Your skin is the largest organ in your body and also one of the most sensitive. Besides protecting your skin from the sun and environmental hazards, you can help keep your skin strong and healthy by eating a nutritious diet. If you want to improve your skin's elasticity, certain vitamins can help. Taking supplements as well as applying some vitamins topically can give your skin the boost it needs to stay supple and youthful.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A helps your skin retain its elasticity, as vitamin A is used in the maintenance and repair of skin cells. Foods rich in vitamin A include carrots, apricots, papaya, mangoes, spinach, broccoli, milk, liver, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, kale and collard greens. If you take a supplement, choose one with the beta-carotene form of vitamin A, Harvard School of Puclic Health advises. Applying vitamin A topically to your skin can also help boost your skin's elasticity. The sun and aging can drain vitamin A from your skin, and creams or lotion with vitamin A can help restore your skin's suppleness.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is an antioxidant, which means it helps protect your skin from damaging elements in the environment. Pollution, smoking and the sun can cause your skin to lose elasticity and be more prone to wrinkles, sun spots and sagging. Vitamin C helps shield your skin from these factors, reducing your skin's loss of elastin and collagen, which keep it supple. Vitamin-C rich foods include citrus fruits, broccoli, cauliflower and leafy greens. Vitamin C can also help shield your skin from free radicals -- such as the sun -- when applied in a lotion or cream.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E is also an antioxidant that helps combat damaging free radicals in the environment. Vitamin E helps your skin retain elasticity in the face of drying elements such as the sun or natural aging. Vitamin E-rich foods include vegetable oils, almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, spinach and broccoli. Your skin can also benefit from vitamin E in creams and lotion, which can help your skin stay hydrated and supple.
Recommended Daily Intake
The Institute of Medicine offers a Dietary Reference Intake chart with recommendations for how much to consume of different vitamins each day. You should not take more than the recommended amount of certain vitamins, which can be toxic. Consuming too much vitamin A in the form of retinol can be toxic, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. Also, high doses of vitamin E in supplement form can pose health risks, according to the National Institutes of Health.
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