By: Elle Team
SEP 24, 2018

Meet the poster girl for the popular Paleo diet, Irena Macri.
As if her glowing complexion isn't proof enough, we asked the girl behind Eat Drink Paleo blog to explain why eating Paleo could put your facialist out of a job.

What is Paleo?

Paleo refers to a diet and lifestyle that draw their core principles from our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Paleo advocates a diet based on nutrient dense, whole, unprocessed ingredients including lots of protein and healthy fats as well as stress management, sleep improvement, regular, primal inspired exercise, lots of sunshine, and probiotics.

It's also about avoiding inflammatory, nutrient void foods such as grains, processed sugars and unhealthy vegetable and seed oils."

"It's not about re-enacting the Palaeolithic era (we don't run around with spears and cook on fire) but rather recognising our genetic predisposition and applying current scientific knowledge of how our diet and lifestyle choices affect our body and mind.

Everyone gets into Paleo for different reasons and experiences different results and changes in their bodies, mood and energy levels. Some of the reported and known benefits include improved metabolism and digestion, increased energy levels, sustained weight loss, improved sleep, mental clarity, clearer skin, feeling of vitality and overall wellbeing."

How does Paleo affect the skin?

"It's very interesting but one of the first things you notice when you meet someone who follows a Paleo diet is their skin. It's clear, smooth and supple looking. Skin is our largest organ and it's almost like a tool for our body to tell us it's happy or not.

If you get constant rushes, redness, dryness, itchy skin or blemishes, it's usually because something is wrong on the inside - it could be an allergy, an inflammatory response, a process of detoxification and so on. What we see with Paleo is that by avoiding foods that cause these responses and effects in the first place, we are able to achieve a healthier looking skin."