I'll admit that, until I happened upon a health-related article on melanin and how to protect it, I had absolutely no idea that you could literally "eat your way" into increasing the melanin in your skin, hair and nails. If you didn't either, here's how doing that is possible.
In short, melanin is what gives us our skin pigmentation. Aside from the Most High, it's the reason why we come in such beautiful hues. It's what makes us smile, big time, whenever we watch informational and entertaining programming like PBS's Say It Loud (if you've never checked it out before, it really is pretty dope!). It's what makes us stand a little taller whenever we wear apparel from sistah-ran brands like Melanin Babes Apparel. It's what makes us proud to be profoundly and unapologetically Black. Melanin? It's everything.
Now, from a scientific standpoint, the reason why it's important to take care of our melanin is because it's also what helps us to protect our skin from sun damage. Because yes, y'all, contrary to popular belief (which is really no more than a myth), Black people can get sunburned. We can get skin cancer too (the risks are much lower than Caucasians for sure, but it does indeed happen).
So, if you want to be proactive when it comes to your own natural-born melanin and even want to do your part to enhance the amount of melanin that you have (because some studies claim that taking in more melanin can give our skin, hair and nails a "deeper" appearance over time), here are some foods that are proven to help you do it.
1. Broccoli
Vitamin C strengthens your immune system and helps your body to produce collagen (which keeps you looking young). Vitamin K helps to keep your bones healthy and promotes wound healing. Fiber keeps you regular. Folate helps your body to produce new cells. Broccoli contains all of this, plus Vitamin A, potassium and even some protein.
The reason why it's featured in this particular article on melanin is because it's a green vegetable; those contain micronutrients like flavonoids or polyphenols which help to play a significant role in increasing melanin production in our system. (By the way, if you boil your broccoli, please stop. You get much more nutrients out of it by steaming your broccoli instead.)
2. Turmeric
I take turmeric in supplement form. I will give a heads up that while I used to do it every day, now it's down to a couple of times a week. The reason why is because it's a kind of spice that can thin your blood; for me, that resulted in a much heavier period flow. Still, I have no regrets with adding it to my health regimen because when it contains curcumin too, turmeric has powerful anti-inflammatory properties. It also lowers your risk of heart disease, helps to prevent cancer and Alzheimer's disease and is even great at relieving arthritis and depression-related symptoms.
Whether you take turmeric in supplement form or cook with it, it's interesting what it can do. On one hand, it contains properties that can inhibit the overproduction of melanin that can ultimately result in hyperpigmentation issues. On the flip side, because turmeric is also rich in flavonoids and polyphenols, it can increase melanin production; especially when you're in the sun.
So, how do you know which way to make it work in your melanin-increasing favor? If you want to consume turmeric in order to add melanin to your body, get the kind that does not have curcumin in it. It's the properties in curcumin that blocks the ACTH hormone in your system and helps to keep melanin from increasing in your body. If you get some that doesn't contain curcumin, you should be pretty good to go.
3. Eggs
Eggs are high in protein. They also contain betaine and choline to regulate your cells and protect your heart. It also has the lipoprotein HDL to maintain your body's "good protein", the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin to keep your eyes strong and amino acids to support your body tissues.
Two other things that eggs have in them are Vitamin D (the same nutrient that the sun gives us) and Vitamin E. As far as Vitamin E goes, what a lot of people don't know is if you do decide to sunbathe (because yes, a lot of us do it too) and you want a more radiant glow, you should consume Vitamin E and put some Vitamin E oil onto your skin as well. The reason why is because it's a nutrient that "triggers" the production of melanin in your system. Oftentimes, you'll see slight physical effects of this within hours of eating it and putting it on. (As far as eggs go, focus on the yolk more than the egg whites; that's where most of the Vitamin E is found.)
4. Red Peppers
If you're someone who likes to cook with red peppers, you're in luck. They're a veggie that is loaded with antioxidants, burns calories and, thanks to the folate and Vitamin B6 that's in them, they're also good for you if you are currently pregnant or are trying to conceive a child.
Melanin-wise, bell peppers made the list because of all of the Vitamin C that they contain. Vitamin C is also a proven nutrient that increases the production of melanin in our bodies. And, as far as red peppers go, they contain a whopping 200 percent more than the reference daily intake (RDI) of C. So, on the getting your Vitamin C in tip, it's a vegetable that definitely has you covered.
5. Peas
At some point in your childhood, you were probably told that you couldn't get up from the dinner table until you finished your peas. Good thing too because that means you got a good amount of vitamins A, B1, B6 and K, folate, manganese, iron, fiber and protein in your system. As a direct result, you were able to digest your food better and your blood sugar was kept under control.
Peas also have Vitamin C in them to produce melanin. Also, thanks to the folate (folic acid) that are in peas, you can slow down the lack of melanin in your hair's strands; it's something that typically comes with age or even premature greying.
6. Orange Fruits and Veggies
Something that all orange fruits and vegetables—oranges, papaya, sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, etc.—contain beta-carotene. We all need beta-carotene in our system because it's also an antioxidant. Some of beta-carotene's benefits include that it can help to keep our lungs healthy and strong, it protects your brain from cognitive decline, and it can even help to prevent diabetes and cancer. From a beauty standpoint, beta-carotene is awesome because it reduces our sensitivity to the sun, increases hair growth, and gives your skin a natural healthy glow.
Beta-carotene is a must-have, melanin-wise, because it contains carotenoids that help us to maintain our natural skin color. It works well even during the cooler seasons when we tend to not have quite as much exposure to the sun.
7. Almonds
It can never hurt to snack on a few almonds every day. They've got fiber, protein, manganese, and magnesium in them. They're also full of antioxidants. And, as far as proven health benefits go, they are the kind of nut that stabilizes your blood pressure, lowers cholesterol levels, and they can reduce your overall caloric intake by helping to curb any midday cravings that you may have.
We've already discussed why consuming Vitamin E is critical to the health and quality of your melanin. Well, when it comes to Vitamin E, almonds have a whopping 37 percent of your RDI in just one ounce. So yep, a few almonds a day can be just what you need to keep your melanin on point.
8. Green Tea
How good is green tea for you? The list is kind of endless. It contains a lot of antioxidants to strengthen your immune system. It's got polyphenols that help to reduce bodily inflammation and prevent cancer. Green tea also has compounds in it to improve your brain function, improve your workouts, lower your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes—and that's just for starters!
It's a good idea to drink green tea because the properties in it can also help to regulate melanin production in your system; it will help to keep your hair, skin and nail's pigment in balance.
9. Brewer's Yeast
If you don't have a container of Brewer's Yeast in your pantry, maybe this will gas you up to buy one. Basically, if you're looking for a type of supplement that will provide you with more energy, this is the one that will do it. That's because it contains magnesium, iron, protein, zinc, and just about every B-vitamin that you can think of. Because Brewer's Yeast is loaded with so many vitamins and minerals, it has a great reputation for naturally maintaining your hair, skin, and nails. Plus, it's loaded with Vitamin D; the same thing that the sun offers us to give our skin—our melanin—a rich warm glow.
Just make sure that if you are already on any type of medication that you consult your healthcare provider before taking Brewer's Yeast. Otherwise, you could end up with diarrhea or chest pain as a side effect of consuming it.
10. Plums
Plums are a fruit that have the organic compounds isatin and sorbitol in them. Both of these are necessary because they help to relieve constipation. Plums also contain antioxidants that keep free radicals at bay and fiber to lower your cholesterol levels. Something else that's in this particular kind of fruit is the mineral boron; it aids in preserving bone density.
Another good thing about plums is, like eggs, they have Vitamin E in them too. This kind of vitamin is not only essential to the health of your skin, but again, it also has the ability to increase the production of melanin in your body. Plus, they're in season through the middle of October which is just a few weeks away (then they return again in April).
So, the next time you're at the grocery store, pick up a few. You can eat them raw or try this easy to make plum jam recipe (here). They're sweet, they're delicious, and they're just one more way to give your already bomb melanin an extra boost! Pretty cool, huh?
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While an evolution is a natural progression that happens as businesses grow, a rebrand is a total change. Lola tells xoNecole, "A total rebrand is necessary when a business’s current reputation/what it’s known for is at odds with the business’s vision or direction.
"For example, if you’ve fundamentally changed what your product is and does, it’s likely that your brand is out of alignment with the business. Or, if you find your company is developing a reputation that doesn’t serve it, it might be time to pump the brakes and figure out what needs to change.
She continues, "Sometimes you’ll see companies (especially startups) announce a name change that comes with updated messaging, visuals, etc. That usually means their vision has changed or expanded, and their previous branding was too narrow/couldn’t encompass everything they planned to do."
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The Brand Doula was born in 2019, and its focus is on putting "the experiences, goals, and needs of women of color founders first," as well as brands with "culture-shifting missions."
According to Lola, culture-shifting is "the act of influencing dominant behavior, beliefs, or experiences in a community or group (ideally, for the better)."
"At The Brand Doula, we work with companies and leaders that set out to challenge the status quo in their industries and communities. They’re here to make an impact that sends ripples across the market," she says.
"We help the problem solvers of the world — the ones who aren't satisfied with 'this is how it's always been' and instead ask 'how could this be better?' Our clients build for impact, reimagining tools, systems, and ways of living to move cultures forward."
The Brand Doula has worked with many brands, including Too Collective, to assist with their collaboration with Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty and Balanced Black Girl for a "refresh," aka rebrand. For businesses looking to rebrand, Lola shares four essential steps.
1. Do an audit of your current brand experience — what’s still relevant and what needs to change? Reflect on why you’re doing the rebrand in the first place and what success would look like after relaunching.
2. Tackle the overall strategy first — before you start redesigning logos and websites, align on a new vision for your brand. How do you want your company to be positioned moving forward? Has your audience changed at all? Will your company have a fresh personality and voice?
3. Bring your audience along the journey — there’s no need to move in secret. Inviting your current audience into the journey can actually help them feel more connected to and invested in your story, enough to stick around as changes are being made.
4. Keep business moving — one of my biggest pet peeves is when companies take down their websites as soon as they have the idea to rebrand, then have a Coming Soon page up for months! You lose a lot of momentum and interest by doing that. If you’re still in business and generating income, continue to operate while you work on your rebrand behind the scenes. You don’t want to cut existing customers off out of the blue, and you also don’t want so much downtime that folks forget your business exists or start looking for other solutions.
While determining whether the rebrand was successful may take a few months, Lola says a clear sign that it is unsuccessful is negative feedback from your target audience. "Customers are typically more vocal about what they don’t like more than what they do like," she says.
But some good signs to look out for are improvements in engagement with your marketing, positive reviews, press and increase in retention, and overall feeling aligned with the new branding.
For more information about Lola and The Brand Doula, visit her website, thebranddoula.com.
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I remember calling my grandmother, who has since transitioned, and hearing the passion in her voice when she explained how she’d never thought she’d see something like this happen and how much it meant to her. As I reflect, I realize it’s a combination of memories like this that undoubtedly encouraged my will to vote.
However, as an adult, my reasoning behind the practice has developed. It’s no longer just about “the right thing to do.” I feel a responsibility to myself and my future to know the issues, how they impact me, and make a difference for others.
In the times we’re in, there's so much “news” everywhere. It’s hard to distinguish fact from opinion and bias from beliefs. This is why it was such a pleasure speaking with Jara Butler, Chief Impact Officer of Supermajority. Supermajority is an organization focused on making women the most powerful voting bloc in the country. During this authentic and informal conversation, we talked about so much.
I learned about her time working with the Obama campaign and how she masterfully worked in multiple industries, and we shared some of our favorite female rap moments. However, in the snapshot you’ll read, we focused on the issues. Jara walked xoNecole through what’s most affecting women of color in this election and what we can do to be more aware. Whether you’re a politics girlie or like me, just trying to gain more insight, hopefully this convo connects with you.
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xoNecole: Let’s just jump right in. What are some of the most popular issues that you hear Black women discussing related to this election?
Jara Butler: Our sister organization, the Supermajority Education Fund, recently did some research specifically looking at young women in the age group 18 to 35, and young Black women identified their economic well-being as a priority. Right now, we're in a place where a lot of us, especially young Black women, are finding that meeting those basic needs are harder and harder.
Secondly, is Project 2025. I think Black women see it as not just something that could happen, but actively happening. For example, we’ve all been watching the case with the Fearless fund, and how it's been targeted. We know Black women are very entrepreneurial. We can go back to Madam C.J. Walker and others who have opened the door for all of us to achieve. But if those barriers are in place, we're just not going to be able to meet that.
Lastly, Repro is a very big issue. But I think looking at it holistically and not just about abortion is important. Black women are more likely to talk about this from a perspective of our reproductive health care and the lack of access due to medical racism. As a Black woman myself, who's over 40, a lot of the changes that I am making in my life are because I have to do everything I can to put myself in a position, because I know no matter what my economic status is, if I walk into a medical office, there's a good chance I'm gonna face medical discrimination. Breast cancer screenings, colon cancer screening, ovarian cancer screening, cervical cancer screenings - all of those are part of that network of reproductive health.
xoN: Another issue I’d love your insight into is our missing girls. I think it's so unbelievable how much this is swept under the rug. There are so many stories about Black women that are continuing to go missing; I don’t understand how that’s not a bigger conversation. Is this something that can be pursued on the government level and what can we do to bring more attention to this issue?
Jara: We have this list of majority rules on our website, and my favorite one is: that our government represents us. I think that we have to continue to apply pressure to our government to meet our needs. And again, women are the majority of voters. Black women, especially, are the most reliable voting bloc across all groups, and our interests right now are not being met. So yes, there is something that we can do, but I also am a big proponent of us having these conversations.
My great-grandmother was enslaved, my grandmother was born into Jim Crow, and I watched my mother face economic insecurity. I say that because, as a Black community, we have to have an internal conversation to talk about these issues, and we have to do it upfront. I think we have to get into a position of realizing that we do have power, and how we activate that power.
Our power comes from being Black folks because Black people organizing has been enough to shake up and scare people. There were laws that prevented us from congregating together, even at church, because they knew what would happen when we got together. We have to get back into that. It's not that we are not doing it, but the urgency needs to be greater. And finally, we have to get away from depending on one individual to take us there. It's gonna take all of us.
"Our power comes from being Black folks because Black people organizing has been enough to shake up and scare people. There were laws that prevented us from congregating together, even at church, because they knew what would happen when we got together. We have to get back into that. It's not that we are not doing it, but the urgency needs to be greater."
xoN: I agree completely. Now, when we started, you mentioned money. So let’s talk about it. So many of us are starting businesses and getting degrees, and I love to see it. But everyone seems to still be having a lot of the same issues around finances. What are some of the underlying reasons behind this debt that we're dealing with, and how can voting influence these challenges without getting into the individual candidates?
Jara: Hello! Let’s talk about the money! Black women have been told that if we want to move ahead, we have to have that master's degree. We have to be twice as good. So we met that measure, right? But in order to do that, we have to pay for it. Up until about the 1970s college was absolutely affordable. You could work one job and pay for college with some money left over. That has changed.
Realistically, student loans are a barrier. They are a barrier to access housing. They impact our credit, and really and truthfully, depending on how much your loans are, they could affect you paying rent. It basically creates a cycle of debt. And I have real problems with people who say, get a degree in something that's going to make money. It’s about your skills, and if you have the skills, you should be able to earn a living. That covers that.
But the fact is that student loan debt continues to increase, and there have been attempts, more than once, to try to relieve some of that pressure. The reality is that this is a squeeze. It is a conundrum, and we see efforts by the current White House administration to try to alleviate those things, even when they are stopped.
But truly, Congress needs to step in and support this, but I would take it a step further. We should be considering and looking at what it would look like if we had free community colleges. Because what we have now is two generations of borrowers, because older millennials’ children are beginning to age. Black women have the highest degree of second-degree secondary education, but we carry like 1.7 trillion in debt or something like that. I can't remember the exact number, but basically, the majority of the student loan debt is ours.
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xoN: Speaking of college, obviously there’s a lot of discussion around affirmative action in the schools and the undergoing changes. How important is it to consider this topic, and are there any new laws or policies being proposed around this that we should be aware of?
Jara: Oh my goodness, affirmative action is one of the things that we saw that our sister site, the Supermajority Education Fund, found last year as a number two issue for young women. I actually hypothesized that it was a real thing, and it was. And the reason for that is that affirmative action as a whole has been something that benefited white women more than any other group.
However, what is happening is that we’re using the word DEI in a way that is derogatory. I’ve heard people refer to it as: “didn't even earn it.” And as a Black woman who attended an amazing school, I remember being in class and having someone make that comment, knowing my grades were higher than theirs.
The fact of the matter is that we would not need these policies if we lived in an equal and equitable society. It doesn't do us any harm for us to face the facts that this country was built off the backs of enslaved people and the blood of indigenous people, and off the sweat and the tears of immigrants. But because we are unwilling to face that, we now are demonizing programs that are actually meant to create some symbol of balance.
xoN: Finally, I’ll close with this, what can we do to provide information to young people, and how do we combat all of the less than researched info?
Jara: One thing I encourage is to look at the source. At Supermajority, our social channels are information-based. We strive to provide up-to-date accurate information that is digestible to all. Media literacy is something I believe in, and unfortunately, it is something that we have a responsibility to continue to share with the community at large. So much of our world is centered on immediate info, a lie spreads faster than the truth.
We just saw that with the Olympic women's boxers, and we have to ask ourselves often: is this information accurate? Who is telling the story? Most importantly, how am I an original contributor? Not everything said needs to be shared, and not every thought needs to be public.
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