Simple Tips to Eat Healthier
Here are some simple tips to help you make smarter eating decisions! Eating right can make the difference between aging gracefully and not aging gracefully!
- Eat less
- Eat more fruits and veggies
- Eat whole grains
- Eat less sugar
- Eat less fat
- Eat less sodium
- Be careful with the sports drinks – they contain quite a bit of sugar
Best Foods for Your Skin Part Two
What is the best food for your skin? There are many foods that if eaten regularly as part of a well-balanced diet will help your skin look great. However, certain foods stand out and can provide tremendous benefits to your skin and complexion. Here's part two in our series on the best foods for your skin!
Avocados
Avocados are high in fat, but most of the fat is monounsaturated and is considered a “good fat.” An avocado is a good food for skin because – just like omega-3’s – it keeps skin plump and youthful looking and helps prevent dry skin.
Avocados contain both vitamin C and vitamin E, which act well together as a powerful skin anti-aging combination.
Sunflower Seeds
Sunflower seeds provide quite a bit of vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant that helps slow down the skin’s aging processes. Sunflower seeds also provide essential fatty acids that help keep the skin lubricated and soft. Research shows that sunflower seeds may reduce the appearance of blackheads and acne and help prevent psoriasis and other skin problems.
Dairy Products
Dairy products are a good food for skin because they’re rich in vitamin A. Unlike foods containing beta carotene, which gets turned into vitamin A in the body, dairy products are a direct source of vitamin A.
Whole Grains
Whole grains, found in certain breads and cereals, are good for your skin because they are loaded with B vitamins. B vitamins are essential for normal skin functioning. They are necessary for the growth of new cells and help strengthen the skin against infections and stress. Specifically, whole grains help prevent the peeling and cracking of skin and rough skin on the feet and hands.
Additionally, replacing white flour products with whole grain products can have a tremendous effect on skin health. Research shows that white flour products can cause skin inflammation, making your skin look older than it is.
Green Tea
Green tea is a great food for skin health. It provides many benefits. First, it has anti-inflammatory properties and is thought to play a role in preventing certain types of skin cancers by reducing the risk of damage caused by the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Second, green tea is packed with a variety of antioxidants and is a great food for skin and overall good body health. Finally, green tea is high in vitamins C, D, and K, as well as riboflavin, zinc, calcium, magnesium, and iron – great nutrients for your whole body!
In addition to being a great food for skin, green tea extract is also used in skin creams in order for its potent antioxidant powers to work directly on the skin.
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Best Foods for Your Skin: Part One
What is the best food for your skin? There are many foods that if eaten regularly as part of a well-balanced diet will help your skin look great. However, certain foods stand out and can provide tremendous benefits to your skin and complexion. Here's part one in our series!
Berries
Berries such as blueberries, blackcurrants, blackberries, strawberries raspberries and cranberries, and strawberries are good for your skin! Generally, berries help the body make collagen which helps keep your skin smooth and supple. Berries are full of antioxidants that are very effective in neutralizing free radicals that can lead to skin cell damage and premature skin aging.
Blueberries and other berries are an excellent source of vitamin C, vitamin E, riboflavin, and both soluble and insoluble fiber.
Brazil Nuts
Brazil nuts are an excellent food for the skin! Why? It’s simple: Brazil nuts are a terrific source of selenium. Selenium improves the elasticity of skin, helps to battle skin infections, and is thought to help control acne. Selenium is necessary for the production of glutathione, which neutralizes free radicals in the body that can lead to the breakdown of collagen and elastin in the skin.
Brazil nuts are also a good food for skin health because they contain zinc, which helps with skin inflammation problems, skin cell growth, maintenance of collagen and elastin, and dry skin related problems such as eczema and psoriasis.
Additionally, Brazil nuts and other nuts contain essential fatty acids (good fats!) that help to prevent skin dryness and the powerful antioxidants vitamin A and vitamin E, which contribute to anti-aging of skin and good overall skin health. Other great sources of fatty acids include flaxseed and walnuts!
Carrots
Carrots are a good food for skin because they are a terrific source of beta carotene which becomes vitamin A in the body. Carrots are also a good source of vitamin C. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that protects against free radicals and also aids in skin collagen formation, helping skin stay looking young and plump.
Vitamin A aids in the development of skin cells and the maintenance of proper skin cell health. A deficiency in vitamin A can lead to dry skin, so eat plenty of carrots!
This is a little known fact, but eating carrots can even be a natural sunscreen, providing a SPF factor of 2 to 4 in people with light colored skin.
Another great food for beta carotene and vitamin C is sweet potatoes. In addition, sweet potatoes contain vitamin E which helps the body regenerate vitamin C and therefore is necessary in order to maximize the effectiveness of vitamin C. Foods that contain high quantities of vitamin C and vitamin E are very effective antioxidants for skin protection.
Pomegranate Juice
Pomegranate juice contains anthocyanins that act to strengthen the walls of the blood vessels that supply nutrients to the skin. Ensuring that these walls stay strong can prevent them from becoming spider veins!
Salmon
Salmon and other oily freshwater fish play an important role in skin health. Salmon contains a high amount of omega-3 fatty acids which the body can’t make on its own. These fatty acids improve the skin in several ways. First, they decrease the occurrence of clogged pores. Second, they reduce the body’s production of inflammatory agents that can lead to skin damage. Finally, they reduce skin dryness and related problems such as eczema, and improving skin’s elasticity.
Omega-3 fatty acids are responsible for healthy cell membranes. Omega-3’s prevent harmful substances from entering the cells, but allow essential, necessary nutrients in. Because these substances strengthen the cell membrane, they help to keep water in and keep the cells hydrated. This helps the skin maintain its proper moisture level resulting in plump, younger looking skin.
Salmon is also high in selenium, another important nutrient for skin health.
Stay tuned for Part Two in our series on the Best Foods for Your Skin!
Healthy eating tips: Part three
Here's the third post in our series of simple tips to help you make smarter eating decisions!
Need a quick snack? How about a handful of almonds, a few baby carrots, a bunch of grapes or some whole-grain pretzels? Just don’t reach for a candy bar – one candy bar has the calorie content of a tummy full of delicious fruit and veggies. A good diet doesn’t require calorie counting or mean that you should go hungry most of the day. Simply make smarter choices.
Want to eat less? Give this simple trick a try: Next time you’re serving dinner, use a smaller plate! Yep, it’s that simple. The same portion you would serve yourself on a big plate looks like “more” of a portion when served on a small plate. Your brain will think you’re eating more and you’ll probably feel fuller and more satisfied after dinner. Strange but true!
Eat Smaller Meals More Often. Instead of having three big meals each day, try eating five smaller meals spaced throughout the day instead. You’ll feel fuller and won’t want to eat as much each time!
Eat more fiber! Not only does fiber make you feel full, it helps keep things moving in your intestines. Try to buy whole grain foods whenever you can. (What’s the difference between white bread and whole wheat bread? The wheat flour for white bread has had most of the fiber removed from it during processing. Whole wheat bread uses whole wheat flour that includes the entire wheat kernel including the fiber.)
Drink plenty of water. This one is so simple, yet so many people overlook it. Your body needs water to function properly – it keeps things running as they should.
Cook healthy! Healthy recipes are easier to find than ever before. Here are a couple web sites we recommend:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/healthy-eating/index.html
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-recipes/RecipeIndex
Healthy eating tips: Part two
Here's the second post in our series of simple tips to help you make smarter eating decisions!
Keep prepared fruits ready! Did you know you can purchase apple slices that don’t turn brown? You can and they’re delicious! It’s also very affordable to buy your own pineapple, core it and slice it to enjoy later. Watermelon is another tasty treat that can be purchased, sliced and stored in the fridge until hunger strikes! (Plus, fruit is delicious cold! In fact, for a really unique treat, try freezing grapes!)
Sodium? It’s necessary to live, but most Americans eat enough each day to be dangerous. Need proof? Just take a look at the Nutrition Facts label on that can of soup or bag of chips you’re about to eat. Try to reduce your salt intake – too much salt can have a detrimental effect on your heart (it can raise blood pressure) and kidneys and can ultimately lead to heart disease and kidney failure.
Potatoes and pasta. Are potatoes and pasta evil? No way! It’s what they’re often topped with that can hurt you: butter, margarine, salt, sour cream, cheese, oil, etc. Did you realize that one tablespoon of unsaturated butter substitute has around 100 calories? One cup = 16 tablespoons = over 75% of the recommended 2000 calorie daily allowance. Looking for a unique way to eat a baked potato? Try topping it with salsa or cottage cheese. Need a tasty pasta topper? Stick with a homemade tomato-based sauce – tomatoes are terrific for you and if you make the sauce at home, you can control the amount of sodium in the sauce!
Carbohydrates aren’t the devil. Low carb eating just doesn’t make sense in the long run. Neither does eating a diet high in red meat. Vegetarians have proven that a well-balanced diet doesn’t even require meat. In many Asian countries people have been eating soy foods in place of meat for years. These same countries have a longer than average population longevity. Coincidence? Probably not.
Stay tuned for part three in our series of healthy eating tips!
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