High School Reunion Skin, Part IV

If you’ve been keeping up with your studies here at highschoolreuniondiet.com, you’ve already learned why certain special nutrients have a beneficial influence on the skin, and which ones to make sure to make a habit of if you want your skin to stay healthy and appear young.  So far we’ve studied 8 Skin Rules!, and encouraged you to be a diligent and disciplined student—because nothing will make your skin beautiful as fast as great food.  Here are two more Rules, making it an even ten—which, face it, isn’t much to commit to memory in the service of your precious skin.

Rule 9.  EAT B’s

There’s a bunch of the B’s, and each bestows a special beauty benefit on skin.  There’s Vitamin B1, which aids circulation (which aids the glow and radiance); Vitamin B2, which helps with smooth color consistency, and will even reduce dyspigmentation; Vitamin B6, which can protect against eczema; and then the Niacin, biotin, pantothenic acid and para-aminobenzoic acid—all essential to the natural regeneration of skin.  Each of the beauty-boosting B’s helps to maintain proper functioning of the glands that keep skin smooth and hydrated, and therefore a deficiency in any one can cause dryness or scaliness (and skin that appears older than it should!).  The best B sources are red meat, fish and poultry, whole grains, Brewer’s Yeast, bananas, natural peanut butter and eggs. And just to insure you hit all the notes on a consistent basis, it won’t hurt to add a multivitamin to the mix, or take a daily B-Complex—as long as you know that you can’t fully rely on supplements for these vital nutrients, because pills can’t duplicate the super-efficient delivery system inherent in whole foods.

Rule 10.  DRINK!Paperback Cover

The Do’s and Don’ts of drinking are as important as the ones for eating, and there are plenty of liquids we should prodigiously avoid if we want great skin (soda, sugared “vitamin” drinks, fruit punches and beverages loaded with sugars and HFCS, to name a few of the usual suspects).  These drinks are essentially processed foods, and to get a full read on how processed foods age the skin, consult The High School Reunion Diet’s detailed explanation of “The Sugar Addiction Cycle.”   Or, just cut to the chase and replace the tired old sodas etc. with the best drink on earth: water.  Despite claims that there’s no evidence that water helps the skin, it verifiably helps circulation—which improves the look of the skin.  Water also flushes toxins and impurities from the system, which definitely helps the appearance—color, hydration and texture–of skin.  So drink water, getting your feet wet with at least 6 glasses a day, starting in the next five minutes. And then, for extra credit, consider making a regular thing out of a cup of green tea. Surely you’ve heard by now of its motherlode of antioxidants; its showy wealth of vitamins C, D, and K; its rich riboflavin, zinc, calcium, magnesium, and iron.  As a bonus, it sports anti-inflammatory substances known as catechins, and studies show this helps prevent basal and squamous cell skin cancers (for health), and aging (for beauty).

WalMart Joins Mrs. Obama’s Anti-Obesity Efforts

Leslie Dach (Executive Vice President of Wal-Mart) appeared on the Colbert Report to discuss the initiative to make healthier food more affordable to Wal-Mart consumers. The initiative came out of discussions the company has been having with Michelle Obama and the “Let’s Move” program.

How to Save Your Skin, Part III

High School Reunion Diet

Popular dermatologist and High School Reunion Diet author Dr. David Colbert advises patients that simple foods replenish skin in a way that no cosmetic dermatology procedure quite can. And certain skin “issues” (wrinkles, spots, aging) respond brilliantly to special, target nutrients.  All you have to do is learn their sources, and make a point of eating them in whole foods.

Paperback Due March 2011 In How to Save Your Skin Parts I and II, you learned to Eat ACE, Don’t Eat White, and several other HSRD Skin Rules! (If you forgot, better go back and do your homework—these lessons are as good for your health as for your beauty.)  Here are two more daily Rules for maintaining youthful, strong and luminous skin:

Rule 7.  Eat Silica.

Say what?  What’s silica?  Good thing you asked, because both your sunny complexion and your shiny hair rely on the answer—and on your getting enough of this essential trace mineral.  For one, it will help your skin and hair retain moisture, and this means an end to split ends as well as to dull, dehydrated skin. Silica also strengthens connective tissue—including muscles, ligaments, bone, nails, cartilage—and a deficiency might show up as lack of elasticity in the skin and compromised wound healing capabilities.  Good sources of silica include whole oats and brown rice, asparagus, green beans, lettuce, celery, cucumbers, potatoes, onions, leeks, strawberries, rhubarb, mango and sunflower seeds.

Rule 8.  Eat Zinc

Zinc is good for your skin not just because it helps control the production of oil (and thus helps you stay clear of acne), but also because, as a mineral that we need in order to synthesize collagen, it is key to proper wound healing, the skin’s precious self-repair mechanism.  Zinc helps Vitamin A (another Skin Rule!) travel more efficiently from the liver to the skin.  And studies are being conducted on the effectiveness of zinc treatment on a range of skin conditions from contact dermatitis to sunburn.  Besides being key to skin health, zinc helps us maintain healthy eyesight and normal sense of smell, and assists mightily in proper immune system function.  It’s even said to shorten the duration of the common cold.   Among its many benefits, it is linked to prostate health in men.  Great sources of zinc include fresh oysters, red meat and poultry, eggs, liver, whole grains, pumpkin, sesame, sunflower and watermelon seeds, pecans, cashews, and peanuts.

Watch here for more of Dr. Colbert’s Skin Rules!