-31.
• Nagata C, Nakamura K, Wada K, et al. Association of dietary fat, vegetables and antioxidant micronutrients with skin ageing in Japanese women. Br J Nutr. 2010;103(10):1493-8.
• Purba MB, Kouris-Blazos A, Wattanapenpaiboon N, et al. Skin wrinkling: can food make a difference? J Am Coll Nutr. 2001;20(1):71-80.
• Jamshed H, Sultan FAT, Iqbal R, Gilani AH. Dietary almonds increase serum hdl cholesterol in coronary artery disease patients in a randomized controlled trial. J Nutr. 2015;145(10):2287-92.

Motion graphics by Avo Media

• almonds
• anti-inflammatory
• antioxidants
• apples
• beans
• collagen
• dairy
• dates
• DNA damage
• fruit
• greens
• inflammation
• junk food
• LDL cholesterol
• meat
• nuts
• olive oil
• oxidative stress
• peanuts
• prunes
• side effects
• skin health
• soy
• tea
• vegetables
• wrinkles