[excerpt] What you eat can make a difference. Add these foods to your diet for healthy, shiny hair.
It's all about balance when it comes to optimal nutrition for maintaining healthy hair. "Hair is a fast-growing tissue and it's likely to make demands on your body," says Brian Thompson, principal trichologist and director of product development at Philip Kingsley Trichological Centre in New York and London. "You need a mixture of protein, complex carbohydrates, and vitamins and minerals. But if you consume too much of any one thing, particularly certain vitamins and minerals, you can create problems with hair growth."
Good hair nutrition begins with getting enough protein, which is the building block of your hair. Then you need complex carbohydrates to help assemble the proteins for hair growth. "Once you've considered protein, then getting iron in absorbable forms is one of the single most important minerals as far as hair growth is concerned," says Thompson. Other important vitamins and minerals include B complex, which is associated with energy production and building good hair and skin issues, folic acid, B12, and zinc.
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