Archive for June, 2009
What are the Most Important Nutrients for Healthy Skin?
Let me ask you a simple question. What are the most important nutrients for healthy skin? There is no single complete food for healthy skin. Like all of the cells of your body, the skin’s cells need a variety of different vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, cofactors and enzymes.
The biggest problem that the epidermis faces (that’s the outermost of the skin’s layers) is this. It has no blood vessels. Nutrition must be supplied to it through a process called diffusion, where it is passed along from the deeper layers.
The process is pretty inefficient, but luckily, we can apply the nutrients for healthy skin directly, if we use the right nourishing creams. Unluckily, most of the lotions on the market do not provide that nourishment. So, we need to know what to shop for.
If you were trying to eat food for healthy skin, you would want it to contain the things that are needed to create one of the skin’s cells or a collagen and elastin fiber. The components necessary are the amino acids serine, proline, glycine, alanine, potassium, vitamin C, vitamin A and coenzyme Q10.
There are some vitamin companies that promote collagen supplements for the purpose of improving the skin’s appearance. Collagen is a protein. When you eat protein, the digestive system breaks it down in to its component amino acids. Collagen is considered an incomplete protein, because it does not contain all of the essential amino acids. Other protein sources are actually better. Let’s take salmon, as an example.
Salmon is considered a “super-food” by health and fitness oriented individuals. Some respected dermatologists suggest it as a food for healthy skin. That’s because its nutritional content is high. It is a complete protein and a good source of the vitamins A, D, B3, B12, B6 and the minerals phosphorus, potassium and magnesium. It is also the best known source of omega-3 fatty acids, which make up the skin’s moisture content and improve its firmness.
While salmon contains many of the necessary nutrients for healthy skin, you can see that it does not contain all of them. It might be the closest thing to a complete food for healthy skin, but you would want to eat something along side it that is rich in vitamin C.
Coenzyme Q10 is one of the nutrients for healthy skin that can be difficult to get, through diet alone. Every cell of the body needs it and it is only present in trace amounts in the foods that we eat every day. So, it is an important ingredient for any skincare cream, but it must be properly formulated, so that the cells can use it.
Basically the bottom line … eating food for healthy skin is a good idea, because it is good for the rest of your body, as well. But, if you really want to improve your appearance and your skin’s health, look for creams that contain the necessary nutrients for healthy skin and use them every day. That’s the best advice.
To learn more about vitamins for healthy skin, and other incredible natural substances for natural healthy skin care, visit my website today.
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The Healthy Diet Manifesto
1. Everyone is on a diet. Healthy dieters choose a diet that will bring them closer to their life goals.
Diet is a not dirty word. You are on a diet every day, and making it a healthy diet is not as challenging as you may think. It is not about starvation. It is not about being deprived. It is about being able to breathe in your jeans. Even more than that, it is about living your best life. It is about having integrity in your actions.
2. Healthy dieters intentionally plan their diets.
Without intention and planning, most people will eat what they’ve always eaten; whatever is convenient; whatever is marketed to them—just like the rest of society. Unless you want to look like the rest of society looks and want the body you currently have (or the one you’ll have after the next five pounds, or the next . . .), then you can’t continue to eat like the rest of society eats, and you certainly can’t continue to eat what you’ve always eaten. Instead, you must deliberately plan and pursue a healthy diet.
3. Healthy dieters don’t make excuses.
There is no one-size-fits-all diet. There are untold ways to cut calories, get more exercise, and improve the healthfulness of our diet. It is important not to argue for what you can’t do, but instead search for what you are willing to do to achieve a healthy diet that fits your life and goals.
4. Healthy dieters don’t whine about the effort it takes to eat a healthful diet and are willing to spend time planning and preparing.
Dieting is hard. Dieting is easy. Either of these could be true, depending on your attitude. The truth of the matter is, dieting just is. Ever since Eve plucked the apple from the tree, the cavewoman rubbed sticks together to roast the bear, grandma strung a string bean, the Irish boiled the potato, or the Koreans pickled a cabbage, we’ve had to put effort into having a healthy diet. Modern, successful hipsters that you are—you do not escape this reality just because you can order Chinese takeout.
5. Healthy dieters base their diets around a weekly planning routine.
Diets are not a one-time decision. Just as soon as you get comfortable in your routine, you’ll remodel your kitchen, go on vacation, sprain an ankle, hit hormone hell, or simply get bored. Part of having a healthy diet means having the flexibility to roll with life’s changes.
6. Healthy dieters embrace dieting from the top down, expressing curiosity about the whys and wherefores of eating habits.
As babies, the first comfort you received was at the breast or bottle. You are hardwired to eat for comfort. You also eat to socialize, to procrastinate, and out of pure habit. There are a myriad of reasons for eating that go far beyond nutrition. Sorting those out, exploring alternatives, and finding ways to enjoy a healthy diet for any of these reasons—without sabotaging your health and well-being—is an interesting process.
7. Healthy dieters combine the top-down approach with the bottom-up approach to dieting and understand they have to impose some structure to change their deeply ingrained habits and learn new behaviors.
Calories in/calories out, keeping a food diary, making a meal plan, devising a strategy for getting to the gym, or going grocery shopping with a list are just some of the practical, bottom-up approaches that might be used for diet accountability and information gathering, all of which are necessary for healthy dieting.
8. Healthy dieters use the inside-out approach to dieting—using diet as a means for self-inquiry and as a catalyst for personal development and spiritual and emotional growth.
Life lessons are learned through difficulty. No one would choose to have a rocky marriage, credit card debt, or an illness, but savvy men and women learn valuable lessons from the curves life throws them, and that includes the need to diet. Healthy dieting is one of the easier curves through which you get an opportunity to learn life lessons—at least it is something you can control.
9. Healthy dieters spend five minutes each day setting their intentions and planning their diet direction. They commit five more minutes to reviewing their day, noting their accomplishments and opportunities to self-correct.
Demanding perfection will give you an excuse not to “diet” at all. The truth is that you’ll sometimes stray off of your ideal course, but part of healthy dieting is learning to make those detours less drastic and frequent.
10. Healthy dieters get the support and motivation they need to succeed—and understand this support goes beyond “getting to goal weight.”
Changing something so ingrained in your own personal psyche, society, families, and workplaces can be a major undertaking. Healthy dieting requires a support system to help you when the challenge seems particularly daunting.
11. Healthy Dieters learn to normalize their relationship with food and their body so they can spend their time and energy being more present in the world around them.
The healthy dieter understands that there is more to life than dieting—much more!
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Avene Skin Care Products
Avene is a product line created for individuals with sensitive skin who may have recently had a skin condition become reactive. It seems recently there have been more cases of skin issues than ever before, often leaving those affected being unable to treat themselves or use most products as they react to the products they attempt to use. Avene was created for individuals who are unable to use other products, focusing specifically on their needs in order for them to be able to care for their skin without having to sacrifice the products which could help them.
Avene skin care products can help an individual with sensitive skin by offering a wide range of available products which target multiple needs. For instance, anti-aging from Avene can help an individual remove signs of aging without the harmful chemicals which are so widely used today. Sunscreens are also important as they help protect skin from the harmful effects of the sun, which can advance signs of aging and create brown sun spots on the skin. These spots even have the ability to become much worse as you age but they can be treated or you can simply be prepared and make sure that these spots are something that you will not get or have to deal with as a part of your life and your skin.
Avene also has a great cosmetic line focusing on different needs including cleansers, make-up concealers, moisturizers, and make-up. Each of these products is aimed at sensitive skin and the needs of the body by meeting what each person needs without adding harmful chemicals. Avene cosmetics are especially important not only due to the amount of allergies and reactions which are transpiring, but also because of helping the way that you feel about yourself and your skin. Emotions are important for your health and when you skin is healthy and taken care of it can help you too become healthier and have an easier time taking care of yourself and feeling great about the way that you look at all times.
When a person feels self conscious about their skin they may also feel self conscious while around other people. This can cause a great deal of embarrassment and can make a person feel uncomfortable having company, or even worse, have them decide that they would rather give up a part of their social life. Nothing should get to stand in your way and Avene tries to make sure that nothing can not even sensitive skin. This means that when you go shopping for you skin care products, rather then roaming down the isles trying to find something you skin might be able to handle or trying product after product that you have a reaction to you can simply look for Avene. Feel the comfort of Avene and feel comfortable knowing that it will work and that you will not have to miss any social engagement due to the way that you feel about your skin or how it looks at the time.