For some people, there’s nothing more frustrating than finding a new strand of gray hair on their head. Those silvery strands can make you seem older than you feel, but they’re really just a lack of pigmentation and melanin. Gray and white hair can be a consequence of age, generics and stress, but vitamins and minerals you’re not getting enough of in your diet can also speed up their arrival. And loading up on these foods can help slow down the process.
- Liver- A lack of vitamin B12 is associated with early graying and liver has a ton of it. Just four ounces of beef liver contains 95.48 micrograms of B12, way more than the recommended daily allowance of 2.4-micrograms. Liver is also high in copper and a deficiency of that mineral can also cause premature gray hairs.
- Chickpeas- They’ve got some of the highest concentrations of vitamin B9 - also called folate or folic acid - and low levels of it are linked with melanin deficiency.
- Chicken- Get more B12 by loading up on chicken, eggs, milk and cheese because low levels of it can lead to prematurely gray hair. "We know that stress uses up vitamin B, and some studies have shown that taking large doses of certain B vitamins (B6, B12, folic acid) have begun to reverse the process of graying in three months," explains trichologist (hair and scalp specialist) Sara Allison.
- Lentils- These are another great source of B9, which helps with the production of an amino acid important for keeping hair color.
- Spirulina- This blue-green algae grows in oceans and salty lakes and it contains the highest amount of non-animal derived copper, so adding this to your diet could help you avoid those grays longer.
- Marmite- It’s a popular spread in the U.K. eaten on toast, and while they say it’s an acquired taste, you may want to try it to keep the grays away. One small schmear of Marmite packs 100 micrograms of folic acid, which is about 25% of your recommended daily allowance.
Source: Eat This, Not That