What to Eat (& Drink) to Beat Dry Winter Skin

+ recipe for Mustard-Glazed Salmon With Garden Lentils

If you’re suffering from seasonal scaliness, you’re not alone. Dry skin is a common side effect of winter. As temperatures plunge, so does the humidity in the air, creating an environment that essentially sucks the moisture out of our body’s protective outer layer, resulting in that uncomfortable tightening, itchiness and flakiness. There are things you can do from the outside-in to prevent moisture loss, including keeping showers brief and not-too-hot, slathering on a rich cream right after patting yourself dry and running a house humidifier. But you can also optimize your skin’s natural moisture-lock system by keeping it well-nourished from the inside-out.

The goal is to eat and drink so your body can generate robust skin cells that retain more moisture — it’s not magic; it’s just good nutrition. Here are some heathy eating and drinking habits that could keep your skin dewy this winter. Okay, if not exactly dewy, at least less lizard-like.

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Drink (and eat) for hydration

We typically don’t sweat as much in the winter as we do in the warmer months, so it’s easy to forget that we still need plenty of fluids. Staying well hydrated helps keep all of our body’s systems functioning smoothly, so at a minimum, you should aim for the recommended daily intake of 91 ounces of liquid for women and 125 ounces for men, amounts which include not only water, but all nonalcoholic liquids consumed (yes, even caffeinated beverages such as coffee and tea).

There is not much evidence that drinking more than that will boost skin moisture further, but one 2015 study published in the journal of Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology found that all participants, both those who typically drank at least 3.2 liters (108 ounces) daily and those who typically drank less than that had significantly moister skin after supplementing their usual intake with an additional 2 liters (67 ounces) of water for a month.

That doesn’t mean you have to pump fluids aggressively to have healthy skin but do try to stay on top of your thirst. If drinking plain or bubbly water leaves you cold this time of year, try a hot beverage such as herbal tea.

Also, since about 20 percent of our fluid intake comes from the foods we eat, make the most of water-rich edibles that are especially good in the winter, including cozy vegetable soups and the wide variety of seasonal citrus. These foods not only pump up your water intake, they have other possible skin-nourishing benefits as well (more on that soon).

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