Eat Yourself Beautiful: Part 2

In collaboration with Tropicana

Following on from my last post about neutraceuticals, here's a little breakfast recipe post inspired by advice from top nutritionist Amanda Ursell, who writes a weekly column for The Times.

If you suffer from dry skin or redness, Amanda recommends increasing your intake of omega 3 by eating more oily fish (such as salmon, tuna and mackerel) and omega 6 from nuts and seeds. These essential fats help 'waterproof' the skin and help reduce inflammation. For a boost of iron to help prevent sub-clinical anaemia, which can leave you feeling lethargic, stressed and cause your hair to become thin and brittle, Amanda recommends spinach, dried figs and dried apricots. You can also find good sources of zinc in breakfast food such as eggs and wholemeal toast. Zinc helps nails to grow smoothly and it's found alongside biotin in eggs, which helps to ensure you have enough keratin to grow strong nails. And finally a glass of high quality orange juice with breakfast provides lots of vitamin C to help produce collagen which keeps skin plumped out.

With that in mind, here's a nutrient supercharged breakfast; Poached egg, smoked salmon and spinach on toast (and I really need a food stylist!). This isn't a recipe as such as it's fairly self explanatory but here's a couple of tips:

• For the poached egg, boil a pan of water a few inches deep (I use a wok) with a slosh of vinegar. When it begins to simmer, stir the water and break an egg into a mug. Hold the mug low over the pan, facing against the direction of the water and gently drop the egg into the pan. This will help the white ball up on itself giving you a perfect egg. It should only take a couple of minutes to cook at a simmer - just whip the egg out when it is opaque and slightly firm.
• Spinach only needs to be wilted, so rather than getting out another pan, stick a large handful of leaves in a bowl, pour over some boiling water from the kettle and plonk a plate on top. By time you've prepared everything else, the spinach will be lightly cooked. Just squeeze off any excess water and serve.

I really enjoyed reading what changes you've all been making to your diet and picked up a few tips myself! The winner of the the fruit & beauty hamper is:

Please drop me an email with your details by Tuesday 13th November and I'll get it sent out to you!

In collaboration with Tropicana