Drink your way to more youthful skin

The future was nutrition pills – now it’s drinks for the skin

Back IN THE 1970S we were told the future of human nutrition resided in little space-age capsules. Pretty soon, we’d all be popping pills instead of fiddling around with conventional meals.

It didn’t seem enticing, even then, which is probably why the predictions didn’t pan out.

Not quite, at any rate. The vitamin a nd supplement i ndust r y was e st imated at around £100 billion in 2016 and shows no signs of slowing, despite dire government warnings that we’re literally flushing our money down the drain. clearly there are issues of trust here: we’ve lost fait h in t he abilit y of the food chain to give us all we need. Or we’ve been seduced by the ads.

enter t he new f ut u re of hu man nut r it ion – or at le as t t he f ut ure of human skincare. This time it comes not in hard little pellets, but in liquids that are easier to ingest and, according to some research, far more effective. Take Skinade, a patented Brit ish for mulat ion t hat cont a ins 7,000mg of highg rade collagen (your friendly plumping agent) sourced f rom f reshwater fish. That’s the equivalent, according to t he Skinade tea m, of 20 st a ndard pills. a portion of Skinade also claims to provide all your recommended daily allowance of vitamin c, vitamin B complex and omegas 3 and 6, comes in at 35 calories… and promises an 80-90 per cent absor ption rate, compared with 30-40 per cent for those pills.

Is any of this actually useful? clinical trials are encouraging rather than d ra mat ic – lines a nd deep wrinkles decreased by around 30 per cent after taking Skinade daily for 12 weeks, skin suppleness increased by 19 per cent. But I’ll take encouraging. I’ve been on it for about two months, and my skin is def i n it ely g low y a nd le s s cr e a s e d (t here’s an improvement all over my body), while my nails and hair seem to be flourishing. The one-hit aspect is a bonus – I’ve stopped all the other fiddly supplements. The taste? Slightly odd and sweet (although it doesn’t contain sugar or aspartame) but nothing intolerable: I find the travel sachets, which you dissolve in water, nicer t han t he ready-mixed bottles, and far less wasteful in terms of packaging.

Skin supplements a re clea rly t he coming thing – more are launching by the month. On a different tack, Symprove is an impressive probiotic drink aimed at resetting the flora and fauna in your g ut. It was recommended to me by Stephanie Moore, who heads the nutrition department at Grayshott He a lt h Sp a , a nd I adv is e a nyone with digestive issues to tr y it. Banish thoughts of all those sugar-laden probiotic yogurts and drinks on TV. This t a ste s ser ious – t hi nk liquid s auerkraut – which I’ve come to love. It’s not cheap but it ’s wonder f ul, ca l ming, ef fe ct i ve st u f f t hat , l i ke Sk i nade, you’re supposed to take for t hree to four months; you then rest for a month before resuming if you need to.

In between, t here’s always a daily spoonful of apple cider vinegar to help digest ion (which, in t ur n, will have an impact on skin) and turmeric tea. I make my own – fresh ground ginger, a spoonful of turmeric and some raw honey. Not futuristic, but delicious.