Orange Juice and Alcohol - A New Skin Protector?

I’ve generally been critical of the “beauty from within” trend in the cosmetic industry. There is little evidence that taking products like vitamins and herbal extracts will have any noticeable affect on the condition of your skin. Certainly, having a well-balanced diet can ensure you have the healthy looking skin and if you are malnourished it’s going to wreck havoc on your skin, but there is little evidence that when healthy people take supplements they can improve their skin. 

But this doesn’t mean what you eat can’t have a significant impact on your skin. Here’s a study reported on in Dermatology Times that shows alcohol consumption can reduce the antioxidants in your skin and cause you to be more susceptible to sun burns. Interestingly, it took 8 minutes for the reduction in antioxidants to occur and the decrease lasted 70 minutes.

The effects were reduced when people drank the alcohol with orange juice. Presumably, scientists wanted to see how things were affected with the addition of a food that was rich in antioxidants. This indicates that if you are going to drink alcohol in the sun, be sure to have drinks that contain antioxidant rich juices. Of course, the study was done using 6 volunteers so I wouldn’t put too much faith in the conclusions. More work needs to be done.

This does suggest a new product idea for the “beauty within” trend. Could an alcohol manufacturer team up with a cosmetic company to produce skin safe cocktail mixers that people drink during outdoor festivities?

Skin Safe Beer anyone?