Food for Skin Health

For thousands of years herbs and other ingredients have been used in endless combinations of treatments by women looking for ways to look after and improve their skin's appearance. 

Today we are overwhelmed with large manufacturing companies who spend a lot of money on advertising and packaging; and who add perfumes, chemicals and colouring to their products. 

We should not forget or neglect our fascinating heritage. Life is so busy and we get so caught up in new things that we forget the wisdom of the past―when life was simpler, yet beauty was just as important.

Natural beauty care is fascinating and rewarding and in the weeks ahead we will look at some great ideas for preserving skin health―based on tradition, but with the benefit of present day knowledge. We will include tried and proven ingredients, tips, quotations, articles and recipes on how to look after the health of your skin, body and hair―all naturally!

We can’t help but feel a little dull as the winter takes hold, but there’s no need for our skin to look dull. We can combat dullness by increasing the amount of antioxidants in our diet as well as in the products we use on our skin. 

Be green, eat clean. Green barley cereal grass has the look, smell, taste, nutrient and chemical makeup of green leafy vegetables rather than cereal grains. Research over 50 years shows young cereal grasses contain many times the level of vitamins, minerals and proteins found in the seed kernel or grain product of the mature cereal plant. Green barley also contains chlorophyll and a powerful antioxidant called superoxide dismutase (SOD).

Green foods vs multi-vitamins

Is there a difference between using organically farmed green whole foods and using multi-vitamin tablets?

Most people take a multi-vitamin tablet because they have read in a health article or heard from someone else that it is an important way to keep healthy, even if they don’t feel any physical difference on a day-to-day basis. Here are some interesting facts that you might like to know.

The combination of nutrients and other factors found in green whole foods bear little resemblance to those found in supplement tablets. Nature’s foods are many times more complex and contain many times the nutritional content than any scientifically formulated multi-vitamin product. In animal studies, those fed dehydrated barley grass thrived, whereas those fed all the nutrients known necessary for health did not.

Certain green foods are highly beneficial to us. Since the 1920s, scientists observing the favourable affects of these foods on people and animals have conducted research into many green foods. They found that cereal grasses and alfalfa had the highest level of nutrition of all the green leafy whole foods.

Dr Hagiwara, a Japanese doctor/scientist who recovered from his terminal illness by using green barley (1985), spent ten years studying the roots, stems, twigs, leaves and flowers of more than 300 plants at all stages of maturity. He stated that the green leaves of barley plants contain the most balanced supply of nutrients that exist on earth in a single source. Not only that, but green barley and alfalfa also contained the greatest number of nutrients. Some of these nutrients are known as essential elements, comprising enzymes, vitamins, minerals and amino acids, and it is very important that all these elements are present at the same time in the one food to be consumed.

There are around 46 essential elements (depending on which expert you speak to), and together they take care of cellular repair and building of new cells. If just one of these elements is missing, then the repair and production of new cells won’t happen. Instead the elements present will be used just for energy.

The researchers also discovered that these same leafy greens contain excellent amounts of carotenes, some of which are converted by the liver into vitamin A (the safe way to have vitamin A). Carotenes are also protection against cancers―no better reason to consume these great foods!

Multi-vitamin tablets only contain a specified formula. As yet, no multi-vitamin tablet has been formulated to copy nature’s green whole foods in the same highly absorbable form.

There is no question that your skin reflects what you eat and drink. So why not help the anti-aging process by introducing cereal grasses into your diet. You WILL notice a difference.

Erica Carnea

Natural Beauty Therapist