I shot this video for Truth In Slimming where I have tracking my week on the 02 Diet, which is all about foods that are high in antioxidants for staying healthy, slim and young looking. As I posted on Truth In Aging some of the foods recommended in the 02 diet are designated “beauty foods”. However, trying to reach the diet’s 30,000 ORAC count per day was no picnic. Still, a week on the 02 Diet got me familiar high ORAC rating food, making healthy choices and a few tips and short cuts. And I’m sure my skin is looking better. In this video I take you on a tour of my kitchen and if you watch it you’ll find out why dried oregano should be your new best friend.
I spent part of last weekend reading a book called Your Skin, Younger- New Science Secrets to Naturally Younger Skin. I learned a few new things, got a couple of surprises and was happy to see that my own research during the past couple of years seems to have been taking me in the right direction. What’s exciting about Your Skin, Younger is that the authors (two doctors and a nutritionist) have pulled together the recent breakthroughs in understanding aging and the effects of nutrition, as well as ingredients that aid cellular repair.
Here are some of the highlights of Your Skin, Younger – you’ll recognize a few of the ideas from articles on Truth In Aging (and, more recently, Truth In Slimming).
Squalane an emollient used in tons of cosmetics can be made from either a plant source (olives mostly) or shark’s livers. I had blithely assumed that these days getting hold of an olive must be a heck of a lot easier than hunting down a shark and that very few of my potions could be further endangering this fragile species.
It turns out I was wrong. More than 100 out of 400 shark species are being commercially exploited and many are so overexploited that they face extinction. Nonetheless, the cosmetic industry maintains a preference for shark oil-derived squalane as it requires shorter processing times and produces a higher yield than its olive oil counterpart.
In 2006, the EU imposed deep sea shark fishing limits in the North-East Atlantic, and pressure from environmental groups prompted companies such as L’Oreal and Unilever to begin phasing out the use of squalane in their products in 2008. Read more...
I have just read The O2 Diet by Keri Glassman, a diet plan that is (extremely) high in antioxidants and is supposed to lead to a healthier, leaner, younger looking you. I reviewed the book for our sister site Truth In Slimming and I am currently monitoring my food to calculate its ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) value in an experiment to see whether The O2 Diet is doable. I’ll reporting back in week’s time on Truth In Slimming. In the meantime, I thought I should share Ms Glassman’s list of beauty foods that, she claims, will improve your complexion.
Cantaloupe
In ORAC value terms, the cantaloupe melon doesn’t really qualify as a super fruit (a mere 600 ORAC points per serving), but as food for your skin it excels because it has so much vitamin A – much more than your required daily amount. Having enough dietary vitamin A is essential to combat a dry, flakey complexion. Melons are also good for B vitamins and vitamin C, the ultimate vit for counteracting sun damage. Read more...
Dr. Samuel S. Epstein has a bone to pick with the cosmetics and personal-care industry in his most recent book, Toxic Beauty.
While the sector of personal-care and beauty products continues to boom, Dr. Epstein’s says he’s concerned with laundry list of cancer-causing ingredients that are continuing to be unregulated by US government agencies (ie. the FDA). Interestingly enough, Dr. Epstein contends that since your skin is highly permeable and many ingredients contain “penetration enhancers” (ingredients that deliver the product further into your skin) while also bypasses the detoxifying enzymes such as in your liver where food is normally filtered, this all makes your skin that much more susceptible to even greater risks to chemicals than if you ate them.Read more...
