As a licensed primary care professional, Dr. Juli Mazi ND regularly sees patients who are looking for healthy, natural ways to improve not just the quality of their skin but also their hair and their nails as well. The good news is that doing so isn’t nearly as difficult as people think it is – it simply requires a few key dietary changes in order to do it.

Improve Your Diet, Improve Your Body

For Dr. Mazi, one of the best ways to improve your skin, your hair, and your nails through dietary changes comes down to embracing the benefits of seafood with open arms. Most seafood like salmon and tuna aren’t just great sources of protein – they also contain omega-3 and omega-6 fats that improve immunity and reduce inflammation as well. So not only would you be going a long way towards external physical improvements, but you’d be virtually guaranteeing internal ones, too.

Adding more nuts into your diet is also a great way to get better skin, hair, and nails, once again because they’re an excellent source of protein. Just make sure you’re eating them raw as opposed to roasted. Additionally, nuts have been proven to have beneficial properties when it comes to preventing things like heart disease, so try to eat them as often as you can.

If your issue is that you’re dealing with dry skin, in particular, one great way to combat this problem is to add more healthy fat to your diet. Skin in general needs fat to remain healthy, in addition to other things like an ample amount of protein as outlined above. Avocados are just one of the many examples of a way to add healthy fat into your diet that just so happens to also be delicious at the same time.

If there is a running theme throughout all of this, it’s that protein is a hugely important part of your diet – especially when it comes to your hair, your skin, and your nails. So if the issue you’re trying to correct is that you have thin or brittle hair, consider adding as much protein to your diet as possible. Whole eggs are an efficient way to do this, and they’ll also encourage you to eat breakfast every day – something that is also critical for your diet for other reasons. Whole eggs are also filled with vitamin B, which itself will help make your hair far more resistant to issues like breakage.

Finally, we arrive at an issue many people deal with – damaged and/or otherwise weak nails. A lot of people don’t realize that this particular problem is usually the result of a nutritional deficiency – you’re probably not getting enough protein, iron, or vitamin B. The good news is that a lot of the other foods on this list will help you take care of multiple problems at the same time. The better news is that if you want to focus on your nails specifically, you can add delicious vegetables like asparagus. Not only are they a tasty low-calorie treat, but they’re also easy to prepare, and you can even eat them raw.