Last Updated on December 5, 2024 by Helena Akter
Is your skin feeling dry and dull? Are your joints starting to ache? Well, these could be signs of declining hyaluronic acid levels in your body. However, you can eat certain foods that contain hyaluronic acid to increase this molecule.
You can eat foods like sweet potatoes, kale, beans, oranges, bell peppers, tofu, and bone broth to help your body make more hyaluronic acid. It helps your skin stay hydrated, your joints feel better and your skin looks younger.
By the end, you’ll be clear on how these foods can help your body to increase the hyaluronic acid. Plus, we’ll discuss this acid’s amazing benefits, as well as dosages and precautions.
Key Takeaways
- Hyaluronic Acid Basics: Hyaluronic acid is a natural substance in the body. It helps keep your skin moist, your joints smooth, and your body tissues healthy. As you get older, your body makes less of it, leading to dry skin and sore joints.
- Food Sources: You can find hyaluronic acid in some foods like sweet potatoes, kale, beans, almonds, and bone broth. These foods can help your skin and joints stay healthy.
- Health Benefits: Hyaluronic acid offers multiple benefits. It can help your skin hold water, ease joint pain, help wounds heal, and keep your eyes and gums healthy.
- Cautionary Notes: Most people can safely use hyaluronic acid, but it’s important to talk to a doctor if you have cancer, bad allergies, or are pregnant before you start using more of it.
What Is Hyaluronic Acid?
Hyaluronic acid, often referred to as hyaluronan, is a naturally occurring substance in our body. It’s primarily found in the connective tissues, skin, and the lubricating fluid in your joints.
It’s known for holding 1000 times its weight in water. That’s why it’s vital for keeping your skin hydrated. As the way water is critical for preventing dehydration’s effects on your body.
Now, as we get older, our bodies make less hyaluronic acid. It can lead to dry skin, wrinkles, and achy joints. However, you can help your body by eating certain foods and taking supplements. These can increase the amount of hyaluronic acid in your body
So, If you want to find what natural foods contain hyaluronic acid, a list of foods that contain hyaluronic acid is waiting right below.
What Foods are High in Hyaluronic Acid?
Vegetables, fruits, and other healthy foods help your body make and keep hyaluronic acid. Eating these foods can help your skin and joints stay healthy.
So, let’s get to know them more deeply —
1. Vegetables with Hyaluronic Acid
Some vegetables have hyaluronic acid, which is good for your skin and joints. They help keep your body hydrated and healthy. You can get more hyaluronic acid by eating these veggies.
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are super healthy! They have lots of good nutrients like fiber, vitamins C and A, and manganese.
In fact, one serving of sweet potatoes has plenty of magnesium, which helps your body make hyaluronic acid. Also, they’re packed with antioxidants. These fighters protect your body from damage and help prevent diseases.
Plus, sweet potatoes have beta-carotene. This compound helps fight harmful things in your body, reduces inflammation, and protects your skin from the UV rays.
Kale
Kale is a green veggie that’s really good for you. In fact, cooked kale has lots of fiber, vitamins K and A, copper, calcium, and manganese.
Also, kale has a lot of magnesium, which is important for your body to work right. It helps with energy, your muscles, and strong bones. And guess what? Your body needs magnesium to make hyaluronic acid, which is good for your skin and joints.
Sadly, many people in the U.S. don’t eat enough magnesium. It’s bad because your body needs it to make hyaluronic acid, which is good for your skin and joints. Besides, not enough magnesium can be bad for your bones, heart, and brain. It might even make you more likely to get diabetes 2.
Beans
Beans are great for boosting your body’s hyaluronic acid, which is good for your skin and joints. They have lots of protein and important vitamins and minerals, like magnesium and zinc.
Plus, Zinc is especially important because it helps keep your hyaluronic acid levels from getting too low. To make sure you have enough zinc, eat lots of beans, and other foods like seeds, nuts, and whole grains.
Bell Peppers
Bell peppers are super tasty and really good for you! They come in red, green, and yellow and are packed with vitamins like C, A, and some B vitamins.
These colorful veggies help your body make hyaluronic acid, which is good for your skin and joints. Bell peppers also have antioxidants that protect your skin from damage.
Plus, they help your skin make collagen, which makes it look younger and helps with wrinkles.
So, add some bell peppers to your meals!
2. Fruits with Hyaluronic Acid
Some fruits also have things that help your body make hyaluronic acid. This is good for your skin and joints too. So, here are some fruits
Oranges
Oranges don’t have hyaluronic acid, but they have something called naringenin. It’s a good thing because naringenin helps protect hyaluronic acid. It stops an enzyme called hyaluronidase from breaking down hyaluronic acid.
You can find naringenin in other fruits like tomatoes, lemons, and figs too.
Oranges are great because they have lots of vitamin C and aren’t full of calories. Vitamin C is important for your body to make collagen, which helps your hair, skin, and joints stay healthy.
Plus, vitamin C can protect your skin from the sun.
Naringenin-Rich Foods
Yes, Naringenin might not be a household name. In fact, Naringenin is a special substance found in some foods.
It helps keep a natural thing called hyaluronic acid in your body. This acid is important, but your body can break it down. Naringenin stops this from happening.
Grapefruits have a lot of naringenin. Other foods like tomatoes, tart cherries, and certain herbs and plants also have it, but not as much.
Eating these foods might help your body hold onto hyaluronic acid.
3. Other Foods That Have Hyaluronic Acid
Besides vegetables and fruits, there are other foods that contain hyaluronic acid. Some of the major ones are —
Bone Broth
Bone broth is a liquid made by slowly cooking animal bones in water. It has a tasty flavor and is one of the best natural ways to get hyaluronic acid.
Also, it’s full of protein. In fact, one cup of bone broth which is 240 mL has about 10 grams of protein. It also has other good things like proline, chondroitin, glutamine, and glucosamine.
It’s also high in collagen, a type of protein that helps your skin look better. By the way, you can drink bone broth on its own, or use it in gravy, soups, or other foods.
Tofu
Tofu doesn’t have hyaluronic acid, but it has something called phytoestrogens. These are like the hormone estrogen.
Estrogen helps your skin by increasing hyaluronic acid. It helps your skin stay moist and look younger.
People think phytoestrogens from tofu and other soy foods can do the same thing. Besides, studies show they might help your body make more hyaluronic acid, and also help protect your skin.
Tofu is also good for you because it has protein and other nutrients like selenium, calcium, and iron.
Edamame
Edamame is a type of young soybean. You can cook it by boiling or steaming and it’s often served with salt.
Like tofu, edamame has phytoestrogens. These are things that can help your body make more hyaluronic acid.
Edamame also has manganese. Your body needs this to make collagen, which is good for your skin. Plus, Edamame is a good source of protein and other nutrients like folate, vitamin K, vitamin C, and iron.
Almonds
Almonds are nuts that taste good and are used in many ways. They’re really good for you, with lots of protein, fiber, and healthy fats.
Plus, they have a lot of magnesium, which helps your body make hyaluronic acid. It’s good for your skin.
Also, Almonds are packed with vitamin E. This vitamin protects your body from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals. As a result, almonds can help heal wounds faster and keep your skin healthy.
What Are the Benefits of Hyaluronic Acid?
Hopefully, you now know what foods contain hyaluronic acid. It’s good for your body in many ways. It can help your skin look better, ease joint pain, speed up wound healing, help with dry eyes, and reduce swelling.
Also, include some foods that reduce swelling in feet and ankles to maximize these benefits.
Anyway, let’s break its advantages —
Hydrates Your Skin
When you’re young, your skin is full of water, making it look plump and bouncy. Hyaluronic acid is a key part of your skin that helps it hold onto this water.
It’s amazing how much water a tiny bit of hyaluronic acid can hold – about one and a half gallons! That’s why it’s used in many skin creams and lotions.
As you get older and your skin is exposed to things like UV rays, dust, and pollution, it loses moisture. Hyaluronic acid can help bring this moisture back, making your skin feel softer and fuller.
Anti Aging
Our skin has a framework called the extracellular matrix. This framework includes hyaluronic acid and collagen, which keep skin soft, moist, and firm. As we get older, our bodies make less of these.
Exposure to UV rays and pollution also harms our skin, making it age faster. Wrinkles, lines, dark spots, and dryness are common signs of aging skin.
Supplementing with hyaluronic acid can help skin look younger by increasing moisture levels and collagen production.
In fact, Hyaluronic acid supplements can help improve these aging signs by adding moisture to the skin and helping it make more collagen.
Helps Heal Wounds
Wounds go through many steps to heal, and hyaluronic acid is important in each one. It helps reduce swelling, grow new blood vessels, make new skin, and prevent scars.
Our bodies make a little hyaluronic acid, but it quickly increases when we get hurt. Because of this, it’s often used on wounds to help them heal faster.
Eases Skin Problems
Skin conditions like eczema and seborrheic dermatitis make skin red, itchy, and inflamed. Hyaluronic acid helps keep skin moist, protecting it and reducing inflammation.
Plus, it supports the skin barrier, helping to maintain a balanced microbiome. And that’s important for your overall skin health.
Eases Joint Pain
If you’re dealing with joint pain, hyaluronic acid might be the relief you need. It works by lubricating the spaces between your joints, which prevents them from rubbing against each other.
This lubrication acts like a cushion. So, it makes movement smoother and less painful. The synovial fluid in your joints, which helps keep them flexible, is naturally rich in hyaluronic acid.
Our bodies already have this stuff in our joints, but sometimes we need more. Doctors can give hyaluronic acid shots to help people with arthritis. There’s also copaiba oil for pain that you can use to ease aches.
Helps with Acid Reflux
Hyaluronic acid can help manage acid reflux. It builds a protective barrier in your esophagus, which prevents stomach acid from moving upward. If you have ulcers in your esophagus, hyaluronic acid promotes healing by encouraging new cell growth.
Acidic foods can wear down the esophageal lining, but hyaluronic acid repairs and strengthens it. As a result, you may experience fewer symptoms of GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease) and less frequent acid reflux.
For this reason, hyaluronic acid can be an effective acid reflux treatment.
Prevents Gum Disease
Hyaluronic acid is vital for gum and tooth health. It supports both the soft and hard tissues around your teeth, ensuring they function well.
When used in treatments, hyaluronic acid has been shown to improve gum problems like gingivitis and periodontitis. It works by reducing inflammation, which helps with symptoms like bleeding and swelling.
In addition, its antibacterial properties speed up recovery after dental work and prevent infections.
Relieves Dry Eyes
If you’ve been dealing with dry, irritated eyes, hyaluronic acid might be the answer. An artificial tear with this ingredient is highly effective for treating dry eye disease, usually in concentrations of 0.1% to 0.4%.
Your eyes are protected by a tear film that lubricates them. When this film is disrupted by inflammation or evaporation, dryness occurs. As hyaluronic acid reduces evaporation, it eases inflammation and prevents further damage.
Its soothing, anti-inflammatory properties make it an excellent choice for relieving dry eyes.
What’s the Recommended Dosage of Taking Food with Hyaluronic Acid?
The amount of hyaluronic acid you should take depends on how you’re using it—whether as a supplement, a topical product, or in food.
Studies show that taking 200 milligrams of hyaluronic acid by mouth every day is safe for adults, even for a whole year.
When it comes to food, there’s no set amount to follow. However, regularly eating foods that naturally contain hyaluronic acid, like bone broth and soy products, may benefit your overall health.
You must contact your doctor to figure out the best amount for you, based on what you need and want to achieve for your health.
Things to Know Before Taking Foods that Contain Hyaluronic Acid
Hyaluronic acid is good for you, but there are some things to think about before adding it to your food. Certain health problems and diets might mean you need to be careful.
Here’s what you should know —
- People with cancer: Eating hyaluronic acid might not be safe for people with cancer. It could be harmful. Always talk to your doctor first.
- Allergies: If you have bad allergies or are allergic to things like chicken, be careful with hyaluronic acid. Some kinds come from animals or bacteria.
- Vegetarians and vegans: If you don’t eat meat, check where the hyaluronic acid comes from. Make sure it fits your diet.
- Pregnancy: Even though hyaluronic acid is usually safe when you’re pregnant, talk to your doctor before taking any new supplements.
It’s important to talk to your doctor before adding hyaluronic acid to your diet to make sure it’s okay for you.
Final Words
We’ve learned that eating foods that contain hyaluronic acid can help your skin, joints, and overall health. You can find this helpful molecule in many tasty foods like sweet potatoes, leafy greens, tofu, and bone broth.
Scientists are still learning about hyaluronic acid, so we might find even more benefits in the future. Maybe we’ll even see more foods or supplements with it.
So, next time you’re making a meal plan, think about adding foods that have hyaluronic acid.
FAQs
How do you get natural hyaluronic acid?
You get natural hyaluronic acid from soy-based foods, leafy greens, citrus fruits, and tuber vegetables, as they boost your body’s production. Additionally, including bone broth in your diet is an excellent way to increase your intake of natural hyaluronic acid.
Does Aloe Vera have hyaluronic acid?
Now, aloe vera doesn’t contain hyaluronic acid, but it helps boost its production due to sterols that promote collagen synthesis. Adding aloe vera gel daily to your skin can boost its hyaluronic acid levels, helping it retain moisture.
Do bananas have hyaluronic acid?
Bananas contain hyaluronic acid and are rich in magnesium, which promotes hyaluronic acid production in your body. They make a great snack due to their high fiber content, which helps prevent blood sugar spikes.
What herbs are high in hyaluronic acid?
You get natural hyaluronic acid from herbs like cilantro, thyme, dill, and parsley. A high vitamin C content in these herbs supports the production of hyaluronic acid, which keeps joints and skin hydrated.
