LOVE HEALTH?  LOVE GREENS.

By Eve Prang Plews
 Licensed Nutritoin Couselor
(Originally published in Sarasota's Natural Awakeings magazine April, 2010)

            Green your menu in a very beneficial way – eat more greens.  With less than 10% of Americans eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily, greens get very little of the emphasis they deserve as health power houses.  We evolved on a diet high in leaves.  Our ancestors likely ate a pound or more of leaves from every type of plant – including weeds like dandelion.  All culinary leaves share a common chlorophyll flavor often called “green” or “grassy”.  This potential cancer blocker stops cell mutations, the first step to cancer formation.  Chlorophyll also blocks the formation of nitrosamines, one of the most powerful carcinogens known.  We’re exposed to nitrosamines when we eat many smoked meats, hot dogs, lunch meat and the like.

            Leaves, despite their often delicate, thin structure, are a major source of iron and calcium in the diet (with the exceptions of Swiss chard and spinach.)  Immune functions are improved with the rich source of beta-carotene in leaves.  This carotenoid is a confirmed cancer antagonist eaten more often by people worldwide with lower rates of all kinds of cancer, specifically lung cancer.  Dr. Richard Shekelle at University of Texas found that high carotene foods like kale and spinach rescued smokers from lung cancer risks by over 85%!  John Hopkins University researchers confirmed that those with the highest blood levels of carotene were least likely to develop lung cancer.  Since lung cancer is the leading cancer killer – eating greens matters.  Even if you don’t smoke, you breathe toxic air daily.  Protect your lungs with greens.  Spinach omelet for breakfast anyone?

            Greens also contain carotenes other than beta.  Lutein and zeaxanthin are concentrated in the macula region of the retina and the eye lens.  Protection against cataracts and the second most common cause of blindness, age related macula degeneration, comes from a diet high in greens.

            Low in fat, high in fiber, rich in folic acid, Vitamin C, potassium and magnesium as well as a host of other phytochemicals, greens benefit everyone.  There are more choices than just spinach salad.  Remember spinach comes in #14 on the 2010 Environmental Working Group list of most pesticide contaminated vegetables after kale at #8, so buy organic greens.  Read the whole list of pesticide levels in fruits and vegetables at www.EWG.org.

            The cabbage family consists of kale, collards, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, broccoli rabe, turnip, Napa cabbage, watercress, cress, mustard and nasturtium.  The bitter pungent and strong smells of these veggies come from the sulfur compounds that make these members of the cabbage family so good for us.  While words like glucosinolates or isothiocyanates don’t roll off the tongue, they do roll back disease and increase the livers’ ability to neutralize toxins.  Bok choy stir-fried with a little toasted sesame oil at the end.  Yum.

            The longer greens are cooked, the paler they become as they leach their green pigment chlorophyll into the cooking liquid.  Maximum color and thus nutrition are attained by cooking greens quickly.  Leave the lid off to reduce acids that are also chlorophyll’s enemy.  Any acid, vinegar or citrus juice, or just the acids present in the vegetable itself will discolor greens from bright green to yellow-grey-green.  That blah color is not so appetizing or so healthy.  As all vegetables are slightly acidic, when you lift the lid to allow a little steam (and acid) to escape, green veggies will be brighter.  The opposite is true for red and purple leaves like red cabbage or radicchio that get brighter when acids combine with their coloring pigment, anthocyanins.

            The spinach family which includes beets, chard, amaranth (and even quinoa) is the second leaf family.  Lettuces, chicories and endives are from the daisy family.  Hundreds of lettuces from mild to bitter, in different colors, leaf sizes and textures exist around the world.  Even the lowly, maligned dandelion, a powerhouse in both leaf and root, is the most prolific and least cultivated of all the lettuce family.  Yet it grows on every continent and makes a great salad with young, tender leaves and a pungent side dish when cooked mature leaves are used.  Don’t forget the dandelion flowers which are made into wine.  Sautéed onion in olive oil with dandelion greens are good hot or cold with a dash of balsamic or rice vinegar.

            Greens are even good for your mood.  Folic acid deficiency is widespread in the U.S. especially among young women.  Shortage of this critical B vitamin fosters psychiatric disorders, notably depression.  Medical literature is astonishing in this agreement.  People deliberately deprived of folic acid lapsed into sleeplessness, forgetfulness and irritability after 5 months.  Yet restoring the vitamin eliminated symptoms in 2 days!

            Protect your vision, maintain mood, help your bones, reduce cancer risks, all low in calories and delicious in so many ways – what’s not to like about greens?  Try a new one this week.  A million recipes are now available on the web including Full Spectrum Health’s website, www.fullspectrumhealth.com.  You don’t have to put bacon or ham in greens to make them a delicious staple in your diet.  Shoot for at least 3-4 cups weekly. 

Greening the diet is not just buying locally and organically, it’s also greening your plate.

Eve Prang Plews, a Licensed Nutrition Counselor, has been practicing at her Sarasota clinic, Full Spectrum Health, for 22 years. You may contact her at 941 952-1200 or www.fullspectrumhealth.com.  Her previous articles are available at www.eveplews.com.  Eve’s radio show: No Nonsense Nutrition, airs Mondays at 9 AM on WSLR 96.5 FM, or stream it live at www.wslr.org.

Inspiring Change

By Eve Prang Plews
Licensed Nutrion Counselor
(Originally published in Sarasota's Natural Awakenings magazine March, 2010)

Behaviors are based on beliefs.  If you believe that being disabled for eleven years prior to death is normal, then you can eat the SAD – Standard American Diet and make that belief real.  As awful as that sounds, it’s true.  Americans suffer many years of low function in the last chapter of their lives, something that is rare in many cultures and countries.  Average disability prior to death in Japan is 3 weeks.  What are they doing right?  Not only is the Japanese Okinawan period of disability brief, women live 8-10 years longer than American women and Japanese men live 6-8 years longer than American men.  What gives?

You can see that people who eat the greatest volume of fruits and vegetables have the lowest rates of Americas 2 biggest killers:  heart disease and cancer.  Yet it is common to see up to 63% of all calories consumed daily come from sugar and white flour.  What we need are the carbs with color.  Eat a rainbow every day of high nutrient rich foods not denatured calories missing critical nutrients.

Carbs became the enemy when people mistakenly thought only of bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, cakes and the like as carbs.  Yet carbohydrates include all plants that grow from lettuce to apples, broccoli to oranges.  There are only 2 carbs that are not plants: lactose (milk sugar) from dairy products and honey from the bee.

It’s not more carbs that we need but better carbs.  Carbs with color.  Everyday.  Every meal.  That’s behavior change that matters.  But it must be based on the knowledge that you can make a difference in your health and in your future.

How are you inspired to change?  Do you wait till something isn’t working in your body before you quit the fried food or excess meat protein?  Or will you look at the good science of survival for keys to add to both your vitality and your functional life?  It doesn’t require another study or book reviewed by Oprah for you to make even a few positive changes that science has already concluded will help insure your health.

We all want the same things; to be happy and not be in pain, to be able to do all we would like to do without our body saying, “No way!”  Being true to your cells, your body’s systems, means giving your body the nutrients it needs to perform beautifully.  The body is smarter than the brain.  It will always seek to do the very best job it can with what it has to work with.  If you give your body a load of toxins and lots of molecules that don’t exist in nature, your body will give you poor performance.  You can improve your longevity, function and sturdiness if your behaviors are based on the fact that the body can change, at any age.  It’s never too late to improve your choices.

Awareness of better choices is the first step to altering the habits that rule our behaviors.  Virtually everyone has become aware that fish oil does something good for the body.  You may not know it lowers inflammation everywhere; in the brain, heart, joints, lungs, gut and skin.  But at least you’ve heard fish oil is good for you.  Has that awareness activated an understanding that taking fish oil daily is good for you and the behavior of actually taking the pills?  If not, it’s just interesting but not beneficial, to you.

How can we make the dozens even hundreds of little changes necessary to really optimize great health. The answer:  one at a time.

Today, if you believe you can change your future, change your choices.  Drink an extra glass of pure water.  Eat an apple at 5 o’clock instead of having snack food.  Remember, if you’re not hungry enough to eat an apple, you’re not hungry.  That’s boredom eating.  Put 3 vegetables on the dinner plate tonight with a smaller serving of meat, fowl or fish or even have a bean-based vegetarian dinner.  Try for Meatless Mondays as a way to change behavior.

Awareness is always the first giant step on the road to a behavior change.  When you become aware that water is what the human body evolved on, not hazelnut soy latte or cherry diet cola—something in your brain rings in recognition of the truth that water, pure water is what your body wants.  Just reduce the many novelty beverages, especially ones with calories. Even if you don’t eliminate them entirely, this is a huge reduction in the load on the kidneys as well as your pocket book.  Since kidneys help regulate blood pressure as well as filter the blood, there’s only a good benefit in keeping bad compounds out of the kidney.  This understanding will allow you to skip the next soda or double espresso by having more dedication to your kidneys than to being entertained by a cup of whatever.  We should drink to be hydrated not to be amused by the latest artificially flavored beverage. 

You can reduce the “disability zone” with wiser choices today.  Drink an extra glass of water today and skip a poor beverage choice which surprisingly includes juice unless you made it yourself.  Eat a piece of whole fresh fruit instead. There is a limited time before the October picked organic apples and pears will be gone, and it is soon.  Add an extra serving of veggies today.  A side salad with your sandwich, perhaps slaw at lunch and an extra veggie with dinner add up to 100 gallons of healthful vegetables by year’s end.  That’s a HUGE powerhouse of nutrients to fuel your cells, repair your DNA and add spark to your engine of life.

You’ll do it all if you believe and understand that changing choices changes your future.  You can eat better and be better.  Your body is a statement of your beliefs.  Inspire yourself to better health and start with the very next meal.

Eve Prang Plews, a Licensed Nutrition Counselor, has been practicing at her Sarasota clinic, Full Spectrum Health, for 21 years. You may contact her at 941 952-1200 or www.fullspectrumhealth.com.  Her previous articles are available at www.eveplews.com.  Eve’s radio show: No Nonsense Nutrition, airs Mondays at 9 AM on WSLR 96.5 FM, or stream it live at www.wslr.org.

Take a Long Time to Age

By Eve Prang Plews
Licensed Nutriton Counselor
(Originally published in Sarasota's Natural Awakenings magazine February, 2010)
 

                Slowing the aging process is likely the single best use of your effort to live well.  Repeatedly, people invest much time and thought power contemplating their future with provocative questions like “Where will I retire?”, “How long will I work?”, “How can I save and invest wisely to insure my ‘Golden Years’?”.  Yet rarely is the same time and attention given to what kind of body and mind you will have as you age.  Will you be able to participate and enjoy all the activities you dream about?  There are well known strategies that can slow the aging process markedly and help insure that all your years are ‘Golden’.

                Start with the easiest habits to establish and avoid the worst of the activities that greatly speed aging:  inadequate sleep, toxic exposure, nasty rancid fats, smoking, lack of exercise, nutrient poor diet and low socialization. There are supplements with more potency to reduce aging than you can often get in your food.  Top of the list is fish oil.  Ideally, it should come from the European Union where restrictions and testing on heavy metals (like mercury), PCB’s, dioxin and other toxic ingredients are more heavily regulated in fish oil than in the U.S.  Add together the EPA and DHA amounts on the label to find the total amount of active agents.  That number should be at least 1500 mg of EPA/DHA daily.  Vegetarians can choose DHA alone from algae, the same source fish get it from. This is the great anti-inflammatory for all body parts: the cardiovascular system, brain, joints, skin and everything else.  Other terrific natural anti-inflammatories include ginger, turmeric, melatonin, green tea, quercitin and cayenne.  Supplements of resveratrol, Boswellia and Vitamin E also exhibit remarkable anti-inflammatory effects and thus slow aging.

                Sleep requirements DO NOT reduce with age.  Every skill from memory to math, both fine and gross motor skills and the ability to focus, memorize and concentrate are all reduced with insufficient or un-refreshing sleep.  Turning off the computer or TV a half hour earlier can pay off in huge benefits to mood management when you get to bed a little earlier.  After all, did that last half-hour of media stimulation add to your long term health?  Sleep will.  And when the sun comes up-- delay getting involved with your computer until after your exercise, grooming and healthy breakfast.  Don’t give your health away to electronics.

                Toxic exposure is the nemesis of our times.  The cavalier way the Earth was treated in the last century by both the ignorant and the greedy have given us a dirty world.  You are the person in control of your choices.  Each occasion that you chose organic food, non-toxic pest control, no VOC paints and pure filtered water, you are reducing your total toxic load.  Toxins interfere with the delicate metabolism of the cell and cell signaling apparatus.  Your own energy factories, the mitochondria, can’t complete the processes that make energy for you to do all you desire when toxins have mucked up the mechanism in the cell.  Awareness is the first step to creating desire.  Awareness that toxins in all their many forms harm you can create the desire to learn more about what you can do to make better choices.  Desire for a healthy body and a functional future can motivate you to make important changes.  The Environmental Working Group, www.EWG.org is a great place to start.

                Your brain is made of fat.  As the most metabolically active organ in the body, the brain constantly replenishes and repairs itself.  Much of the food we eat not only ends up being used by the brain for energy but ends up in the brain itself.  The creation of modern chemical processing creates nasty trans-fats that make rigid, tough and slow brain cells.  Fried anything and processed foods, especially baked goods, often contain this synthetic fat found nowhere in nature.  Even when the nutrition label lists no trans- fats, there can be half a gram per serving and it’s not required to be put on the label.  These gnarly fats are incorporated into your cell membrane which destroys the cells ability to make energy or communicate properly with other cells.  A brain filled with trans-fatty acids will age faster and become progressively less functional.  Plus it can increase risk of diabetes, heart disease and depression. Nuff said? NO French fry is worth dementia. 

                If there is anyone left on the planet who doesn’t know that exercise may be the #1 way to slow aging—this author would be surprised.  Our bodies were designed to move and bend and lift and stretch.  If the gym isn’t your thing, then go dance or garden or just take a walk.  Any exercise is better than no exercise and more is better than a little bit.  The big benefits begin at 150 minutes/week.  If you won’t find those few hours each week to ‘just do it’, you’ll have the chance to think again next time you witness someone too weak to lift themselves out of a chair.  Yes, that may be negative motivation, but wake up!  The mobility you save will be your own.

                If you read this column monthly or listen to my radio show weekly on Mondays at 9AM on WSLR 96.5FM, you’ll get lots of lessons on creating a nutrient rich diet.  Remember, chickens occur in nature, chicken nuggets don’t.  Potatoes occur in nature, Pringles don’t.  Just eat what occurs in nature and eat a rainbow of colors every day- and I don’t mean Skittles. 

                It’s unrealistic and even cruel to be just another voice to say “stop smoking.”  It is a difficult task for many.  Use of acupuncture, hypnosis and supportive nutrients like

L-tyrosine and 5-HTP have proven successful for many whose determination was not enough.  The greater risk of stroke, dementia, diabetes and heart disease are all greater risks than some forms of cancer.  All inflammatory damage done to the lungs can spread to the brain destroying blood vessels and robbing your brain of essential nutrients.

                Having a network; be it family or friends, church or bridge club, fellow hobbyists or political party membership, all forms of group socialization lead to longer, richer lives.  Hang out with those who make you laugh and think and participate.  Many studies demonstrate the nutrient value of friendship.  It’s something you can’t put in a pill.  Get out, get involved.  Nothing brings happiness faster than helping another.  Commitment to service has its own rewards for you and those you serve.

                The benefits of taking care of you are huge.  To cherish and protect your mobility, good brain and ability to participate in the world is the single best investment you can make in yourself and your future.  Today, do something to slow the aging process and then do it again tomorrow.

Eve Prang Plews, a licensed Nutrition Counselor, has been in practice at her Sarasota clinic, Full Spectrum Health, for 22 years. You may contact her at 941 952-1200 or fullspectrumhealth.com.  Her previous articles are available at eveplews.com.  Eve’s radio show, No Nonsense Nutrition, airs Mondays at 9 AM on WSLR 96.5 FM, or stream it live at wslr.org.

                                                        THE SKIN YOU’RE IN

       By Eve Prang Plews,
Licensed Nutrition Counselor
(originally published in Sarasota's Natural Awakenings magazine July, 2007)

     Meet your skin. Expand your understanding of this 8 - 10 pound sack of protein you call your home. When anonymous said, “If you don’t like your body, where you gonna live?” perhaps they had in mind the image presented by the skin. Your reflection in the mirror and the surface you can touch references your personal image of your body first as skin the “you “presented to the world. Yet so little respect is paid to this complex organ.

  
Often health is assessed rightly by the “glow,” the “radiance” the skin projects as a statement to the body’s well being, however great or poor. Each mark or mole, every blemish and scar is testimony of a biochemical process expressed on or in the exit door of your skin, the body’s third kidney.

It is difficult to care properly for something if you don’t know all that it is. With the recent trend of dietary pop culture alkalizing the world, it’s easy to miss that skin is naturally acidic. Yup, a pH of 4.5 to 5.5 on a pH scale where 0-7 is acidic and 7-14 is alkaline. Any alkaline cleansers, soaps and lotions remove much of the skin’s acid-balanced mantle, the topmost layer composed of sweat and sebum (or oil) that is best left intact. Acidic skin inhibits bacterial replication thus helping protect you from surface infections. Often even fancy, expensive la-la soap is as alkaline as dish soap. Alkaline cleansers erase the mix of sweat from sudoriferous glands and oil from sebaceous gland that mix to create the acid mantle, our first barrier to injury and infection.

     Since all the touchable surface skin or epidermis is replaced every 4- 10 weeks (depending on your age) it is a reflection of both whole body nutrition over the prior month and also a measuring tool for the health of elimination via the liver, kidneys and bowel. The epidermis serves to protect the internal layers and help prevent evaporation of water from the body. Other than contact dermatitis or poison ivy, almost all skin conditions are related to digestion and elimination through the other four organs that take out the trash; the bowel, bladder, lungs and always a surprise – the tear ducts! Perhaps they eliminate emotional waste.

Improve the bowel function and elimination, you improve the skin. Improve detoxification of harmful, environmental exposures via the liver, you improve the skin. More than any external agent, enough water is the most critical ingredient for healthy, bio-active skin. The daily need of water is no less than half your body weight number, expressed in ounces, i.e. 150 pound person needs 75 ounces of good water per day and 128 pound person needs 2 quarts or 64 ounces a day. That’s not coffee, tea, soda, wine, beer, juice soup – it is pure water. Never distilled water, is the first rule. Water should provide nearly 1/3 of our mineral needs. Minerals are removed from distilled and reverse osmosis water. The better choice is bottled water transported over interstate lines. Then the Federal Government requires testing for over 400 contaminants. If you filter water at home, choose something larger than a pitcher filter or ones that screw on the faucet, they’re just too small to do much. Best choices include solid or compressed carbon or ceramic filters. Avoid granulated carbon filters or one’s containing silver.

     Light is the next most critical need of not just skin but the whole body. We are kin to plants in the ability to photosynthesize. In humans, we don’t make carbohydrates we make vitamin D. The buzz on this misnamed hormone-like vitamin has only begun in the last two years as more and more studies reveal the vital protective nature of adequate amounts of precious vitamin D. Low vitamin D is the cause of more than rickets. The list now includes hypertension, osteoporosis, MS, cancers of the prostate, breast and colon, rheumatoid arthritis and many other auto-immune conditions. In this fear driven disease care system, the warnings about staying out of the sun and not tanning may be far off the mark. Allow 15 – 30 minutes of direct sun on the skin prior to application of sunscreen and wait for 30 minutes after returning indoors before showering to allow time for the body to absorb the ‘D’ just made on the skin’s surface.

      Sunlight also stimulates the pineal gland located in the center of the skull just above the eyes. Esoterists call it the “third eye.” This gland produces melatonin which regulates our internal clock. Melatonin is an antioxidant hormone that not only allows for refreshing sleep, it protects against cancers. In years past, sun therapy was used to treat many health conditions – a Nobel Prize was awarded for proving that sunlight could heal tuberculosis and treat staph and strep infections. To keep our skin looking young and healthy, this intermediary large organ of skin acts like a line between our insides and the external environment. Skin requires adequate protein and Vitamin C to create the building blocks of collagen, the skin’s protein matrix. Low protein equals sagging skin. Low Vitamin C equals bruising, wrinkles and broken capillaries.

      Remarkably, both dry and oily skin can be imbalances of essential fatty acids. Omega-3 fats, primarily in seafood, especially fatty fish, (with lesser amount in flax seeds and walnuts), makes up nearly 15% of every cell wall. Many skin conditions from allergic eczema to psoriasis respond quickly to 1,000 mg or more of a combination of EPA and DHA, the two active fatty acids found in fish oil supplements. Best fish oils come from Northern Europe, where stringent regulations screen for mercury and other toxins. When the cracks in your heels are gone and your skin is smooth all over, you’re on your way to fatty acid balance.

     The skin’s middle layer or dermis contains the blood vessels, nerves, hair roots, oil and sweat glands. Underneath the dermis is the fat layer or subcutaneous tissue. Over-promising topical skin care products have a hard time creating improvements until the dermis or true skin is nourished properly with sufficient rest, adequate hydration, proper protein consumption plus appropriate amounts of Vitamin A, zinc and Vitamin C. These three nutrients, along with omega-3 fats will help keep the skin clear, smooth, supple and taut with proper healing responses. Shortage of Vitamin A and Zinc slows healing time and creates a rough surface especially on the back of the upper arms.

     According to Arielle Karver, M.D. once daily cleansing with a soap-free cleanser (it’ll say so on the label) is all that’s needed. Of course, cleansing is needed twice daily if needed to remove makeup before bed. Create a daily regimen to cleanse and moisturize without preservative laden products containing potentially irritating chemicals like quaternium -15, oxy-benzone and dozens more nasty ingredients primarily used to keep bacteria and fungus from growing in the product!

     Body and facial care treatments like scrubs or masks can harm or heal depending on both ingredients and proper use. Since the Federal Government regulations on cosmetic products can allow that a “70% organic” product contain 70% “organic” water plus 30% who knows what, don’t look for protection from labels alone. Look for companies with a strong eco-stance and commitment to health for high quality, safe ingredients. As Kimberly Bozan, M.D. medical reviewer for ‘Science Daily’ says, “Alternate names for ingredients maybe used on labels.” So stick with earth committed companies for the fussiest, cleanest formulations.

     Take care of your friend, your skin. As your body’s largest organ, it allows you to move through life with one elegant wrapping for a collection of often not so attractive parts. Skin expresses your health in many ways. Improve your health and you improve your skin. The effort is worth it.

Awakening Consciousness

By Eve Prang Plews

Licensed Nutrition Counselor

(Originally published in Sarasota’s Natural Awakenings magazine December, 2009)

            Becoming mindful of the place where the external becomes the internal awakens conscious awareness.  When you eat, your food becomes you, literally.  Your breath becomes your energy.  Your thoughts become your future.  If it sounds heavy for a food column, strap in.

            Anything we are aware of at any given moment forms part of our consciousness.  This experience of “paying attention” is at once the most mysterious yet most familiar aspect of our lives.  

            Right now your mind allows thoughts to arise.  Become an observer of your mind and its thoughts.  Ever notice that thoughts arise and entice you to think them.  Ever tried to not think when you’ve tossed and turned in the night, especially the night you HAVE to get to sleep and can’t turn off the thinking machine?  You may have just done something new - you thought about your thoughts!  Who did that?  You watched your mind as if you were separate from it.  Cool. 

            Now the BIG question: who are you, the mind and its thoughts or the one watching the mind?  You have made a great discovery. You are NOT the mind.  You are the one watching it.  It is possible to look at the mind from the outside.  This is a power you can use to awaken even more awareness, awareness that can bring you more health and happiness.  Begin with one area of your life, like eating.

            You can increase your awareness of not only the volume but the quality of what goes into your mouth and eventually becomes you.  Literally, your last meal is on its way to becoming your spine, heart and skin.  Repeatedly the analogy of car and gas are used to talk about people and food.  If you put poor quality gas/food in your car/body, it won’t run right.  That’s really a lousy example because the gas never becomes a carburetor or tire or transmission.  But your dinner becomes your hair, pancreas, blood and more, in fact all of you.  Become aware that if you don’t like how your body behaves, or looks, or even thinks, that perhaps you’ll need to change what you choose as the raw materials for its creation!  You can build your fabulous body with fabulous food or build it poorly with poor quality ingredients. 

            In his book, Mindless Eating, Brian Wansink, Ph.D. exposes numerous factors that influence what we choose to eat and how much of it we consume; all on an unconscious level.  After years of study, he is convinced “we overeat because there are signals and cues around us that tell us to eat.” For instance, if a portion looks large enough, it is perceived to be satisfying.  A portion served on a large plate is perceived as smaller than the same size portion served on a smaller plate.  Flooded with food messages on a daily basis, we are out of touch with what our bodies need and when they are satisfied.  This is NOT being conscious, it is running on automatic.  When we awaken to the consciousness of health and realize it is our greatest wealth, we often desire more optimal health than we currently enjoy. 

            We can awaken consciousness regarding our health by looking at our food and asking the critical question, “Does this food occur in nature?” These bodies of ours have evolved over literally millions of years.  Even our species, Homo sapiens (Latin: wise man or knowing man), is a 200,000 year old species.  Both fossil evidence and mitochondrial DNA point to our origins in Africa where we evolved on fruits, nuts, seeds, leaves, roots, eggs, birds, small mammals and sea life.  Not on Diet cola, Twinkies and double bacon cheeseburgers.

            We can awaken consciousness by making the connection that to eat with awareness is to avoid the chemical feast commonly found on today’s table.  From artificial colors and flavors to pesticides and herbicides, from gnarly fats to ground beef treated with ammonia (to kill E. coli), the list goes on.  None of it is what we, as humans, evolved on.  Artificial refers to products that “imitate” nature.  As the butter commercial revealed years ago, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”  In fact you can’t fool the body’s DNA with cleverly crafted chemicals.  The result of food trickery is the poor health we see everywhere.

            A desire to “awaken consciousness” must align with a desire to eat what occurs in nature so as not to short-circuit the very awareness you crave. Foods that deliver non natural “static” to the cells interfere with our cell’s communication with other cells and thus our perception neurologically.  Neural systems that regulate attention can be modified in undesirable ways by non-food chemicals.  In other words, eating junk can junk up your thoughts.  You can’t think clearly or observe correctly if your cellular communication is mucked up.  

            Start today just really looking at your food.  Ask the questions “Is this meal going to help me be more alive and function better, or is this meal going to deliver toxins and poor cell signaling-- in other words, make me more dead?” Tough question, but it deepens our commitment to health when we stay awake and aware at each meal.  Remember, the life you can benefit is your own.

Simple Food – Fabulous Health

By Eve Plews

Licensed Nutrition Counselor

(Originally published in Sarasota’s Natural Awakenings magazine November, 2009)

            What could be simpler than eating foods that occur in nature?  A potato occurs in nature, Pringles don’t.  Apples occur in nature, a fried apple pie from McDonald’s doesn’t.  Chicken nuggets exist nowhere in nature, but a chicken does. 

            It’s really an easy list; fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, nuts, seeds, eggs, dairy, meat and seafood.  While it’s true that each of these choices can go from best to worst in quality, at least they exist in nature.  Certainly organic choices beat pesticide-laden produce.  Logically, heirloom tomatoes taste like they are full of life as compared to genetically engineered, hot-house, thick-skinned (for mechanical pickers), picked green, blah-blah anemic tomatoes.  YUK!  But you know that already.

            There’s something so special about finding words like polyglycerol esters of mono- and di-glycerides, red dye #40, partially hydrogenated soybean oil or mechanically extruded meat by-products to make this author’s mouth water.  Just picture Grandma on the family farm out in the back 40 harvesting her crop after having her cup of methylene chloride solvent decaf coffee with an artificially flavored muffin containing imitation blueberries, YUM.  She loves the coated rice popular in Oriental markets that has had glucose and talc added to improve its appearance.  (Remember talc can contain cancer causing asbestos.)  Grandma uses that rice in her chicken soup; “Cooked from scratch” is what she called it.  Yet the bird was raised in a completely dark building, never seeing the sun, eating FDA approved feed containing arsenic to reduce parasites along with a dose of anti-biotics daily.  Double yum!

            The “fabricated food merry-go-round” of foods highly refined then “fortified” only makes sense when you understand that additives mask the use of inferior ingredients. Salt, sugar and fat can even make road kill taste good.  Artificial flavors and colors aren’t needed to make real food appealing but are critical to make techno foods tolerable.  Only when additive laden foods are unacceptable will you have the beginning of a nutritionally superior diet.  If it has more that 5 ingredients or ingredients you can’t pronounce – pass it by.

            When Froot Loops gets a ‘Smart Food’ label, you know we’re all victims of the agribusiness where disease is much more profitable than health and prevention.  Get over the nonsense that our Federal Government is going to protect you – get real.  You are the only one who can be activist enough to protect your only true wealth—your health.  As my Daddy used to say “Don’t spend your health looking for your wealth, or you’ll spend your wealth trying to get back your health.” Thanks Dad.

            Start with fresh, organic fruit.  Buy it in season, its cheaper.  Stop the fruit juice, the fiber is missing; it’s incomplete.  Apples, pears and grapes are in season and citrus is starting to be available now.  Those fruits should be our primary choices as we move from fall to winter. 

            You can’t eat too many veggies.  Add an extra serving of veggies to every plate; sautéed onions and spinach with your morning eggs, a side of slaw with your lunch sandwich, 2 or 3 veggies at your dinner with a smaller portion of meat.

            Almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, cashews and the like containing real nutrition, quality nutrients and minerals your body needs, beat out 100 calorie packs of chips, thins and crunchies with a sprinkling of “whole grains” on top of the otherwise white flour snack.  Just how foolish does the food industry think we are?  Real foolish, actually:  if we don’t read labels. 

            Liking cooking is not rocket science, its life science – your life.  Anyone who says they have no time or desire to cook will have time to reflect on that cavalier approach to taking care of precious life as they sit in the nursing home and realize health really mattered.

            Health is an attitude before it’s a habit.  It’s not just a desire to avoid pain and disability.  Health is a positive expression not just an alternative to disease.  To seek wellness, optimal wellness, is to realize Mother Nature had it right all along.  Eat what occurs in nature.  It’s what your genes evolved on for millenniums.  It’s what your cells want!  There are no genes or cells looking for fried macaroni and cheese, bacon burgers or cheese filled crust with 5 meat pizza.  Sorry.

            No, it doesn’t have to be boring and tasteless.  Nor do you have to live on wheat grass, carrots and hay.  Yesterday, I baked a Bosc pear, sprinkled with cinnamon, then grated Emmanthaler cheese on top as the first Sunday breakfast course, followed by real cooked oatmeal with raw cream.  Nothing bland there.

Lunch was a turkey sandwich on good bread with a bowl of tomato bisque and some raw veggies.  Dinner last night was a rice-lentil loaf brimming with pine nuts and enjoyed with carrot salad and steamed broccoli.  Dessert was a carrot spice cake with a dollop of vanilla yogurt.  Tonight it’ll be baked fish, kale and sweet potato.  Things that occur in nature: consider it.  Simple foods can create and maintain health.  Simply a wonderful idea.

PLASTIC IS NOT SO FANTASTIC

By Eve Plews

Licensed Nutrition Counselor

(Originally published in Sarasota’s Natural Awakenings magazine October, 2009)

Plastic here, plastic there, plastic is everywhere – even in your body!  You might have thought it was only in your water bottle or take out container for the lovely leftovers you’ll enjoy another day.  Alas, your pets chew toy, the baby’s pacifier, the noodle to float with at the beach—are all plastic.

The chemical additives used to modify many forms of plastic have negative health affects on your body and the world.  No one looks forward to Styrene (vinyl benzene) for breakfast, Chimasorb81 for lunch and Irganox PS 800 at dinner.  Plus, it’s just not ecologically sensible to continue to load land-fills with plastic bottles of any kind. 

                                                         Plastic hurts the world. This constant companion in modern life has a dark side; its environmental impact harms many forms of wildlife.  Plastic does not break down easily and progressively builds up in the environment.  Shore and seabirds get entangled in six pack carrier rings; they feed their chicks packing pellets that poison them.  Fish and birds become snared in monofilament fishing line. More than 180 species of animals have been documented to ingest plastic debris. Over 300 million tons are produced worldwide annually.  All the plastic produced in the last century is less than the amount produced in the last nine years according to a report from the British Antarctic Survey released this year.

Thankfully, a new corn based plastic called polylactic acid (PLA) offers a bio-degradable choice for food containers.  Expect to see more corn based plastics in the future.  Yea!

However, plastic can endure for thousands of years in the reduced temperatures and low ultra-violet exposure of oceans, lakes, and rivers.  Even burying it deep in the earth doesn’t prevent its negative impact on the environment.  Landfills currently account for plastic as 10% of all generated waste.  Chemicals from the plastic sink into the ground, contaminating groundwater.  Need you be reminded; Florida is the ONLY state that gets no snow melt at all, thus securing all its water needs from groundwater.  The tiny exception is one desalinization plant in Southern Hillsboro County and one in Key West.  Bummer.

You can contribute to a cleaner planet.

1. Buy products that use a minimum of plastic packaging materials Glass and recyclable aluminum cans where possible. Protest over packaging.
2. Stop buying plastic water bottles.  Just STOP.
3. Don’t let Styrofoam packing pellets or materials get loose into the environment.
4. Pick up plastic whenever you see it on the street, in the parking lot, at the beach; before birds, fish or other wildlife suffer or die from it. 
5. Recycle #1 and #2 plastic.  Even #5 is now accepted at Whole Foods for recycling. 

Of greatest concern is the effect of phthalates (used as plasticizers in food packaging, vinyl flooring and medical devices) on the reproductive systems of all living things from sea life to humans. 

Plastic hurts us.  Eight of every ten babies born this year will have phthalates,

in their tissue when they are born!   The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports 93% of all citizens tested have bisphenol A (BPA) detectable in their urine.  

Plastics can cause genetic changes that set up opportunity for a cancer, cause birth defects, lower sperm count and impair immunity.  Ulcers, skin diseases, deafness and vision failure have all been linked to plastic toxicity.

Environment California Research and Policy Center reviewed 130 studies on BPA that linked it to Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. 

Dr. Frederick von Saal at the University of Missouri at Columbia claims these plastics “cause harm to the brain and reproductive system when exposure occurs during fetal life or prior to weaning.”  Even small exposures to estrogen mimicking BPA lead to abnormalities in mammary tissue and an increase in pre-cancerous lesions and tumors. 

Dr. Susan Duty at Harvard School of Public Health found an association between sperm damage and phthalate exposure in adult men.  This correlation is extremely troubling as DNA damage to the sperm cell lead to miscarriage, birth defects, infertility and cancer in the offspring. 

Baby boys born to mothers exposed to phthalates may have smaller genitals and changes to the expected distance between the anus and base of the penis.  This demonstrates the impact on the reproductive system according to the Chief of Endocrinology at Northwestern University, Andrea Dunaif, MD.

Plastic in canned goods. The linings of cans can be lined with a BPA- laden resin.  Even organic products may be canned in a BPA coated can.  Plastic silverware is made from poly-carbonate containing BPA.  Ziploc, Glad bags and Saran wrap are BPA- free.

Plastic bottles and containers.   Baby bottles and Sippy cups often leach BPA and can alter hormone signaling in the developing child.  Look at the number in the triangle under the container or bottle.  Avoid #3 (polyvinyl chloride or PVC), #6 (Polystyrene or PS), #7 Lexan or Nalgene that leach Bisphenol A (BPA) which decreases testosterone and has been linked to breast and uterine cancers.    Best plastic choices include #1 PETE, #2 HDPE, #4 LPDE, #5 PP. Better yet, use aluminum and stainless steel bottles. 

Plastic in cosmetics and toys.  Phthalates are often found in cosmetics, shampoo, and plastic toys children & pets suck and chew on.  Even the “new car smell” is due to phthalates.  Read labels on shampoo, conditioners, antiperspirants, sunscreen, skin lotions and fragrances for the presence of all phthalates; avoid products containing DBP, DEP or BBP. 

Nutrient supplements and foods do not remove plastic from the body.  It is not metabolized by the liver.  The best chance you have to reduce exposure is to reduce exposure.  The endocrine system you save will be your own.

Be plastic smart at every purchase and aware at every use.

1.  Never microwave anything in plastic.

2.   Remove leftovers from Styrofoam boxes when you get home.

3. Avoid Styrofoam cups for hot or cold acidic beverages.
4. Plastic juice and soda water bottles should never be reused, even the #1 “good plastic.”  They can leach a carcinogen, DEHP, when they get heated or scratched. 
5. Buy frozen fruits and vegetables, which have no risk of BPA containing can linings. 
6. Stop buying plastic bottles, period. Just stop.

Feeding Kids

By Eve Plews

Licensed Nutrition Counselor

(Originally published in Sarasota’s Natural Awakenings magazine August, 2009)

                                                                                Even if they’re not your kids – it’s in your best interest to help children reach their potential.  After all, they’ll be your politicians, community resources and caregivers as you age.  Wild, huh?

            Yes, everyone’s children are everyone’s responsibility even at a distance.  Kids have a hard enough time navigating this all-too-fast world without the handicap of a body and/or brain that doesn’t work well, much less optimally.

            The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics (a coalition of 22 agencies) puts out an annual report:  “America’s Children – Key National Indicators of Well Being 2008.”  Kids, 0-17, make up just shy of one quarter (24.5%) of the US population or 74 million children.  One or more chronic health conditions limit the activity of 9% of those kids.  Definite or severe difficulty with emotion, concentration, behavior or just getting along with others effects 7% of boys and 3% of girls.  Medication is prescribed to 49% of those behavior challenged children.

            Every parent struggles with teaching what behavior is acceptable.  Discipline is teaching a child to follow rules.  We must all understand the difference between discipline and punishment as they are profoundly different.  Discipline teaches kids what they don’t know and helps them to learn impulse control.  Healthy self esteem allows us to feel better about ourselves and control our own impulses.  Emotional or physical punishment is based on pain and is about making us feel bad which undermines our self-esteem and destroys self discipline. 

            Parents create the environment that shapes kid’s eating patterns.  Researches at Washington University in St. Louis demonstrated that “when parents eat more fruits and vegetables so do their children.   When parents eat and give their children high fat snacks and soft drinks, children learn these eating patterns instead.”  The group taught parents how to provide preschool children easy access to more fruits and vegetables.  As a result of the training parents who ate one more serving of fruit or vegetable per day were associated with an increase of half a fruit or vegetable serving per day in their child (Preventative Medicine, volume 47, number 1, page, 77-82)

            These are the rules I’ve learned to support after 30 years in private nutrition practice.  Lets all learn them to help kids attain their potential by building a healthy body and a well functioning mind.

Don’t miss breakfast.

            If your child misses breakfast or only eats a bowl of sugar bombs – they have a harder time concentrating in school.  Best Bets – eggs in any form, warm cottage cheese on toast with cinnamon, protein smoothie of plain yogurt and fruit

Don’t ban foods.

            Locking up ANY food, calling it ‘bad stuff’ or ‘temptations,’ only makes treats more tempting.  Its just food – only meant to be eaten in small amounts on occasion. 

Don’t allow your child to make the rules or choose the meals.

            It’s your responsibility to make decisions about meals and snacks – even for teens.  Allow your kids to plan one meal a week but don’t abandon healthy principles.  Insist on eating at the table with good manners.  Insist on sitting properly; not watching TV, playing games or leaving the table before finishing.  Stick with it.  It’ll work.

Don’t use food as reward or punishment.

            The dinner table is not the place for a power struggle.  Giving her an ice cream promise if she’s a “good girl” will only allow her to search for approval in an ice cream carton when she has a bad day as an adult. 

Dip your way to variety.

            Kids love to dip food into salad dressing (especially Ranch), gravy, sauces or beandip like hummus. .  It’s a great way to match the familiar to the unfamiliar.  If they like dipping celery, carrots or a bright cherry tomato into Ranch dressing they’re more likely to try dipping snow peas or broccoli too.

Get your kid involved in cooking and cleaning.

            It’s fun and interesting for a kid to make “ants on a log,” a celery stick stuffed with peanut butter topped with raisins.  Give them a small measure of control to mash their own potato or put spaghetti sauce on their pasta.  And always have them bring their plate to the sink and help clean up.

Limit soda and juice.

            Eating fruit is far superior to drinking fruit juice or worse – juice-containing sugar filled ‘drinks.’  If your normal weight child has juice at all make it 100% juice (diluted with water) not just 100% Vitamin C.  Soda is a chemical feast of sugar, dye and bone damaging compounds.  Stick to water as much as possible.

Teach your kids to drink water.

            Water is what humans evolved on.  Have your child drink a FULL glass of water BEFORE breakfast and every other meal.  Kids often mistake thirst for hunger and go for a smack instead of the water a body really wants.

Do dinner different.

            Eat on the floor like an indoor picnic.  Make a salad bar on the counter.  Go to a park or the beach to eat.  Have a whole meal eaten with your fingers-chocolate pudding is great that way.  Kids love variety and so will you.

Be sneaky.

            Puree white beans to mix into mashed potatoes.  Grate zucchini into meat loaf.  Add shredded carrots into spaghetti sauce.  Put corn in the chili.  Freeze grapes and berries.  Keep a bowl of fresh fruit available.  Make a container of veggies and dips to keep in the frig.  Provide dried fruit instead of candy.  Switch to bakes corn chips, not fried.  Burgers of half ground turkey + half ground lamb are tastier and lower in sat fats.      

            They may not be your kids but if you host children, keep these guidelines in mind.  Our future is in their hands and brains and hearts.  I’d rather have a healthy kid grow up to be a healthy adult.  If you and I can make any contribution to that effort, the pay off is huge!

EAT FOOD

By Eve Plews

Licensed Nutrition Counselor

(Originally published in Sarasota’s Natural Awakenings magazine July, 2009)

 
                                                              “Eat food.  Mostly plants.  Not too much.”  Study nutrition, biochemistry, botany and holistic medicine for 30 years and that’s what you’ll come to.  Michael Pollan continues to condense the national conversation about food.  Now it’s down to seven words in his newest book, In Defense of Food. Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.  Well said Mr. Pollan.

I’d love to do him one better, but it’s hard.   What this column will contribute to the ongoing debate will be how to do it, how to make the changes necessary for health.  We all know we could eat better, eat more vegetables especially.  People actually eat less fresh fruits and vegetables than 20 years ago.  Only 20% of Americans eat 5 servings of fruit and vegetables per day, when we really need 9 or more.  By the way 1 cup of fruit or ½ cup fruit juice is a “serving” as is 1 cup raw or 1/c cup cooked vegetables.  Maybe a few more reasons why will motivate.

            It begins by acknowledging that no one wants to die prematurely.  When the half million person study was released by researchers at the National Cancer Institute, it revealed in the best data ever; that people who ate the most red meat had a 30% higher risk of dying over 10 years than those who ate the least red meat.  Simple, easy, less is better and healthier.  Heart disease and cancer, America’s two biggest killers, account for 65% of all non-accidental deaths.  That’s the enemy, heart disease and cancer.

It’s no shock that high amounts of saturated fat in beef and pork raise the risk of heart attack.  Even when lower sat-fat cuts are chosen – anything with the word “loin” or “round” in its title -- meat still represents the highest source of sat fat on America’s plate.  Saturated fats = heart disease, stroke risk, prostate cancer risk and more.

            Even processed meat eaters who consumed either a ham or smoked turkey sandwich or a hotdog or other lunch meat regularly had 20% higher risk of dying over 10 years versus those who ate processed meat once a week.  How about substituting baked pork tenderloin for ham, or baking a turkey breast instead of using turkey lunch meat, especially smoked turkey.

Maybe it’s not the meat.  Maybe it’s that meat eaters drink more or smoke more or eat less fruit.  NO.  Researchers controlled all those differences and the results say – it’s the meat, just too much of it.

Colorectal cancers are the second largest cancer killers after lung cancer.  Swedish researchers who reviewed 15 major studies reported a 28% higher risk of colorectal cancer in red meat eaters.  The evidence is consistent.  No matter how often the pork industry’s successful snow job, er slogan, about “Pork, the other white meat” is touted, pork is red meat.  Get real.  If it’s got 4 legs, its red meat.

            Meat equals heat in the global warming scenario.  The United Nations report that livestock of all species worldwide is responsible for 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions.  What a shock!  That’s more than all forms of transportation.  Cow burps of methane are only one part of the problem.  Pollution of major waterways with antibiotic resistant bacteria is fundamentally coming from animal feed lots. If you want to reduce global heating and pollution of many ilks, eat less meat, period.

            Even you died-in-the-wool steak lovers can do it.  Don’t give up your filet or sirloin, just have it once a month.  Have your burger, just do it once a week.  Puree any bean, white, black or otherwise and mix 1/3 bean, 1/3 ground turkey and 1/3 beef, lamb or pork to make your meat loaf or meat balls.  Healthier and tasty, too.   Look for deli meat that is nitrate free.  Avoid smoked meats like bacon, sausage, ham and hot dogs, even if they’re made from chicken or turkey.  Try soy-based meatless veggie “meats.”  You’ll be surprised at the variety available today.  It takes real smarts and a commitment to health to begin “Meatless Mondays” in your routine.  But even 52 Mondays without meat equals driving 100 miles less each month in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

            Applebee’s offers a Quesadilla Burger with 46 grams of sat fat and 1,820 calories and 2 full teaspoons (4,410 mg) of sodium or get the Charbroiled Flat Iron Steak Philly Style at the Cheesecake Factory with 47 grams of sat fat (2 ½ days worth) and 2,320 calories plus 5,340 mg sodium.  If these choices are your once a week or even once a month picks, you’re not paying attention.  It’s your heart.  It’s your life.  It’s your choice.  But, guaranteed, you’ll do well to eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

Beautiful Skin From The Inside Out

By Eve Plews

Licensed Nutrition Counselor

(Originally published in Sarasota’s Natural Awakenings magazine May, 2009)

            Women’s magazines are chock full of articles on how to keep the youthful glow, slow aging and appear younger than our years.  Emphasis on beauty is only half the story, as many of the same strategies that preserve youth also preserve health.  Unfortunately, not all techniques designed to enhance beauty, do so. Some techniques, especially those to maintain skin, actually speed aging as the ultimate effect.  Can we protect beauty and health with natural approaches?  Are there magic bullets for youthful skin?  You can bet on it.

            Collagen, keratin and elastin are the primary proteins we see when we look at one another.  Hair and nails are made up of keratin protein, less elastic than the collagen which makes up the skin.  Keratin gives your hair strength, thickness and body.  Hair is actually 97% keratin protein.  Great nails are strong and break-resistant due to this same keratin.

            Elastin sounds like elastic because it is just that – the beauty protein that gives your skin the ability to stretch and bounce back.  Without elastin, your skin would rip every time you smile.  Yuk!  And create more wrinkles too.

            Youthful skin is moisture drenched skin, like the child’s smooth and flawless complexion.  By age 18, collagen production slows down and fine lines and wrinkles form.  Collagen “plumps” skin, preventing wrinkles from forming in the first place.  These cross-linked collagen fibers are tight in youth.  As we age, the fiber becomes riddled with gaps that allow skin to literally cave in and create a wrinkle.  When you turn on the body’s fibroblasts – collagen producing factories – more water magnet collagen is formed to plump the skin.  Inner hydration is the difference between a grape and a raisin, a plum and a prune.  Collagen creates that inner hydration.  The ability to flood the skin with nourishing moisture is the key to that dewy look. 

            This sure adds another emphasis to drinking sufficient amounts of water, not coffee, tea, soda, wine, beer or juice – water, not distilled or ionized or ph alerted or vitamin water.  Simply filter with an “absolute one micron filter” and you’ll get quality water.  Plus it’s better for the planet and your purse than putting millions of plastic bottles daily into our land fills.  Remember the formula.  Divide your weight in half and express that number as ounces, i.e. 128 pound person needs 64 ounces (two quarts) of water (not liquids) per day, a 150 pound person needs 75 ounces , etc.

            Save your money if you’re considering skin creams containing collagen.  The collagen that hydrates your skin is beneath the surface, not on top.  If “outside” moisture worked, water would be the best moisturizer.  The best of the topical skin care products include use of a weekly exfoliant to clear off old dead skin cells and let the new cells glow.

            Collagen is one of thousands of proteins in the body.  These strong white fibers (stronger than steel wire of the same weight) mixed with the yellow elastin networks not only make up skin; but bones, teeth, blood vessels, eye, and heart – essentially all body parts.  It is substantially composed of the 2 amino acids glycine and hydroxyproline.  But without adequate Vitamin C, collagen does not form.  Dr. Linus Pauling and Dr. Roger Williams were the preeminent proponents of taking higher amounts of supplemental C.  Collagen is the most abundant body protein, (greater than all other proteins put together) and can’t be built without Vitamin C.  It will not only improve the skin, but the heart and blood vessels.  That’s why ‘C’ reduces bruising and spider veins.  It strengthens blood vessel walls. 

            “C” in all forms improves skin – from inexpensive ascorbic acid powder to pricey (and unnecessary) ester-C.  The reason smokers age so much more quickly than non smokers is due to the creation of oxidative stress (free radicals) from smoke.  This increases the smokers need for Vitamin C by 40% over a non – smoker just to stay even.  Each cigarette uses up 25-100mg of Vitamin C, thus a pack depletes 500-2000 mg.

            Skin is not just your wrapper.  It is the largest organ of the body, protecting us from injury and providing us with the wonderful sense of touch.  Skin regulates our temperature, prevents dehydration and helps us make Vitamin D.  Detoxification and elimination happen through our skin.  This 11 pound sack is alive and active, constantly regenerating at least 10 new sets of skin in a year.  Infants make 25 new sets of skin in a year.  Makes a snake seem lazy.

            That’s why aerobic exercise, steam baths, saunas and the like promote the discharge of toxins.  Sweat carries away toxins.  We can’t stop all skin aging, but we sure can slow it down.  Adequate protein, especially these aminos: glycine and proline, is a must.  Vegetarians MUST eat beans daily to get enough of the aminos in short supply in veggies and grains.  Drink your water.  Start each day with a BIG glass, then do your shower or house stuff or exercise and have another BIG glass.  Eat vitamin C rich foods daily, along with Vitamin C supplements.

            You can’t fix a bad diet with a handful of supplements and you can’t fix aging skin with creams and lotions alone.  They help (or hurt) but it’s what’s inside that counts.

But then didn’t your Mama tell you that? 

High glysine foods:  all flesh proteins, eggs, seaweeds, watercress, spinach, soybean products, sesame and sunflower seeds, peanut flour.

High vitamin C:  red and yellow peppers, broccoli and cabbage, kiwi and strawberries citrus, tomato, white potatoes, papaya and mango, cantaloupe, kale.