Human skin can generally be classified into three types: neutral skin, oily skin, and dry skin.
Neutral skin is tight, of moderate thickness, smooth, soft, and elastic, making it a good skin type.
Dry skin is delicate and pale, prone to dryness and wrinkles, easily damaged, and sensitive to physical and chemical factors. It can become red and painful after sun exposure and may peel and produce flakes. Another type is combination skin, where the forehead and nose are oily with excessive sebum production and shine, while the other parts of the face are dry and delicate, sensitive to UV radiation. Approximately 80% of women have combination skin.
Oily skin has larger facial pores, more sebum, and a shiny appearance. This skin type is prone to acne and facial skin infections, affecting its appearance. The reason is that the sebaceous glands have strong secretion function and produce excessive sebum, which is more common in young people during puberty.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, individuals with excessive body fluids are considered to have a heavy humidity and belong to the oily constitution. Their skin tends to be oily. Conversely, individuals with insufficient body fluids are considered to be dry and belong to the dry constitution. Their skin tends to be rough and dry.
From a modern medical perspective, individuals with oily skin have more active sebaceous gland secretion, higher levels of male hormones, and dilated blood vessels in the skin. Individuals with dry skin have insufficient skin moisture, slow metabolism, reduced sebaceous gland function, dry skin surface, easy shedding of the epidermal keratinocytes, lack of skin elasticity, and prone to wrinkles. Therefore, dietary adjustments based on different skin types can greatly benefit the beauty of the skin.
For individuals with neutral or dry skin, it is advisable to consume more alkaline foods such as soybeans, black beans, adzuki beans, vegetables, fruits, and seaweed. Acidic foods such as bird and animal meats, fish and shellfish should be consumed in moderation. It is also recommended to use traditional Chinese medicine remedies that promote blood circulation, remove blood stasis, and nourish yin, such as peach blossom, peach kernel, danggui, lotus flower, rose flower, safflowers, wolfberry, yuzhu, ligustrum, dryopteris, lily, mulberry leaf, and mulberry fruit.
For individuals with oily skin, it is advisable to consume cooling and neutral foods such as winter melon, luffa, white radish, carrot, bamboo shoots, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, cauliflower, lotus root, jellyfish (fresh jellyfish should be steamed or cooked before consumption to prevent poisoning from colchicine), water chestnut, watermelon, pomelo, coconut, silverfish, chicken, and rabbit meat. Spicy, hot, and oily foods such as cream, cheese, dairy products, preserves, fatty pork, mutton, dog meat, peanuts, walnuts, longan meat, lychee, walnut kernels, chocolate, cocoa, and curry powder should be consumed in moderation. Traditional Chinese medicine remedies that have cooling and heat-clearing properties, such as white poria, plantain seed, pearl, white chrysanthemum flower, coix seed, talc, and lingzhi, are recommended.
