Can steak really cure baldness?

 April 2007

Every Tuesday, Britain’s leading nutritionist explains how to eat your way to health. Today she tackles male hair loss and pre-menstual syndrome:

I am in my early 20s and have noticed my hair becoming much thinner, which has freaked me out, as I don't want to become bald - what can I eat to help prevent it? Robert Johnston, London

Jane says: Sometimes hair loss can be down to periods of extreme stress - typically, you notice small bald patches, which slowly recover once the stress has passed.

However, the most common type of hair loss in men, androgenic alopecia, is caused by areas of the scalp being overly sensitive to male sex hormones (androgens). In many cases, this over-sensitivity is genetic.

We all lose strands of hair naturally and new hairs grow to replace them. The male hormones make the hair follicles from which men's hair grows, but as you age these follicles shrink.

Eventually, they become so fine that they can't replace the strands that are naturally lost, and your hair becomes thinner and can disappear altogether.

Although you can't prevent natural hair loss, if your diet is well balanced and rich in key nutrients, the rate of loss can appear to slow down.

(This is not the case for women, whose hair loss is often the result of iron deficiency because their diet is not rich enough in the mineral, or they have heavy periods.)

First, ensure you get enough of the essential fatty acids, especially omega-3s, as these are needed to produce healthy hairs and follicles. Aim to eat up to four 140g portions of oily fish, such as fresh tuna, salmon, sardines and mackerel, a week.

Vegetable sources include pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds and oil, flax seeds and walnuts, but you would have to eat a lot of these non-fish sources to ensure you got enough essential fatty acids, so if this isn't possible, take a supplement, such as EPA (visit www.healthyandessential.co.uk), or one containing 500-750mg of the fish oils EPA and DHA.

Copper, which helps to maintain healthy skin and hair, is also important, as sometimes hair loss can be exaggerated by poor levels of this mineral. We need about 1.2mg a day.

Rich sources are live, oysters, nuts and seeds. Copper intake can be impaired if you have too much zinc and iron. This is usually only a problem if you take too many nutritional supplements as these minerals compete to be absorbed.

It's a good reason to avoid nutritional supplements unless specifically prescribed by a qualified dietitian or a trichologist (a hair specialist). To find one, visit www.trichologists.org.uk.

Whatever you do, don't stop eating foods rich in zinc and iron - crumbly cheeses and lean red meat - because the minerals are also important for hair growth.

Biotin, often called vitamin H, found in egg yolks, can help with the growth of new hair. It improves the way our bodies metabolise essential fatty acids such as omega 3 and 6, too. Biotin is also found in liver, milk, yeast and kidney.

Finally, the hair follicles need plenty of protein to enable them to produce healthy hairs, so check you are eating enough lean steak, chicken, fish and seafood.

If you are a vegetarian, this means you need plenty of soya, beans, chickpeas, lentils and nuts.

Aim to have, say, a breast-of-chicken-sized piece of protein for both lunch and supper.