A balanced diet can provide a lot of health advantages, such as to help promote healthy hair. The question is which one of good foods that you need to prioritize in your diet to prevent hair loss problem? Like every cells of other parts of the body, cells of hair also need adequate amount of nutrient to keep growing and healthy. If they don’t get what they need, they tend to fall out easily.
The effects of good or poor diet to the health of the hair may take longer to be noticeable if compared with the effects to the skin. For instance, about a week after sticking with a poor diet (such as low in fiber and vitamin E) you may experience sallow skin on certain part of your body or acne on your face. But with your hair, the noticeable effect may occur after a few months later.
When it comes to having healthy hair, it’s important for you to have healthy hair follicles and healthy scalp.
Both healthier follicles and scalp can be very helpful to improve the health and strength of your hair. And in fact, the nutrients taken from foods that you eat every day can directly affect them.
There are some nutrients (such as protein, minerals, and vitamins) that have a significant contribution to promote hair growth. Visit this section for more detailed information about these essential nutrients!
However, the foods that you eat are not the single factor that have an affect. The external factors occasionally also play a key role. These include lack of sleep, air pollution (free radicals), and certain bad habits (like cigarette smoking). Furthermore, hormonal imbalances and a genetic trait also often have a significant role in increasing the risk of hair problems (such as thinning hair, receding hairline, and baldness).
In addition, one thing you need to always remember and should be clearly understood, there is no magic nutrient that can give a significant result at short time. The outlook and prognosis of hair loss problem is often closely related with the cause of the problem.
There is a wide range of foods that can help for hair growth. Nevertheless, though the following hair growth food list is great for your hair, it’s also important to consume them moderately. The key is a balanced diet and stick with it in long term!
Moreover, make sure you choose diet with a wide variety of hair-growth foods – don’t only focus to a specific food, because each food has its own unique property that can help promote overall health!
They are high in hair-friendly nutrient called zinc. Being at lack of zinc and if this occurs frequently can lead to thinning hair, dry scalp, or even losing hair in the eyelashes. It can be found in the whole grain breads, beef, egg, and fortified cereals – but oysters can boost more your zinc intake and also protein.
You need to know that about 97 percent of your hair is protein.
In fact, protein is the most essential element of your hair. Therefore, diet low in protein is not recommended if you seriously want to have full hair on your scalp. There are many foods high in protein, and one of them is poultry (particularly such as skinless breast chicken). It is also high in vitamin B, iron, and zinc.
It contains a lot of hair-friendly protein – and the good news, it is low in fat that also can help maintain your ideal weight in long term. Other essential nutrients that can be found in Greek yogurt are vitamin D and vitamin B-5. These vitamins (especially vitamin D) are also good for your hair.
‘Popeye the sailor man‘– you might know this popular cartoon. Spinach is not only recommended for children, it also can provide many essential nutrients for anyone. It contains a lot of vitamin C, folate, beta carotene, and iron – essential nutrients that can help for scalp oils circulating and hair follicles growth.
If you don’t like spinach, the similar vegetables that can provide almost same nutrients are kale, broccoli, or other leafy vegetables. They are also great for the health of your digestive system and skin.
They are high in antioxidant beta carotene that can be converted into vitamin A in the body. In fact, all cells in the body need adequate vitamin A to keep functioning as well.
Having adequate vitamin A can help your body to maintain the production of oils that very important to sustain the scalp. On the other hand, if you are being at lack of vitamin A, you are vulnerable to have itchy skin.
Other alternative options that can be a great source of beta carotene are apricots, mangoes, spinach, carrots, and pumpkins. For better result, it’s recommended to consume a wide range of different beta carotene foods in your diet!
This kind of tasty cold-water fish is not only high in vitamin D and protein, but also can provide you omega-3 fatty acids (essential nutrient that cannot be produced by your body on its own).
Omega-3 fatty acids can be very useful to help grow your hair. This is reasonable since about 3 percent of the shaft of your hair is made from this fatty acid.
In fact, omegat-3 fatty acids can be found in the natural oils that help your hair and scalp hydrated. Moreover, it is also found in the cells of membranes in the scalp.
Other healthy foods that contain omega-3 fatty acids are pumpkin seeds, avocado, sardines, herring, and trout. If you are breastfeeding and want to restore your hair loss after pregnancy, make sure you choose fish high in omega-3 fatty acids that also low in mercury!