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Skin Care & Anti-aging Products
Note: Much of the following information was taken from pages on our
"sister' website: BestDietForMe.com.
Summary
Today there is a large and growing variety of skin care and
anti-aging products sold in America, primarily to women. The health of your skin
depends on what you are eating and whether you are deficient in some crucial
vitamins and minerals-which can be affected by your participation in a weight
loss program. How will commercial or medical diet plans such as Jenny Craig,
Weight Watchers, LA Weight Loss, Jenny Craig, the South Beach Diet, NutriSystem
or others affect your skin? How about fad diets? Read on...
Vitamins
According to the Procter & Gamble Skin Care Research
Center..."While the use of daily
vitamins
has for
years been recognized as an important part of maintaining health, only
recently have researchers started paying attention to the relationship between
nutritional intake and skin health.
Vitamins
have long been used in topical skin treatment for their beneficial effects on
the skin's surface and for their antioxidant properties."
Most RDs (registered dietitians) and nutritionists would agree
with the above statement.
According to the women's health website iVillage.com, vitamin
A is essential for healthy skin. To get vitamin A, one should eat plenty of
dark orange (carrots, sweet potatoes) and dark green (broccoli, spinach)
vegetables, all of which are high in vitamin A.
In addition, vitamin E helps promote good looking skin. A
diet that includes nuts such as hazelnuts and almonds will help you get that.
Anti-Aging Treatments
Skin care experts advise us to consume a balanced and healthy
diet. A balanced diet is a diet allowing us to avoid malnutrition and nutrient
deficiencies. Keep in mind, though, that in order to "beat nature" and derive
significant anti-aging benefits, one may have to consume some nutrients in
greater amounts than those found in a basic balanced diet.
For most people, the simplest and probably the most practical
way to stick to a balanced and healthy diet is to follow the recommendations of
the daily Food Guide developed by the US Dept. of Agriculture.
Fruits and vegetables are especially important for preventing
premature skin aging because they contain a wide variety of
antioxidants.
Many of the pigments responsible for the color of fruits and vegetables are,
among other things, powerful antioxidants. These
antioxidants
help protect your skin cells from damage by free radicals, which are especially
rampant in the skin due to environmental exposure. To ensure that your fruits
and vegetables keep all their
antioxidants
intact, make sure they are fresh and uncooked (or minimally cooked) since heat
inactivates most
antioxidants.
Skin care experts say that well-moisturized skin is less prone
to developing
wrinkles.
Drinking plenty of fluids during the day ensures adequate hydration of the body
and helps reduce skin dryness. Experts usually recommend drinking 6 to 8 glasses
of water a day. Coincidentally, most weight loss programs recommend that you
drink lots of water also.
With the exception of for burning oneself in direct sunlight,
the fastest way to get wrinkles is to put on a lot of weight and then lose it.
The reason is obvious: when you gain weight, extra fat stretches the skin. Then,
when you lose weight and body fat goes away, the skin sags and crumples up.
Who Are America's Skin Care Experts?
Perhaps the best-known dermatologist in America today is
Dr. Nicholas
Perricone, MD. He is a board-certified clinical and research
dermatologist. He is certified by the American Board of Dermatology, is a Fellow
of the NY Academy of Sciences and the American College of Nutrition. In 2001,
Vogue magazine named him one of the best dermatologists in the U.S.
Dr.
Perricone is regarded as the Father of the Inflammation Theory of Aging. He
is the author of three NY Times #1 Best Sellers: The Perricone Promise,
The Perricone Prescription, and The Wrinkle Cure.
His latest book, The Perricone Weight Loss Diet is to debut Sept.
20, 2005 ($17 on Amazon.com).
Dr.
Perricone holds dozens of US patents for the treatment of skin and systemic
diseases.
At
Dr.
Perricone's website (nvperriconemd.com) he sells his books, supplements,
products for eye/face/body/lip care, acne care, moisturizers, cleansers and
toners. He also sells a weight loss program for $195 that seems to consist only
of a 30-day supply of supplements, one packet taken 3 times a day, before each
meal. (Seems kind of pricey for just a month's worth of supplements.)
The popular diet website eDiets.com also promotes
Dr.
Perricone, with the Perricone "Face Lift". At eDiets, there is a free
profile you get after leaving your name, height, weight, age, zip code, email,
etc. and answering six questions. The "profile" calculates your BMI and daily
calorie guide for your weight loss goal.
You are led to believe that the next step is to sign up for
Dr.
Perricone's special diet plan, but instead you're led to the regular sign-up
screen for the eDiets program at $2.99/week. This is a little misleading, in
our opinion.
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