Lifestyle Choices

Good food and good health can go together in everyone’s daily life. Don’t throw away all those lovely cookbooks you’ve collected over the years. Almost every recipe can be easily adapted to give more nutritional value and better, more natural-tasting dishes at the same time. Even if you are not on a diet, the following hints will help to retain the vitamin and mineral content in the food, lower the quantity of unnecessary fats, sugars and salts on your plate, and let the fresh taste of your food make mealtimes a pleasure for the entire family. (more…)

Keep a Diary

Each day, confide in your diary. This is a way of expressing your feelings. You may not always have friends with you, but your diary can take the place of friends for the time being. Write freely about what most bothers you. Make a list of things you are most grateful for each day. Looking at the good side will help you to have a balanced view of yourself, the world and your future. If you have not made it a habit to keep a diary, start one today. It is therapeutic. (more…)

The Vitamins

Vitamin A applied to the surface of the skin either from a capsule on its own or mixed into cream and oil preparations has been used successfully in the treatment of dry and aging skin and acne. It appears to work particularly well in combination with vitamin D, which itself has a healing effect on the skin. (This is why vitamin D is often used in diaper-rash remedies and in burn ointments.)

Vitamin E, about which there has been such controversy, and vitamin C are certainly useful in the treatment of skin healing from a cut or burn. There is no conclusive evidence that, applied topically, it will do much for normal skin, although many women who use vitamin E regularly claim good results from it. (more…)

When it comes to treating skin, everyone is looking for the fountain of eternal youth. At one time it is thought to be vitamins, at other times plant essences, minerals, fetal or placental extracts. In recent years all of these somewhat exotic substances have been frowned on not only by many dermatologists but also by the so-called hard-hitting journalists who insist that nothing external can be done to keep skin looking beautiful and to protect it from premature aging other than to follow the three basic steps in the craft of skin care outlined in the previous chapter: cleansing, protection from moisture loss, and screening from ultraviolet light. (more…)

While all of the nutrients found in the Lifestyle Diet are important for skin, some are particularly vital to its look and health. Vitamin A, for instance. If you do not have enough of it in your diet or if you have some difficulty in assimilating and using the vitamin (many women do), this can bring about dry, scaly, and crinkled skin. For, among its many functions, vitamin A helps regulate the size and functions of the sebaceous glands. A shortage can result in enlarged pores, rough skin, and acne.

Without adequate vitamin C, the collagen fibers in the dermis suffer damage. Vitamin C and the biofiavonoids that are found in natural foods (such as the whitish inner skin of grapefruit) not only keep skin young by helping to protect the collagen fibers and keep them intact, they also ensure the health of the tiny capillaries that supply nutrients to the skin’s cells, protecting skin from fragile or broken veins (bruising) and early wrinkling. When capillaries are not strong and working properly, then the skin’s cells don’t receive all the oxygen and nutrients they need via the bloodstream, and their functioning suffers. Neither are wastes efficiently eliminated. This can lead to st_asis in the tissues, and cellulite, as well as contributing to early aging of the skin. (more…)

The type, the length of growth, thickness, thinness, straightness, and curl of your hair depend on your inheritance, but the condition of your hair depends on the internal state of your body, which feeds the papillae that produce it. For hair to be beautiful, the cuticle and the cortex have to be strong. It has always amused me when I hear hairdressers arguing about whether or not diet has anything to do with the beauty of hair, because it does, as any farmer knows well. Not only can you change the look of an animal’s hair by altering its diet (and that goes for the human animal too), you can also tell a great deal about its internal condition by examining its hair. If you have a sheep that is poorly, its coat shows it. Horses, dogs, and cats are given special vitamin and mineral supplements to improve their coats for shows. But only recently has this aspect of hair care even begun to be looked at for human beings. (more…)

3 ELIMINATE ALLERGIES

Weight gain is a common reaction to foods we’re intolerant to. Most of us have intolerances or allergies to certain foods, but few of us are aware of it. Eliminating the food that you are unknowingly allergic to can lead to highly dramatic weight loss.

Water retention, bloating and puffiness are all common allergic reactions, and they make you feel and look fatter. Once you’ve singled out and eliminated the foods that are triggering your allergic response, you are likely to see dramatic changes very fast. It’s not unusual to lose up to 7lb (3.2kg) within three or four days.

Food allergies also cause other problems, such as aches and pains, headaches, fatigue, mood swings and annoying skin and digestive conditions. These also go when you identify and avoid what you are allergic to. (more…)

We are built of what we eat and the balance of our diet can affect both our physical and mental well-being. Many dietary imbalances may cause some depression of mood.

BLOOD SUGAR

If you take in too few calories, as you may during a fast or aperiod of dieting, you may feel tired, lethargic and low. This is because your level of blood sugar has decreased — energy, well-being and clear thinking require an adequate level of sugar in the blood so that the brain, muscles and other organs can help themselves to as much immediate energy as they require from moment to moment. The brain and nerves are completely dependent on blood sugar since they cannot get energy from other foods in the blood, such as protein. (more…)

A. Supplements — Who needs them?

You have now read about some of the benefits and characteristics of the nutrients considered essential to maintaining optimum health. So the question arises: do you need to supplement? Do you need to take vitamin and mineral pills, or a separate antioxidant supplement? There are some who say you get all you need from a healthy diet, and supplements are just expensive urine. Others see supplements as essential. So what should you do?

Ideally, a healthy and varied diet would provide your body with all the nutrients it needs. In some cases, however, food is grown in depleted soils or artificially under lights in hothouses. For example, selenium content in soils is varied and regional. New Zealand soils are quite low in selenium, as are parts of Australia, South Africa and North America, but it is important as an antioxidant and in supporting Vitamin E in your body.

Different circumstances and lifestyles can all take a toll on your health. In times of high emotional or physical stress, your body may need some extra support. While supplementation is not a substitute for a quality diet, it can certainly offer those with nutritional concerns some peace of mind. (more…)

Here are some guidelines for buying health supplements that may be of assistance to you:

1. If you live a busy lifestyle and know that at times you are not eating right, you may require supplementation.
2. As mentioned before, be aware of the following antagonists when purchasing supplements: folic acid with zinc, iron with Vitamin E, Vitamin B and antioxidants.
3. Avoid supplements that mix vitamins and minerals with herbs. While vitamins and minerals supplement your diet, herbs are treating your body, and when taken on their own work a lot more powerfully.

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