Give your skin inside-out protection from the sun by putting these four items into your shopping cart: pomegranates, tomatoes, dark chocolate, and tea.

The antioxidants in this tasty quartet of treats may help thwart skin cancer, according to John La Puma, MD, author of ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine.

Sunblock Effects
No food can replace the awesome sun-busting power of sunscreen, but some foods may work their way from the inside out to give your skin a little extra protection. The antioxidants in pomegranates, tomatoes, dark chocolate, and tea “can migrate to upper layers of your skin, bolstering resistance to ultraviolet damage,” La Puma writes.

3 Steps to Super Skin
Most of us know someone who’s had something worrisome removed. Save yourself from joining their ranks by taking these simple skin-saving steps:

1. Slather it on — lots of it. You don’t want to skimp on sunscreen.
2. Check yourself — and your loved ones. Regular skin self-exams can reduce your risk of dying of melanoma by 44 percent!
3. Start early. About 50–80 percent of a person’s lifetime risk of skin damage happens during childhood.

The crunchy snack and Bugs Bunny prop is loaded with vitamin A — a good-for-your-eyes antioxidant that appears to be great for skin, too. It helps balance the pH of the skin’s surface, making it slightly acidic. That’s good news, because slightly acidic skin fends off bacterial invaders. Here are more skin-boosting nutrients.

In addition to getting enough vitamin A in your diet, keep an eye on how much fat you eat. A recent study suggests that eating too much fat will suck moisture from your skin, which means fine lines and wrinkles have no place to hide.

Should you drink more water? It can’t hurt. Water provides your skin with more moisture, and it helps balance pH. But there’s no reason to overdo it. Read this article about the eight-glasses-of-water-a-day myth.

So what kind of pH do you want, when it comes to your skin? Ideally, it should be slightly acidic: A pH ranging from 5.4 to 5.9 is good. When skin pH is outside this zone, it can interfere with normal skin functions, such as protecting against bacteria and repairing or protecting itself against damage.

Other nutrients that might affect skin acidity: calcium and beta cryptoxanthin — but only in men, according to a recent study. Researchers speculate that hormonal differences between genders may be the reason certain nutrients affect men’s skin, but not women’s.

Want to make your skin the best it can be? Take the RealAge Skin Care Assessment. By answering just a few questions, you’ll get personalized recommendations for making your skin look and feel its best.