Author: EvansGarden

Most anyone over 30 wants to enjoy younger-looking skin. Here are some simple things you can do to accomplish this.

1. Avoid excessive sun.

Note that we say “excessive” sun. You NEED some sunlight to maintain health. The trick is to limit exposure to about 10 or 15 minutes a day at the start of the sunny season and build up your exposure time gradually. Also, never let yourself burn, for that’s damaging to the skin. Wear broad-brimmed hats and light clothing if you chance burning.

Sunscreens are generally a bad idea due to the toxic chemicals used in them. But be sure to use high-quality natural moisturizers whenever you’re in the sun. And be sure to drink plenty of water and replenish minerals (electrolytes, trace minerals) Celtic sea salt is great for this purpose.

2. Keep your weight as constant as possible.

Some people’s weight goes up and down like a yo-yo! Gaining and then losing a lot of weight stretches and then slackens the skin and eventually it loses elasticity, contributing to wrinkling and sagging.

To help control your weight, try to consume a balance of fresh, organic, nutrient-dense foods, limit carbohydrates, avoid sodas and coffee and excessive alcohol.

Read the book The Metabolic Typing Diet to help you zero in on the diet that is right for your own body chemistry. The easiest way to attain and maintain your ideal weight is to learn your own unique dietary needs and follow them.

3. Use high-quality, natural body products that contain such ingredients as antioxidants, nourishing oils and other real-food nutrients.

Regarding oils, they are most nutritious when cold-pressed, unrefined and from organically grown plants. “Refined” is a nice-sounding word (marketing!) that really means “nothing much of any good left” and some nasty garbage picked up in the “refining” process. Cold-pressed oils contain more of the life of the plant. Organically grown crops provide more nutrients (this was proven in a Rutgers University study a few years back) than their commercially grown counterparts. And “organic” means the oil doesn’t have traces of bug spray and other serious poisons.

Nutrients available from whole plant sources are necessary to being healthy and feeling and looking young. Live food nutrients have tremendous healing powers. They can do so much to protect, fortify and rebuild skin and other cells.

When choosing skin care products, make sure they contain no chemical preservatives such as parabens or cheap industrial compounds such as propylene glycol that may be toxic or irritating. Let the real produce of Nature be what touches your skin.

It’s important not to use products that contain (or mask the scent of) rancid oils at any time, but especially so when you’re going in the sun. Evan is very particular in using only very fresh oils.

4. Consume the right balance of dietary oils.

Oils supply vital nutrients called fatty acids. The ones most often missing or out of balance in our modern diets are the omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 supplements are available mostly at health food stores.

Adding omega-3 to the diet can help normalize skin oil levels, maintain moisture and assist skin repair. So this is important for a youthful body.

5. Increase your intake of anti-oxidant foods.

Fresh, raw, organic vegetables, fruits and berries such as blueberries and super “green foods” such as chlorella, wheat grass, barley grass and others provide a bounty of natural plant chemicals, vitamins and minerals that fight damage and that slow aging.

To make it practical to consume a lot of fresh foods, get a high-quality processor such as a Vitamix. These machines can do practically anything and may last 20 years or more. Ours is arriving in a few days! We’re very excited!

Also drink enough pure water.

6. Periodically cleanse your innards.

An intestinal cleanse (every 6 months to a year or however you may wish), for starters, is a huge step toward improved health. After cleaning the intestines, you can cleanse the kidneys and bladder, the liver and gall bladder and the blood and lymph. (The cleanses we carry are all herbal.) We clean our houses, our cars, our feet, our carpets — well, let’s clean the vital organs of our bodies, too! How can we expect them to function smoothly if they’re dirty and clogged up inside?

What does this have to do with your youthful skin? The skin reflects oh so faithfully our internal health. Even wrinkles may appear where the organs that relate to those places on the “map of the face” are in less than optimum condition.

A fascinating reference about this is “Your Face Never Lies”, an eye-opening work by Michio Kushi. Did you know, for instance, that the nose shows the condition of the heart? (Our bodies actually have several maps, including the feet, hands and ears!) The position of a wrinkle (or other blemish and so on) can clue us in to the need of a health boost in the corresponding internal organ. Anyway, doing a periodic or occasional cleanse normally brings one’s health way up and the internal improvements really show in the clearness, suppleness and radiance of the skin.

As you can see, some lifestyle adjustments can help us all look and feel younger. We hope you find these tips workable and wish you great success and enjoyment in applying them.

Let us know if you have any comments or questions. We love to hear from you!

In this issue we’re covering the exciting topic of nutrition and mental balance. While there are a number of factors that affect this, nutrition has been found extremely important, especially according to recent research.

Here is news that appeared on ABC a few years back:

Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish, may hold the key to naturally easing depression.

In the past, studies have shown that in countries where large amounts of fish are consumed, rates of depression are low as compared with countries where little fish is consumed. This has led researchers to examine whether omega-3 fats found in the fish are responsible for the decreased evidence of depression.

One study followed patients with bipolar disorder. Half of the participants were given fish oil tablets and the other half received a placebo. After four months, half of those on the placebo had fallen into depression, but only two out the 15 people given fish oil were depressed.

Other studies have shown similar results indicating that omega-3 fatty acids may in fact relieve depression, and some psychiatrists are now recommending that their depressed patients increase their consumption of these fatty acids.

In addition to its positive effects on depression, studies have linked omega-3s with improved cardio-vascular health, as well as shown them to be a potential prevention and treatment tool for certain cancers an inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.

(Source: ABC News of Sept 17th 2002)

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READING:

The Omega 3 Connection by Dr. Andrew L Stoll, M.D.

A must-read for anyone dealing with depression, The Omega-3 Connection by Andrew L. Stoll, M.D., strikes yet another blow against the standard American diet. We already know that years of noshing on highly processed foods have saddled us with sky-high rates of heart disease, obesity, and related conditions. But, as we’re starting to understand now, our eating habits may also be subtly altering our brain chemistry, leaving us vulnerable to anxiety disorders and depression. Only in this case, it’s not just what we’re eating–it’s what we’re not eating: foods containing omega-3 essential fatty acids–the “good fats” that help maintain optimal brain function.

In his book, Stoll, the director of the psycho-pharmacology research lab at Boston’s McLean Hospital and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, suggests that restoring our body’s natural balance of omega-3s may help alleviate (and prevent) many types of depression. Omega-3s may also prove helpful with other problems, such as the inability to handle stress, memory loss, and cognitive decline. The book contains a “renewal plan” designed to help readers put Stoll’s concepts into practice, recipes for omega-3-rich dishes, advice for choosing supplements, and dosages for therapeutic use.

OTHER FACTORS OF IMPORTANCE

Exercise, sunshine and blood sugar levels can all play significant roles in mental equilibrium.

Other factors such as stress-causing personalities in the family or workplace can unbalance some people. However, nutritional factors can have a huge impact. Bringing the levels of omega-3 nutrients up to optimum can help the individual withstand more stress.

Our hats are off to Dr. Stoll and others doing this vital nutritional research. With recent discoveries about the role of nutrition and basic environmental factors in mental balance, it is becoming abundantly clear that drugs are unnecessary for the treatment of depression and other mental disorders.

To Mother Nature we are once more indebted!

For a long time we and most other natural health advocates we know have advocated juicing as the best way to get the many plant nutrients we need to maintain health.

Information we received recently shows this to be an error. We wanted to let you know about this right away.

The Truth About Juicing

For many years we’ve seen commercials, even whole infomercials touting the benefits of juicing, extracting the juices of plants with machines, some of them very fancy.

Juice extractors get the juices out of plants but the instructions tell the user to discard the pulp, considered “waste.” Well, it turns out that the pulp is often loaded with nutrients, sometime as much or even more nutritious than the juice!
Extracted Juice Not Whole Food

Extracted juices are NOT “whole foods” as we believed. They are, in fact, fundamentally flawed, unbalanced nutrition. For this reason we no longer promote juicing as the way to attain health.

For instance, the straight juices of root vegetables such as carrots contain way too much concentrated sugar for most people when juiced. However, when pureed (with the pulp left in), the natural plant fibers in the puree help slow the body’s absorption of the sugars and keep the blood sugar from peaking and then crashing. This more even blood sugar level helps prevent hypoglycemia and diabetes.

An FDA-registered study by Lancaster Laboratories showed that the carrot pulp we’ve been discarding with a juice extractor is packed with valuable nutrition and fiber. In fact, the report shows that the betacarotene benefit from properly pureed carrots is twice that of extracted juice.

Extracted juice removes healthy parts of whole foods – the result can be a reduction of nutritional value of up to 91%!

Better Than Pills!

Whole foods are also much better for the body than isolated nutrients and vitamin pills. Consider this:

Strawberries contain a powerful healing compound known as ellagic acid. Studies show that it may protect you against cancer, disarming cancer-causing agents before they can cause DNA damage In fact, if you have cancer cells anywhere in your body (and you may not know it), ellagic acid vigorously attacks them, inhibiting their ability to reproduce.

It’s vital that you know that ellagic acid cannot be found as a supplement, because the pure form of ellagic acid cannot be absorbed by the bloodstream. You must take it in its natural state—in your food. So if you want powerful protection against cancer, eat the strawberries!

Only when you eat this yummy fruit do you release the potent cancer fighter into your bloodstream. According to a recent Rutgers University study, processing strawberries in a highly efficient puree machine pulverizes strawberry seeds to release a powerful dose of nutrition that would otherwise not be available for digestion or absorption. Ordinary juicers are not designed to accomplish this task.

So What’s the Answer?

Puree your vegetables, as you may have guessed, and you are right!

But not in one of those standard blenders. They are just not designed for the work. Most of them will not only do a poor job but will burn out very fast if you try to force them beyond their meager capacity.

Regular blenders also have too small a capacity to make whole meals for a family.

You need something that has real guts and a big capacity for this job so we suggest a high-powered machine designed for the purpose

We hope this info gets you thinking and that we can help you get onto the whole foods diet your body needs.

Research reported in a major dental science journal revealed that toxic bacterial waste products enter the bloodstream from infected gums.

(Journal of Periodontology January 2002;73:73-78)

About 30% of middle-aged adults in this country suffer from periodontal (gum) disease. GUM DISEASE and the bacteria involved in the disease process have been linked in earlier research to increased rates of STROKE and cardiovascular disease.
ROOT CANALS pose an additional threat to health.

Normal, healthy teeth are living things. They have nerves, a blood supply, require oxygen and nutrients in order to go on living.

The root canal procedure destroys the major nerve and blood supply.

The dead tooth is now left in the jaw. Bacteria can then begin to grow in the millions of tiny side channels or canals inside the tooth and toxins from these bacteria can enter the body.

Toxins from root canal teeth can slowly POISON the body. This slow poisoning can cause a variety of ailments such as bowel ailments, auto-immune diseases and cancers. Poisoning from any source can also bring on negative emotional problems.

Having healthy gums and teeth is not a merely a cosmetic issue but essential to our overall health.
Solutions:

Good oral hygiene is obviously important. Brush thoroughly and floss regularly. Use natural, nontoxic products for cleaning gums and teeth. Some herbs and essential oils are safely antibacterial and may help significantly.

Avoid common foods that promote dental problems, especially any sugars, sodas and high-carb foods. You might also want to limit grains, which some physicians such as Dr. Mercola find unhealthful.

If you have had or are being told you need a root canal, consult one of the new breed of “biological” dentists who can help advise you on alternatives. These same dentists use safer materials for periodic cleanings and other dental procedures, they avoid use of mercury fillings and they won’t expose you to toxic fluoride treatments.

While a nice smile can be an asset, truly health gums and teeth are an even greater one.

Evan’s Garden offers a full line of natural dental hygiene products.

Insufficient exposure to ultraviolet radiation may be an important risk factor for cancer in Western Europe and North America, according to a new study published in the prominent Cancer journal that directly contradicts official advice about sunlight.

The research examined cancer mortality in the United States. Deaths from a range of cancers of the reproductive and digestive systems were approximately twice as high in New England as in the southwest, despite a diet that varies little between regions.

An examination of 506 regions found a close inverse correlation between cancer mortality and levels of ultraviolet B light. The likeliest mechanism for a protective effect of sunlight is vitamin D, which is synthesized by the body in the presence of ultraviolet B.

The study’s author, Dr William Grant says northern parts of the United States may be dark enough in winter that vitamin D synthesis shuts down completely.

While the study focused on white Americans, the same geographical trend affects black Americans, whose overall cancer rates are significantly higher. Darker skinned people require more sunlight to synthesize vitamin D.

There are 13 malignancies that show this inverse correlation, mostly reproductive and digestive cancers. The strongest inverse correlation is with breast, colon, and ovarian cancer.

Other cancers apparently affected by sunlight include tumors of the bladder, uterus, esophagus, rectum, and stomach.

Cancer March 2002; 94:1867-75

While it’s important not to get too much exposure to sunlight, use of sunblocks and avoidance of sunlight is very dangerous indeed. The chemicals in sunblocks are themselves toxic. The lack of vitamin D production puts us at great risk.

Adjust your diet to restore balance of the omega-6 vs omega-3 essential fatty acids. Fish oils can help greatly in this. The proper balance of fats greatly reduces risk of skin cancers from sun exposure.

Use common sense in dealing with the sun. At the beginning of the season, limit exposure to perhaps 10 to 15 minutes and work up gradually. Utilize clothing and shade in order to avoid actual burning, and exercise caution when going in the sun at midday. Use a good, 100% natural moisturizer where needed. But do get out there and enjoy the sun!