The scars resulting from injuries or surgeries can be a source of concern for many people. What should you eat to prevent scarring? Discover these valuable tips to help you minimize the appearance of scars on your body.
What to Eat to Prevent Scarring?
After experiencing open wounds from accidents or surgeries, proper care is essential to prevent unsightly keloid scars or concave scars. To address the question of what to eat to prevent scarring, consider the following essential information:
Foods to Avoid for Preventing Keloid Scars
Avoid Water SpinachWater spinach is a commonly enjoyed vegetable due to its affordability and delicious taste. However, it is known to have coagulating properties, which can contribute to the formation of keloid scars. Scientifically, water spinach can stimulate skin cells, leading to an excess of collagen and the development of unsightly keloid scars.
Avoid Chicken
Chicken is a nutritious and widely consumed protein source. However, its consumption can lead to complications if you have open wounds. Chicken meat can be heat-inducing and may cause swelling and infection, slowing down the healing process and increasing the risk of scarring.
Avoid Beef
Similar to chicken, beef is a protein-rich food that can interfere with collagen fibrous tissues in the skin. Consuming beef may stimulate the rapid production of collagen, leading to excess skin cell growth and the formation of keloid scars.
Avoid Seafood and Fishy Foods
Seafood is rich in proteins and nutrients that promote collagen production, potentially resulting in excessive skin cell growth and keloid scars. Additionally, seafood can cause allergic reactions when consumed during the wound healing process, leading to itching, infection, and delayed healing.
Avoid Glutinous Foods
Foods made from glutinous rice are heat-inducing and can lead to inflammation and swelling if consumed before wounds have fully healed. This can impede the healing process and contribute to the formation of keloids.
What Should People with Deep Scars Avoid Eating?
Similar to keloid scars, dark scars resulting from accidents, burns, or pustules can significantly impact one’s self-confidence. These scars are often highly visible and challenging to treat. To minimize the formation of dark scars, it’s crucial to abstain from specific foods, starting from the time when the wound is still open. It’s advisable to avoid the foods mentioned earlier. Additionally, medical professionals recommend abstaining from water spinach, beef, soy sauce, dog meat, water spinach, and amaranth to prevent scarring.
What Should People with Pitted Scars Avoid Eating?
Pitted scars are a common consequence of acne-prone skin and result from insufficient collagen synthesis during the wound healing process. To prevent pitted scars and address the question of what to eat to minimize scarring, consider actively avoiding the following foods:
Abstain from Consuming Eggs
The high protein content in eggs, along with their fishy nature, can contribute to the formation of pitted scars. Egg yolk can also delay wound healing and increase melanin pigment production, leading to uneven skin and the development of dark, pitted scars.
Avoid Fish Sauce
Although fish sauce is a commonly used condiment, its protein content can trigger itching in young skin. Collagen fibrous tissue formation for new skin may not be concentrated enough to fill in scar pits. Therefore, when dealing with pitted and concave scars, it’s advisable to avoid using fish sauce as a seasoning. Instead, consider using salt and a small amount of seasoning powder during the healing process.
Steer Clear of Red Meats
Most red meats are rich in protein, which can result in uneven collagen fiber activity. This can lead to an excess of skin cells in some areas and a deficiency in others, resulting in keloids and pitted scars. It’s best to completely abstain from red meats like beef and goat meat. Pork is a healthier alternative that can be used in place of other red meats.
By following these dietary guidelines and abstaining from the mentioned foods, you can effectively address the question of what to eat to minimize scarring. However, if your body tends to scar easily, read on to discover effective and quick scar treatment methods.
What to Avoid When You Have an Open Wound?
Open wounds typically occur after actions like squeezing acne, using derma rollers, non-needle treatments, or micro-needling. Therefore, it’s crucial to provide proper care for open wounds during the skin’s recovery process. Failing to do so and not abstaining from certain foods can easily lead to keloid scars, concave scars, or dark scars. To minimize scarring when you have an open wound, avoid consuming the following foods:
Beef
Beef, as a type of red meat, can lead to bruising, darkening, and prolonged healing of open wounds, potentially resulting in unsightly scars.
Water Spinach
As previously mentioned, water spinach is known to contribute to keloid and dark scars when consumed. It’s advisable to avoid dishes made from this food.
Foods High in Sugar
Foods with high sugar content, such as sugary treats, can significantly impact collagen formation in the epidermis during wound healing. Adding sugar during this phase can extend the healing process.
Chicken
Chicken can delay wound healing, cause scabbing, and increase the risk of irritation and rashes, making it best to abstain from chicken during this period.
Seafood
Seafood-based dishes often have a fishy odor, making open wounds prone to itching, discomfort, and even infection. To promote proper healing, it’s recommended to abstain from seafood.
Dishes Made from Glutinous Rice
Glutinous rice possesses heat-inducing properties that can lead to swelling, festering, and inflammation of open wounds. Consuming dishes made from glutinous rice, such as sticky rice, banh chung, banh tet, and others, during wound healing can also contribute to keloid formation.
In addition to the aforementioned foods, it’s advisable to avoid eggs, ginger, skim milk, and smoked meat to prevent the development of keloid, dark, or pitted scars.
What Should You Eat to Improve Scarring?
In addition to avoiding the aforementioned foods, when you have scars, it’s important to incorporate foods into your diet that promote scar healing and skin repair. Specifically:
Foods Rich in Iron
Iron is essential for the wound healing process and skin recovery. Include iron-rich foods in your diet like tofu, legumes, pork, pork liver, spinach, pumpkin seeds, and broccoli.
Foods High in Vitamin C
Vitamin C promotes collagen and elastin production, aiding in the repair of damaged skin cells and the filling of pitted scars. It also accelerates wound healing, reduces melanin production, and helps fade acne scars. Consume foods rich in Vitamin C, such as oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, guava, kiwi, bell peppers, collard greens, and spinach.
Foods Rich in Vitamin E
Vitamin E, an antioxidant, not only slows down skin aging but also effectively fades dark scars and prevents keloids. Including Vitamin E-rich foods in your diet can help fade scars, accelerate wound healing, and prevent dark scar formation. Opt for foods like avocado, broccoli, papaya, coconut oil, sunflower seeds, almonds, pumpkin, kiwi, and more.
Foods Containing Zinc and Selenium
Foods with zinc, such as cereals, legumes (mung beans, soybeans, red beans, etc.), nuts (pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flaxseeds, etc.), milk, and dark chocolate, are known to expedite wound healing, boost the immune system against bacteria, and aid in scar filling.
How to Effectively Treat Scars?
Scars are typically considered permanent skin imperfections, making their treatment challenging. Home remedies, such as applying natural ingredients, using scar creams, or applying masks, often do not yield rapid results as expected. In fact, improper home treatments can potentially cause skin irritation.
To effectively address imperfections resulting from scars on the body, it’s advisable to seek professional assistance. Visiting a medical center or cosmetic facility is the best course of action. Here, specialized doctors can evaluate your condition and provide appropriate advice and treatments tailored to your skin.
While scarring can occur for various reasons in daily life, understanding how to choose the right scar treatment course, along with knowing what foods to consume to aid in scar healing, can help you swiftly regain your skin’s natural beauty.
Johnny Jacks was born in 1985 in Texas, USA. He is the founder of Good Health Plan and is passionate about helping people improve their health and physical well-being. With over a decade of experience working in the healthcare industry, he currently works at Goodheathplan.com – a blog that shares knowledge on beauty and health.