Foods to Keep Your Skin Looking Great

I have a confession to make: I have mediocre skin.  I’ll admit, it’s not horrible - but it’s not as beautiful and glowing as I’d like it to be.  It’s frustrating — I’m nearly 24 years old; shouldn’t this have stopped troubling me around high school?  I’ve gone through the gamut of medications - some worked, some didn’t — but recently decided to try a more natural approach to helping my skin shine.  On my way home from a trip to Greece in September, I leafed through a copy of Women’s Health the woman next to me had already finished reading, and came across an article about the best foods for great skin.  I’m a pretty picky eater (most who know me would probably say that picky is an understatement), so I selected the foods that worked best for me and tried to eat them consistently over the last several weeks.  Here’s what worked: › Continue reading

Tags: Almonds, Dark Chocolate, Green Tea, Healthy Foods for Your Skin, Healthy Skin, Low Cholesterol Foods, Orange Juice, Women's Health

Flu Fighting Tips

School is back in session and cold and flu season is here, so it’s best to be prepared to prevent a virus from making its way into your home.  The Center for Disease Control has a checklist of things to do to prevent the spread of seasonal illness:

• Avoid close contact: Try to steer clear of sick individuals.  If you’re sick, try to keep your distance from others to prevent them from getting sick, too.
• Stay home when you’re sick: Stay home from work, school and errands when you’re sick, to try to prevent others from catching your illness.  With the flu, you should stay home until at least 24 hours after your fever is gone.
• Cover your mouth and nose: In addition to being polite, covering your nose and mouth with a tissue when you sneeze or cough will help prevent the spread of airborne germs.
• Clean your hands: Wash your hands often to prevent the spread of germs, especially in communal areas; a good rule of thumb is to lather your hands for as long as it takes to sing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ or ‘Happy Birthday.’  If soap and water aren’t available, use an alcohol-based rub (like Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer or TopCare Hand Sanitizer).
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth: Germs are often spread by touching these areas, so try to avoid doing so.
• Gargle: Using warm salt water (or Listerine) to gargle twice a day can help prevent flu from spreading, since most flus, including H1N1, take several days after initial contact to show characteristic symptoms.
• Practice good health habits: Get plenty of sleep, eat healthy food (check out our blog on immunity-boosting foods here), exercise and drink plenty of fluids — especially warm liquids — to help lower your risk of illness.

For more information, click here.

Tags: Center for Disease Control, Flu Remedies, Hand Sanitizer

Fight the Flu With These Foods!

H1N1, the common cold, seasonal flu, RSV, sinus infections, pneumonia, measles, tuberculosis, SARS, bird flu, Lyme disease, West Nile —

Stop the madness!  With all of the health scares out there, we may want to wrap ourselves and our family in bubble wrap and never leave the house.  But as much as we imagine disinfecting from head-to-toe anyone who comes within a one-mile radius of our loved ones, it just isn’t possible.  We live in the real world, with real people, with real germs.  That’s life!

The good news is that there are certain things you can do to help give your immune system a boost.  Most of us know that we need to be vigilant about washing our hands.  Getting enough sleep, exercising, and reducing stress can also help our immune systems function better.  And there are certain foods we can eat to give our bodies an edge.

According to EatingWell.com, there’s no magical food or supplement that’s been clinically proven to boost the immune system.  However, eating healthy foods that provide essential vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients will altogether help your immune system run more smoothly and fight off illness and disease:

• Vitamin C: Your skin and mucous membranes are your body’s first barrier to germs, and vitamin C helps keep the skin healthy.  It’s also key in the production of white blood cells and antibodies, which fight infection.  Fruits high in vitamin C include oranges, cantaloupe, kiwi, strawberries, and mangos; vegetables like broccoli and peppers are also good sources.

› Continue reading

Tags: Almonds, Flu Fighting Foods, Immunity Boosting Foods, Vitamin C

Shopping on a Budget

I’m not a big spender.  I’m not a clothes horse, I rarely eat out, and I’ve set limits on my personal allotment of Caribou Coffee white chocolate mochas.  But I’m struggling with one area of my budget … groceries.  It seems like no matter what I do, the dollars I spend each month on food continue to rise.  So this week I’m looking at ways we can all keep our eyes on our grocery budgets while feeding our families nutritious meals.

One important way to spend less on groceries is to simply use all of the food you buy.  I cringe when I find myself throwing away brown lettuce, soft celery, or leftovers that have been shoved to the back of the fridge and forgotten.  Cutting down on the amount of wasted food is key. Leftovers can be easily packed for lunch at the office or school.  Keep them stored toward the front of the fridge so you remember to eat them before they end up in the trash.  Look at what’s in your fridge and cupboards before you shop and build your weekly menu around ingredients that you already have.  I discovered two half-used containers of wild rice in my cupboard, so my family’s going to be eating wild rice casserole this week.  You can always find a new recipe by going to a favorite web site (epicurious.com or cobornsdelivers.com, for example) and entering an ingredient that you want to use.  You may even end up discovering a new family favorite! › Continue reading

Tags: Budget Grocery Shopping, Meal Planning