[podcast] How Nutrition Translates to Beauty, Part IV: Consumer and Client Interest

Are nutricosmetics a crucial component of everyday consumer life? Are they in demand? Cosmetics & Toiletries posed this question and others to renowned dermatologists Zoe Diana Draelos, M.D., and Alan Dattner, M.D. Following are excerpts adapted from part IV in our five-part podcast series, "How Nutrition Impacts Beauty." Hear more by clicking on the podcast at the bottom of the page.

Follow additional podcasts in this series on: "How Nutrition Translates to Beauty" (part I); "Measuring Nutricosmetic Efficacy" (part II); "Nutricosmetic Successes and Stumbling Blocks" (part III); and "How Epigenetics and the Microbiome Factor In" (part V).

Cosmetics & Toiletries: As a dermatologist, do clients ask you about nutricosmetic products? Are they interested in this market segment?

Draelos: I get a lot of questions about this and I think it’s because there’s tremendous diversity in the marketplace. The question I get frequently is: “What is the best nutraceutical or nutricosmetic for me to purchase?”

The problem is: What is the best? Since we don’t have yardsticks to measure sufficient nutrition, that’s a tough question to answer. The way I answer it is, it must contain all the necessary required vitamins: A and B, niacin, thamine, linoleic and linolenic acid, the omegas and the trace minerals. 

On top of that, as a general rule, you should eat something from each color of the rainbow (naturally) every day. Then you’re getting all the flavonoids, antioxidants and resveratrol that can assist with skin health. While those are general guidelines, if you follow them, you’ll be in good shape.

Dattner: To be honest, most of my clients come to me because they have problems like pigmentation and acne. And frankly, transforming someone from having spots on their face to clearing is dramatic for beauty. Treatments for these conditions are what I get asked about a lot.

I recommend everything from diet and medication, to relaxation; because people that are anxious and upset don’t digest their food properly and although I give them things to help digest food, there’s nothing better than getting your own body working.

Some people also have a needy inner self and they’re stuffing that with sugar and junk, so they need help to normalize the diet. I recommend supplements, too.