Olivia Munn Swears This Food Is The Secret To Her Glowing Skin

Earlier this year, actress and startup maven (in true #ladyboss style, she was one of the original investors in Uber and Wag) Olivia Munn made waves when she revealed her Japanese skin care secret—sweet potatoes. "I get my potatoes from a Japanese market. I’ll take one sweet potato, slice it into one-inch-thick slices, and then dust it with olive oil and cinnamon, put it in the oven, and do that as dessert. I'll eat those as often as I can—a couple every day," she told the Cut.

Munn says eating high-hyaluronic-acid foods twice a day transformed her skin—and it turns out, her root vegetable remedy is actually validated by science. "While it definitely won't make you look 'young forever,' ingesting hyaluronic acid does increase the moisture content of the skin1, resulting in a plumper, more hydrated appearance," explains Sarah Villafranco, M.D., a skin care expert and founder of Osmia Organics. "As we age, we have trouble retaining moisture in the skin due to structural changes, sun damage, and decreased hyaluronan in the skin layers. Consuming hyaluronic acid, either in food or supplement forms, will result in more hyaluronic acid in the skin itself, making skin feel softer, appear smoother, and be able to retain moisture more effectively."

While she notes that most of the studies have been done in Japan, so it's possible that results could vary based on race and geographic location or climate, most functional practitioners agree that it's likely safe, especially when ingested in whole food forms. If you can't get your hands on Munn's special sweet potatoes ("the websites that I would buy them from stopped selling them because too many people went there!" Munn complained to Philipps), there's one source of hyaluronic acid that functional practitioners rave about—bone broth.

"I'm a firm advocate that healthy skin has to start from the inside out," explains Will Cole, D.C., a functional medicine practitioner and mbg Collective member. "One of the reasons people love bone broth so much is because it is one of the richest food sources of hyaluronic acid, in addition to collagen, another food that's great for skin," he says, noting that the modern Western diet tends to be low in these two nutrients.