The Beauty Diet (28 page)

Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick.

—Gwyneth Paltrow

Your fingernails are an essential detail of your appearance.
Essential detail
sounds like an oxymoron, like
jumbo shrimp
, but when you think about it, success always depends on the details. Details can make the difference between chocolate pudding and
pot de crème au chocolat
. Even if you spend six hours getting dressed, a detail like spinach in your teeth can ruin your appearance.

Beautiful fingernails say good things about you. They show that you pay attention to details, that you care about cleanliness, and that you successfully manage your time so you
can spend a few minutes on keeping your hands attractive. At the very least, you'll want healthy, smooth, clean fingernails that indicate you care about your personal grooming. You may want crisp, polished nails that show you are a professional, no-nonsense kind of person. Perhaps you would like long, elegant nails that give you an air of glamour or sophistication.

Your fingernails also speak volumes about your health. In their natural state, the shape, color, and strength of your nails can change due to many different health factors. Most important to this discussion: fingernails are a very good indicator of your nutritional status. Problem nails can be a sign that your body is not getting all the nutrients it needs.

When you stop to think about fingernails, they make a lot of sense. They provide a tough covering for our sensitive fingertips and extend the capabilities of our hands like little tools at the ends of our fingers.

The fingernail itself is a hard covering made mostly of keratin, the same protein found in skin and hair. The part you see is called the
nail plate
. The skin underneath the nail is called the
nail bed
. Healthy fingernails are pink because of the circulation in the blood vessels of the nail bed.

The skin at the bottom of each fingernail is called the
cuticle
. The cuticle overlaps the nail plate. Be kind to your cuticles, because underneath them is the fingernail factory called the
matrix
. New cells for your nails are produced in the matrix. As they grow, they push the older cells out toward the ends of your fingers. This process squashes the older cells so they become hard and flat, forming your fingernails. Unlike your hair, which grows in stages, fingernails are constantly growing.

The white half-moon shape at the bottom of each fingernail is called the
lunula
. The skin that surrounds your fingernails on all three sides is called the
nail folds
. Sometimes the nail folds become swollen or irritated.

You can expect your nails to grow about a tenth of an inch each month. If you're waiting for your nails to grow out, you'll have to be patient. It takes about six months to grow a complete fingernail, but the rate is very individual. Fingernails grow faster when you are young, and they grow more quickly on your dominant hand (if you are right-handed, the fingernails on your right hand grow faster).

The ideal fingernail is strong and resilient—tough but not hard. Natural fingernails should be able to bend instead of break. If you leave the edges alone so they grow out straight, the fingernail will be stronger—plus you'll be less likely to get an ingrown nail.

Healthy fingernails are pink, firm, and somewhat lustrous. They do not have any strange tint or color. They do not have ridges, pits, white marks, or dark lines. If your fingernails look strange—discolored, clubbed, thick, or with pronounced lines or indentations—this may be a sign of illness. If your fingernails look basically normal but are dry or brittle, this may be a sign that you are not optimally nourished. Your nails may not be getting enough nutrients if you are a super-picky eater, you go on crash diets, or you do not properly digest foods and absorb nutrients.

Recent studies have shown that the health of your nails correlates with the strength of your bones. Women with osteoporosis have less protein in their fingernails. If your diet does not include enough protein and other nutrients to grow strong fingernails, you may have other, less visible problems as well, like weakened bones.

If you already have an excellent diet, adding nutrients will not help your nails. If your diet has room for improvement, now is your chance to reverse any nutritional issues you may have. Although companies market dozens of dietary supplements that are supposed to enhance the growth of your nails, I would much rather have you try my Beauty Diet, which provides you with a wide spectrum of nutrients without any danger of side effects. The Beauty Diet can offer you strong, beautiful, healthy nails in six months—plus, eating well to take care of your nails will help make your whole body strong and gorgeous!

Following are the major components of a nail-boosting diet:

If you have been reading this book from the beginning, you already know that water is a true beauty beverage,
as it supports every process and every system in the body. A quick, nonscientific test for dehydration is to press on a fingernail and wait to see how quickly the nail bed returns to pink (from white). If the fingernail doesn't return to its usual pinkish color in less than two seconds, this could be a sign of dehydration. Over the long term, dehydration can make your nails brittle. Make sure you drink enough water to keep all of your cells plump and moist.

A protein deficiency can show up as white bands across all of your nails. Fingernails are composed mostly of protein, so to grow long, strong, attractive nails you must eat some quality protein every day. As you read in the last chapter, keratin—the main component of hair and fingernails—is made of amino acids, particularly cysteine. However, this does not mean you need supplemental cysteine. Eating a variety of different protein sources will help ensure you take in adequate amounts of amino acids for growing fabulous fingernails. Among my Top 10 Beauty Foods, the highest amount of protein is found in salmon, yogurt, walnuts, and oysters. Other good sources of protein include fish, shellfish, turkey, chicken, beef, lamb, soybeans, eggs, nuts, and dairy products. (For more information about protein sources, see
Chapter 1
.)

The B vitamins include thiamine (B
1
), riboflavin (B
2
), niacin (B
3
), pantothenic acid (B
5
), pyridoxine (B
6
), biotin (B
7
), folic acid/folate (B
9
), and cobalamin (B
12
). While rare, deficiency of vitamin B
12
can cause hyperpigmentation of the nail plate. The B vitamins work together in the body and are vital to many different processes, including good circulation and cell growth. There are studies indicating that supplemental biotin can strengthen nails, but the articles do not clarify whether the participants started out with an underlying deficiency of biotin. It makes sense that giving biotin to people who are deficient would help their fingernails. If you already consume plenty of B vitamins—which
are readily available in many foods—you probably don't need extra biotin. Among my Top 10 Beauty Foods, the best source of thiamine (B
1
) and biotin (B
7
) is walnuts, the best source of riboflavin (B
2
) and pantothenic acid (B
5
) is yogurt, the best source of niacin (B
3
) is wild salmon, the best source of folate (B
9
) is spinach, and the best source of cobalamin (B
12
)—which is available only from animal sources—is oysters. Spinach, walnuts, and salmon are all good sources of pyridoxine (B
6
).

Nails contain calcium, albeit at a much lower concentration than our bones do. Most Americans, particularly women, do not get enough calcium. While there is no scientific evidence that calcium intake significantly alters nail quality, individuals taking calcium supplements sometimes comment that their nails are less brittle or smoother, or that they grow faster, according to an article published in the
New England Journal of Medicine
. Among my Top 10 Beauty Foods, the best sources of calcium are yogurt, sweet potatoes, and spinach. Good sources of absorbable calcium include milk products, most types of tofu, some dark green leafy vegetables, turnip greens, and canned fish such as salmon and sardines that include bones. (For more information, see
Chapter 6
.)

If you are not getting enough iron, your fingernails will show it. Iron-deficiency anemia—which is not uncommon in women—makes nails brittle. If this could be your problem, eat more iron-containing foods. Among my Top 10 Beauty Foods, the best sources of iron are oysters, spinach, and tomatoes. Other animal sources of iron include clams, lean beef, turkey, duck, lamb, chicken, pork, shrimp, and eggs. Good plant sources of iron include soybeans, lentils, beans, and bran. (For more information, see
Chapter 4
.) You can enhance your body's ability to absorb nonheme iron by consuming vitamin C in the same meal.