For beauty and fashion influencer Toni Bravo, the secret to glowy skin isn’t a K-beauty serum or a triple-digit skin care device — it’s a tin of sardines.
“Everyone wants a skin care routine until I bring up sardines. Do you want it or not?” Bravo said in a Feb. 10 TikTok to her 930,700 followers. “I’ve eaten sardines my entire life … so I’ve known the power, the beauty that is fish.”
The concept of “eating your skin care”— specifically fatty fish like tinned sardines, salmon and mackerel — isn’t new. Long embraced in wellness circles as a kind of “nature’s Botox,” sardines are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, high-quality protein, calcium, vitamins, selenium and iron. They have been linked to improving skin barrier function and reducing inflammatory responses, both of which can contribute to healthier-looking skin over time.
But the trend has once again taken hold on TikTok, where users are experimenting with “sardine diets” for everything from weight loss to clearer skin, while others are simply adding the salty snack to their routines after seeing the results — or at least the promise of them — on Bravo and other influencers.
“Ms. Toni Bravo has single-handedly convinced me to try a can of sardines,” one user said on TikTok before trying sardines for the first time. In another video, a TikToker said that when she learned that Bravo’s thing was sardines, she thought, “It’s going to be my thing now too.”
“When my skin starts breaking out or looking dull … I eat sardines because clear skin starts from within,” another user wrote in a video.
Experts say that sardines are undeniably nutrient-dense and have long been linked to overall health and hydration, as well as to maintaining an anti-inflammatory balance and supporting skin barriers. But the fatty fish is not the skin care and weight-loss savior some influencers suggest.
“The downside is that canned sardines can be high in sodium, and some people may not tolerate them well due to reflux, migraines triggered by histamines, or simply taste preference,” Amy Goodson, a registered dietitian, told NBC News. “So nutritionally they’re great — but they aren’t a ‘magic’ food, and they don’t work for everyone.”
When it comes to skin health, Goodson emphasized that the body’s largest organ doesn’t respond to a single food — but to “multiple nutrients working together,” such as vitamin C for collagen, and zinc for wound healing and acne regulation.
Dr. William Li, a physician and scientist who focuses on the relationship between health and food, also noted that there is “no history of sardines as a food for skin beauty” — just the omega-3s the tiny fish are packed with.
“The most beneficial components are the omega-3s in sardines: EPA and DHA,” Li said.
“Human studies show these omega-3s reduce inflammatory biomarkers and are protective against oxidative stress and cell damage,” Li said. “Omega3: also supports vascular health, which is important for skin health,” he added.
That’s where the TikTok narrative about the “sardine diet” or even “sardine fast” hit a nutritional wall.
The viral dietary fast, which is as simple as eating only sardines for a set period, promises to help with skin issues, fat loss and lower blood sugar. Dr. Annette Bosworth, an American physician known as “Dr. Boz” on TikTok who specializes in metabolic health, even called it a quick way to raise blood ketone levels — a chemical the body produces when it burns fat for energy instead of carbs.
“You cannot ‘detox,’ reset hormones, or dramatically transform skin from one food in a few days,” Goodson said. “Skin changes typically occur over weeks to months, not days, and they depend on total lifestyle — diet quality, sleep, hydration, stress, and sun exposure.”
Instead, experts agree that sardines should be treated as a smart add-on to a broader diet, such as adding them to salads or on top of avocado toast, and that restricting them to a single food could even have adverse effects.
The internet, however, still can’t seem to get away from the affordable salty tinned fish.
As model and content creator Ally Renne explained in a January TikTok while holding up an open tin of the silvery fish in olive oil: “You saw you wanna glow up this year, but you’re not eating sardines, what are you doing?”
“This is skin care in a can, y’all,” she added.
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