Stay healthy and beautiful

It’s much easier to look lovely in your 20s when your skin is soft and smooth and you haven’t become weathered by time. So how can you maintain a shapely and toned body and good skin as you get older?

Live Long and Healthily

Living a long life may not always be a good thing – many people spend their final years in pain or virtually immobile.   Many people over 50 are on medication that they will take for the rest of their lives, which often leads to side-effects. Then the doctor may prescribe more medication to cope with side-effects, and so it goes on.

Instead of treating symptoms as they turn up a proactive approach to your health involves taking the right supplements, eating healthily and exercising to prevent major problems.

See Competitions where you can win: a Love Your Naked Summer Skin hampers from Viridian Nutrition containing: Organic Ultimate Beauty Topical Skin Repair Oil and SPF Skin Pro-Factors worth £30.80.

Eating and drinking healthily:

• Drinking eight glasses of spring or filtered water a day flushes out toxins and lubricates all the organs of the body.
• Try to have three regular meals a day with plenty of (organic) fruit and vegetables.
• Cut down on sugar, salt, and refined foods (such as white bread).
• Drink less tea and coffee and try herbal teas instead.
• Try to stick to government guidelines on drinking alcohol – for a woman this is 14 units (glasses of wine) a week.
• Take a good multivitamin/mineral that is appropriate to your age.
• Don’t smoke as it ages your voice, makes your skin go yellow and can kill you.

 

Exercise mind and body: 

Remaining active is one of the best indicators for a healthy old age – both mentally and physically.

• Just walking for 20 minutes a day five times a week helps to prevent heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression and obesity.
• Keep mentally active by reading, doing crosswords, socialising, or taking up  a hobby.
• Take the herbal remedy Ginkgo regularly as it ensures a healthy blood flow to the brain.
• Pilates and yoga are great exercises for keeping the body toned and you can do them throughout life into old age.

Avoid toxic chemicals

• Many cosmetics and household cleansers contain harmful toxins – choose natural ingredients that help to keep you healthy.  You can find household cleaning products in the supermarket without phtalates which damage the environment and other harsh chemicals that aren’t good for your skin. Watch this space for more details on chemical-free cosmetics.

Having a positive approach to life and not storing up grievances helps people to be happier and healthier in old age.

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Ginkgo tincture A. Vogel (Bioforce) 50ml £9.30
High Five Multivitamins/minerals Viridian Nutrition 60 veg caps £19.65
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The miracle of lemons

Lemons are antibacterial, antiviral, antiseptic, antifungal, astringent, detoxifying, anti-inflammatory and anti-histamine, provide masses of  Vitamin C and can be used in cleaning and beautifying.  The amazing benefits of lemons for health are fully explained in the book, The Miracle of Lemons, by Dr Penny Stanway.

What few people realise is that lemons may be acidic in the mouth, but when they are digested the acids are broken down into water and carbon dioxide, and the other contents release alkalising minerals in the body – including calcium, iron, potassium, sodium. Far from avoiding them because they are too acidic, they keep the body alkaline, so we should be using them more!
The nutrients in lemons are so numerous that we can’t even list them all here. Here’s a flavour of them:
• Vitamin C aka ascorbic acid.  A small lemon contains 60-100mg of Vitamin C.
• Antioxidants that fight free radicals in the body – the chemicals that cause disease  – these include Vitamins C and E, selenium, and zinc.
• Citric acid which removes water from the body’s tissues into the bloodstream.
• Glucaric acid which lowers LDL cholesterol (the harmful one) from the body.

Health benefits:

Digestion: The acids in lemons – ascorbic, citric and glucaric – aid digestion for anyone who has insufficient gastric acid.
Arthritis: Lemons are good for arthritis, which thrives on an acidic system, despite the fact that people often warn sufferers to avoid citrus fruits.
Stabilises blood sugar levels: The acids and pectin within lemons slow the absorption of sugar after a meal with a high glycaemic index (that normally raises blood sugar levels).  This helps to stop low sugar dips which often lead people to eat more.
Sore throats or coughs: Lemon is often included in cough preparations – hot lemon and honey can be very soothing when you’re feeling ropey.
Athlete’s foot: Lemon juice is antifungal and can clear up a mild case of athlete’s foot when applied direct.
Dr Stanway mentions many more health benefits in her book.

How to eat or drink lemons

The easiest thing you can do is to squeeze lemon juice into meals – casseroles, stews, fish dishes, salad dressings. You can simply make a dressing of olive oil with lemon juice.
Or drink a glass of water with a fresh lemon wedge in it, or if making smoothies add lemon juice. You will barely notice the taste but will get all the benefits.

Choosing the best fruits

The long list of fungicides, pesticides and insecticides that growers put on lemons could put you off completely.  Far better to go for the unwaxed versions – the wax contains fungicides, and better still, organic lemons that are not subjected to such harsh chemicals.

To buy The Miracle of Lemons click on the Amazon carousel on the home page.

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Is red wine good for you?

Paracelcus ((1493-1541),, ‘Wine is a food, a medicine, and a poison – it’s just a question of dose’.
 
So what is the truth?  There has been alarming news recently about the increase in liver disease, particularly among young people, so how can drinking ever be beneficial to your health?  Red wine can protect the heart, but too much alcohol of any kind leads to hypertension, high blood pressure and consequently strokes and heart disease.

The French paradox
 
But  what used to confuse health experts was that the French who eat all that cheese, loaded with cholesterol and saturated fat, should have lower incidences of heart disease than the rest of Europe. According to Professor Roger Corder, who has spent much of his career researching cardiovascular health and wine, red wine is the only alcoholic drink that actually has health benefits.

The health warning

The warning is that red wine has a positive effect on the cardiovascular system, provided it is drunk (a) in moderation and (b) in conjunction with a healthy diet and (c) a healthy lifestyle – i.e. no smoking.   See Alcohol – do we drink too much?

High quantities of red wine like any other alcohol raise blood pressure, and he claims that beer and spirits are not protective. The health warning is:  drinking 20g (2.5 units) a day of red wine could have benefits in terms of reducing heart disease risk, whereas drinking 80g (8 units)  a day is likely to cause coronary disease.

Red wine and dark chocolate

He explains it is the polyphenols (an antioxidant compound found in red wine) that provide the protection, and not the reservratrol as so widely reported by some newspapers and advertisers. And it doesn’t have to be red wine, because the same effect can be gained from the polyphenols in cranberry juice, cocoa, cinnamon, apples and (this is the best news) dark chocolate.

Liver disease

None of this conflicts with the depressing news that cases of liver disease have doubled in the last 10 years in the UK, as opposed to other European countries where governments don’t allow cheap booze. Increasing numbers of young people, including women, have liver damage, and much of this is due to binge-drinking.

The French and Italians, Professor Corder explains, do their drinking in a different way. They may have a couple of glasses of wine with a meal while eating, and later on a couple more glasses with dinner. It is true that food helps to soak up alcohol, and one of the problems with young Brits’ drinking is that they go out for the evening often on an empty stomach, with the view of eating a meal later on, which means they get more drunk and do more damage to themselves.

Top health tips

Eat porridge and wholegrains for long life. More research into eating plenty of fibre has found that eating fibre-rich foods like porridge mean that you are less likely to die prematurely.  The study of nearly 400,000 people in the US found that whole grains like oatmeal, wild and brown rice, fruit and vegetables had best results.  Read Sowing  Wild Oats.

Learn a second language to keep your brain active. Apparently speaking more than one language increases brain power and delays Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at the York University in Toronto found that a second language was more effective than doing crosswords or Sudoko.  

Cut down on red meat: on the one hand it’s good for you as a great source of iron and zinc, but too much can be cancer causing scientists have declared. The Government is going to issue warnings about this, but it’s only for excessive amounts – 70g or three bacon rashers will be the recommended maximum level per day. Eating organic avoids traces of routine medication in animals.

Lavender oil for athlete’s foot: persistent athlete’s foot can become resistant to creams, but researchers at the Coimbra University in Portugal found that the antifungal properties of lavender work well against the fungus that causes nail infections, ringworm and athlete’s foot. Read more in Aromatherapy oils have so many uses.

Drink a moderate amount of red wine but the key is ‘moderate’. At a time when the number of people with liver disease has doubled, it is only red wine that offers protection to the heart when drunk in moderation – up to two glasses a day.

Limit high energy drinks which are packed with caffeine. I was shocked when I gave a talk to some schoolgirls about how to cope with exams. Quite a few of them took caffeine tablets to keep them going, at a time when they should be limiting caffeine. There is a tendency for teenagers to over-consume these drinks and recent research at the University of Miami found that high-caffeine drinks could cause strokes or seizures in children, especially if they have diabetes or behaviour disorders.

Take zinc for a cold as Indian scientists found that it could make it last for less time. Zinc has numerous other health benefits such as: fighting infection, normal growth in children, healthy hair, skin and nails, and for men healthy sperm and prostate gland.  Conversely, not enough zinc can lead to skin rashes, hair falling out, lethargy, sleep disturbance, infections, night blindness, loss of smell and taste, and more.   Read Vitamins and Minerals Chart.

Sowing wild oats

There was an old tale about an Englishman travelling in Scotland with a party of friends.  He met a Highlander carrying a bag of oats and said, ‘In England we use those for feeding horses, but in Scotland they are eaten by men’.  ‘Yes,’ replied the Highlander, ‘and that is why in England you have such fine horses, and in Scotland we have such fine men’.

It was said that the strength and size of the Scotsman, his vigour of brain and body, and his capacity to withstand his climate probably depended on the excellence of oatmeal as a food and its richness in the substances needed to cope with cold weather.   Unfortunately probably far less Scots rely on oats these days for their staple diet. 

It’s now known that oats can be calming, lower cholesterol, are slow releasing, and good for digestion and a healthy immune system.

Abundant in nutrients

Epithets like soothing, restorative, protective, strengthening and nutritious sound like good adman’s copy, but they’re all true.  

• Oats contain silica for healing, potassium and magnesium,  Vitamin B and they are rich in protein. 
• They have more oil than other cereals particularly those grown in warmer climates, such as rice.  
• They release energy slowly because they are high in complex carbohydrates and soluble fibre, so a bowl of porridge in the morning keeps hunger at bay until lunchtime. 

A bowl of porridge used to be said to fill children  up on in the morning and make them big and strong!  And that is not mere myth – oats are particularly good for children as they help to build strong teeth and bones.  More recently it has been discovered that oats can also lower blood cholesterol, thereby helping to prevent heart attacks and disease. 

Calming and hypnotic

Their restorative properties are legendary, and a  good oat tonic can combat the after-effects of surgery, childbirth, serious illness and antibiotics.   Renowned for their sedative and hypnotic properties, they have been widely used in the treatment of addiction, particularly to nicotine and drugs.  They are safe to administer to children and can soothe a crying baby.  

The preponderance of Vitamin B in oats has revived interest in them and they have been used as the basis for tinctures (Avena sativa) and various flower remedies, particularly for people suffering from  nervous exhaustion  and depression.   Oats also have an excellent reputation as a skin cleanser, with balanced pH for sensitive skins – oatmeal soap, oatwash and compresses are good skin exfoliants.

Warm food for cold climates

Oats grow in cold climates and are prevalent in Scotland, Scandinavia and Canada.   The cultivated Avena sativa variety was undoubtedly derived from the common wild oat grass, which was found growing as a weed among fields of barley.    Oat grasses grow between two and five feet high, have soft hairy leaves and the grain is contained in a branching head with each ear hanging down on a thread-like attachment.

Until the 1st World War the world’s crop of oats was bigger than the wheat crop, but afterwards the crop dwindled and now wheat is much more prevalent.  The majority of oats go for livestock feed but plenty go into making rolled oats for porridge and cooking.  

Traditionally the Scots and others from cold climes ate oats as porridge, oatmeal and oatcakes.  The husk of the oats was too indigestible to make bread out of and oatcakes are of hard consistency.   The Scots have always favoured their porridge made with salt and water, while the English chose sugar and milk.   For those who want to eat their oats in a healthy way,  porridge can be mixed with fruit juices. 

The cholesterol connection

Oats contain a high percentage of protein of superior amino acid balance, compared with that of other cereals.  They are  high in lipids which are unsaturated and contain considerable amounts of the essential fatty acid, lineolic acid.  Of particular importance is the soluble fibre found in oats called beta-glucans which soak up fatty deposits during digestion, gradually helping to reduce cholesterol levels.

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Avena sativa tincture A. Vogel (Bioforce) 50ml £9.15
Avena sativa, organic (Oats) Viridian Nutrition 50ml £8.10
***Please click here to purchase from the Nutri Centre***