Super foods and essentials for fabulous skin: Chapter Two

The adage of 'you are what you eat' applies here, especially if you want that healthy skin glow. Ms Tourles recommends that we eat a balanced diet with as few processed foods as possible.

She divides vitamin and mineral characteristics into three categories: Outstanding Sources, Skin Care Benefits, and Deficiency Symptoms. For the purpose of this study I selected what I considered the most critical item or a food that I would be willing to eat. For more detail, please get her book.

Essential Vitamins
Powerhouse vitamins provide the antioxidants and healing agents that gives our skin a healthy glow.

• Vitamin A is essential for skin cell growth and maintenance; it boosts immunity and helps prevent dry, rough skin; found in fish liver oil, squashes,  greens, or tomatoes;
• B-Complex vitamins are good for anti-stress as well as aiding in cell growth and development; found in lean beef, chicken, egg yolks, liver,milk whole grains, green leafy vegetables or beans;
• Vitamin C helps produce collagen in connective tissue; found in citrus fruits, tomatoes, apples, green leafy vegetables or papayas;
• Vitamin D when combined with vitamin A aids in healing skin impurities; found in herring, mackerel, salmon, milk, egg yolks, and sunshine; and
• Vitamin E oxygenates tissues and helps skin retain vitamin A; found in whole grains, eggs, nuts and green leafy vegetables.

Essentials Minerals

Building blocks of healthy skin, Four particular minerals are essential in building healthy skin:

• iodine increases oxygen consumption and metabolic rate; found in fish and salt;
• silicon aids in collagen formation; found in beets, onions, eggs, almonds, peanuts or grapes;
• sulfur helps keep skin clear and smooth; found in onions, cabbage, garlic and kale; and
• zinc boosts immunity; found in pumpkin/sunflower seeds, milk, eggs, green leafy vegetables, onions or nuts.

Essential Fats and Fatty Acids
Fat is critical to our skin's health, well-being, nourishment, and shape. It is composed of three fatty acids substances: saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, each offer its special value.

• Saturated fatty acids are solid at room temperature; manufactured by your body excess saturated fatty acids can lead to a risk of high cholesterol or heart disease; found in animal fats;
• Monounsaturated fatty acids are liquid at room temperature are beneficial to your heart because they do not elevate your cholesterol and may even reduce it; found in plant and fish fats;
• Polyunsaturated fatty acids are also liquid at room temperature but have a different molecular structure; and
• have been associated with increased risk of certain types of cancer; found in nuts and fish.

Mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids contain essential fatty acids (EFAs) because our body's cannot manufacture them; they must come from our food and are essential for our overall nuritional health. As little as 2 or 3 teaspoons of polyunsaturateed fal provides all the efa your body needs.

Two particular EFAs affect our skin:

• Omega-3 found in fish and seeds, aid in healing wounds and
• Omega-6 found in evening primrose, borage, black current oils and blue-green algae; promotes smooth, moisturized skin.

Whole food supplements will be discussed in my next message.

Healthy Skin Naturally: Skin Structure, it's function

Welcome to my final discussion of  Chapter One of Naturally Healthy Skin by Stephanie Tourles.

Function
Skin is our largest organ system that protects the body from damage, comprising the skin and its appendages (hair, scales, feather, and nails).

Skin serves as a regulator for our body including waterproofing, cushioning, and protection of deeper tissues; it excretes waste, regulates temperature and is made of sensory receptors that detect pain, sensation, pressure, and temperature; and it is an integumentary system that provide vitamin D synthesis. Our skin secrets sebum (oil secreted by the sebaceous glands), which lubricates the skin and keeps it moist.

Skin has aesthetic appeal in that it reflects our health and vibrance. Skin is the first thing people notice about us and shapes our opinion of our selves.
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Now that Chapter One has been discussed it's time to focus on learning all the new terms and dig a bit deeper into their functions and they help our skin be as vibrant as possible.

Nubian Goat Soap Presentation

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Nubian Goat Soap Presentation

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Healthy Skin Naturally: Skin Structure, its dermis and subcutaneous layers

Welcome to the second section of Chapter One of Naturally Healthy Skin by Stephanie Tourles.



The dermis layer consists of two layers:

1. The papillary binds the epidermis and dermis together. Papillae are the ridge-like projections that make up your finger prints. Containing capillaries and nerve ends, the papillae are super-sensitive to touch stimuli.
2. The reticular layer is made of elastic mesh-like fibers that give skin its resilience. But as we age, this layer’s strength and tone diminishes, collagen formation slows, and wrinkles begin. This layer contains fat cells, blood and lymph vessels, oil and sweat glands, arrector pili muscles, and hair follicles.

Subcutaneous
Subcutaneous means ‘beneath the skin’. A fatty layer connects the dermis to the underlying muscle tissue. This fatty layer is a shock absorber, insulator protecting our internal organs and gives your skin a smooth, strong foundation.

The photograph below shows the skin layers discussed above.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Skin.jpg

Skin section retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Skin.jpg

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Skin structure, its function will be discussed in my next blog.