Nutrition and Eating
Properly for Healthy Hair
Make no mistake that
you are mainly genetically predisposed to look a certain
way, including how your hair will look. However, that
does not mean that diet plays no role in the health
of your hair. You may be able to slow or avoid much
of the hair loss caused by nutritional deficiencies,
and you can keep the hair you already have looking healthy
by eating correctly. Many Chinese and Indians have successfully
maintain healthy heads of hair with ancient remedies.
We can learn from them.
Like the rest of your
body, healthy food gives healthy hair. Missing out meat
and dairy products could deprive your hair of important
vitamins and minerals to make the hair healthy.
The role of calories
and proteins on the hair
Studies have shown that
people on diets that lack calories and protein could
end up with hair loss or hair that don't look healthy.
It has been documented that patients with anorexia nervosa,
an ailment that the patient consumes too few calories
experience haie loss. The hair lack luster and may be
brittle.
For hair growth, we need
amino acids that include arginine, cysteine and methionine.
These are created by the body from proteins. Hence protein
intake is critical for healthy hair. Rich and balance
diets should provide adequate amounts of these essential
amino acids. They are found in lean meats, nuts, grains,
soy, fish, eggs, and dairy products. If you don't eat
enough of these, supplements may provide some of them.
Older people may find it harder to absorb some of the
essential amino acids, so supplements could be helpful
for them.
Methionine and cysteine
are amino acids that contain sulphur, which is required
by the human hair for normal growth.
- Methionine
is an essential amino acid that the body doesn't produce.
It must come from the diet or from supplements. You
can get methionine from sesame seeds, fish, meats,
and some other plant seeds.
- Cysteine
supports hair growth by providing sulphur to replicating
hair follicle cells. Unlike methionine, your body
can make this on its own. You can find cysteine in
most high-protein foods, including eggs, milk, whey
proteon, some cheese, chicken, turkey, and duck. Cysteine
also come from vegetable sauces such as peppers, garlic,
brussel sprouts, oats and wheat.
Good fats and bad fats
effect on the hair
Essential fatty acids
or "good fats" such as omega-3 and omega-6
oils, are important for the functioning of the body
and are obtained only through diets. They are obtained
from fish such as salmon,, sardines and tuna, from plants
such as flaxseeds, soya beans and pumpkin seeds, and
nuts such as walnuts. You can also obtain them in fish
oil capsules.
Without these essential
fatty acids after 2 to 4 months, the hair become dry,
change color, and the scalp get red and flakes.
On the other hand, too
much of bad fats in the form of saturated animal fats
may contribute to hair loss. This is evidenced from
the changes in the diets of Japanese men after World
War 2. As they started consuming more animal saturated
fats, they also complained of more hair loss.
Traditional Indian medicine
believes that body weakness cause hair loss. So one
treatment consists of a diet rich in proteins, including
meat, fish and dairy products. They also recommend that
you avoid dried foods which are sources of saturated
fats.
Vitamins
essential for healthy hair - learn more here.
Continue with
the following links for more detailed information on
nutrition, natural and alternative remedies to treat
hair loss.
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