Supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whiteley makes a lot of sacrifices to maintain her otherworldly glow—and this isn’t an assumption: She recently revealed to E! News she’s adopted a diet plan that spurns dairy, gluten, sugar, and alcohol.
This diet is the focus of naturopath and aesthetician Dr. Nigma Talib’s book, “Younger Skin Starts In The Gut,” which makes the point that foods terrible for your digestion ultimately manifests on your visage as blemishes, wrinkles, eye bags, flushed cheeks, and other unwanted features — a process she refers to as “digest-aging.” In fact, she even has name for how your face looks with each type of banned food: Dairy Face, Gluten Face, Sugar Face, and Wine Face.
All of this is based on the idea that the gut is the foundation of health (because a happy gut translates to happy skin) and that inflammation is the root of all disease (and one of the “diseases” is prematurely aging skin). Talib’s forbidden foods, as you can guess, cause issues in the gut and promote inflammation. “All disease and any chronic condition is a result of the gut being out of balance and being in a state of dysbiosis. Inflammation results when the gut inhabits bacteria, yeast, and parasites that become opportunistic and invade the environment of healthy bacteria, which function to increase vitamin absorption and fight the bad guys,” Talib tells Organic Authority.
Merely thinking about all the ways your skin can age probably makes you want to quit ASAP, but it’s a supremely tough regimen to adhere to—even for someone whose job is to, well, look awesome. “I miss a lot of things,” Huntington-Whiteley said. “I miss a glass of wine, I miss my cheese plates, and I miss my croissants.”
Here’s the good news, though: After you start experiencing positive results (the book offers a four-week program), Talib recommends the 80/20 rule, which is when you eat healthy 80% of the time—without exception—while allowing yourself a bit more latitude the remaining 20% of the time.
“Enjoy life and, you know, celebrations!” Huntington-Whiteley says. “My kind of balance is trying to eat really well at home and then when I go out… I try and still make smart choices but you know, if I’m going to have some French fries, or if I’m going to share a pudding or a desert with somebody, you want to enjoy those things in life. It’s all balance! But the 80/20 rule is really, I find that that’s the way to go.”
But wait—don’t get too excited yet. Dr. Talib tells Organic Authority dairy, sugar, alcohol, and gluten are so damaging that even though you might indulge a bit during your 20% you should still try your best to minimize them. (I mean, if you’re really committed, would you really load up on junk for one whole day?) Plus, you should also do your best to avoid foods “rich in pesticides, toxins from plastics, and other chemicals that can cause digest-ageing and premature ageing,” recommends Talib. This means go organic all the way. And don’t eat your meals out of a can.
Whether or not you feel like you can’t live without mozzarella sticks, it sounds like there’s just one road to that Rosie glow and it’s going to be hard. Sounds like it’s totally worth it, though: “It’s been really tough, it is, [but] there’s no doubt in my mind that once you start to see and feel results, it’s really been transformative for me. I can feel it in my skin, I can feel it in my body, I feel lean right now, and I feel strong and I feel energized.”
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