A TASTY BEAUTY SECRET

We are what we eat, according to the old adage. But increasingly, we are what we absorb.

While most of us are conscientious of what we put past our lips, many of us are also looking to reduce the amount of chemicals we apply to our skin and which seep through our pores each and every day.

After years of trial and error while searching for those “ultimate products” that seem to work best for us and that we simply cannot live without, it turns out most of these drug store beauty potions are loaded with chemical concoctions that have been linked to cancer.

Our body is often unable to protect itself against these chemicals and we can only detoxify so many harmful substances. Over time, these chemicals can build up in our tissues and mutate cells. This can create a perfect storm ripe for germs and infections.

Considering the number of products we use each and every day, it is wise to start replacing as many synthetic products as we can with natural, but equally as effective alternatives.

It wasn’t easy to part with so many of the tried and tested beauty essentials I had added to my arsenal over the years, but to my surprise I have been able to reduce the number of bottles on my shelf without sacrificing the way I look on a Friday night.

I’ve even managed to shrink my cosmetic bill by using unrefined, organic virgin coconut oil on my skin.

Coconut oil has received a lot of attention over the past few years and yet, has not fully caught on in our health and beauty marketplace despite its versatility. Although it has received high recognition for its ability to help boost metabolism for weight loss and poor thyroid functioning.

Coconut oil can withstand high heat without oxidizing when used in cooking. While we’ve discovered the wonderful cooking properties of coconut oil while women in the tropical regions of Africa, the Caribbean, Sri Lanka, and South India have known for centuries about the beautifying effects of coconut oil, giving them luminous, flawless complexions and shiny hair. It is the age old beauty “secret.”

Coconut oil is appealing because it has so many applications. It is inexpensive and its smell is both sweet and enticing. Due to its molecular composition, it is easily absorbed by the skin to smooth out roughness, dryness and wrinkles. Or, if your skin tends to be a little on the oily side, it can have a drying effect that absorbs excess oil, bringing the skin back into balance.

Coconut oil is loaded full of antioxidants. With regular use, it can help in the prevention of free radical damage from the sun, which appears on our skin in the form of brown “age” spots and wrinkles. It also helps maintain skin elasticity.

As well, it is anti-fungal and anti-viral. Scientists have touted coconut oil as one of the best available ingredients on the market to use as a base for soaps and lotions for these very reasons.

Here are some excellent suggestions you will love and that will simplify your life with coconut oil:

• As an all-over moisturizer, keep a jar handy near your shower. Before drying off with a towel, apply the coconut oil to damp skin. The oil works as a water sealant, keeping the moisture locked in. Then simply pat yourself dry.
• Try using it as a gentle, effective eye make-up remover, even for stubborn waterproof mascara.
• Use it before and after sun exposure to protect and soothe skin from harmful UV rays
• It is a remarkable hot oil treatment for those with damaged hair or dry scalp (dandruff). Gently heat the oil and massage it into scalp and hair. Don’t forget the ends! Leave it on over night for the ultimate deep conditioning treatment. Remember to cover your pillow with a towel. Then just shampoo it out in the morning.
• Before retiring for the evening, try applying it to your face, hands, elbows, knees and feet. Wear hand gloves and socks to wake up with an ultra soft experience.
• Use it to moisturize cuticles while relaxing in front of your favorite TV show.
• Slather on chapped, winter lips.* Mix with a coarse sugar or salt to make your own economical body scrub.
• Finally, because of its anti-viral, anti-fungal properties, it can be used to soothe and help heal eczema, fungal infections between the toes and when applied underarm, can prevent body odor.

Buy a large jar and divvy it up into a few small containers and place in areas of your home where it is easily accessible; one in the bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, etc. When choosing a coconut oil, make sure it is unrefined and organic, which is best for your health. As well, ensure that the company uses sustainable growing methods.

As coconut oil becomes a part of your world, you will be thrilled at all of its uses. That’s not to mention how tasty fish can be when cooked in coconut oil or how excellent it tastes drizzled over popcorn.

PEACE, LOVE, JOY, pH???

The holidays are upon us, and that means it’s time to get festive, gather the family and be thankful for the year that was.

A warm buzz permeates this chilling season and we feel a collective glow and gratitude towards those around us like at no other time of the year. It truly is the time to express our positive thoughts of love, joy and peace.

For many of us, the holiday season offers us a brief respite from our scurried lives and a chance to take a step back from our regular routines and take stock of our lives.

Whatever will we do with all this free time? Relax? Hardly. So many of us spend this most sacred time running around like a herd of untamed animals; shopping, stressing, spending, not getting enough sleep, stressing, overeating and drinking more than usual.

Did I mention stressing?

The question is, how do we keep the holiday rigmarole in check? Chances are most of us have neither the time nor the money needed to just pack up and head for a balmy beach where the drinks come with tiny umbrellas.

Well, we can start by keeping our bodies alkaline, but don’t worry, it’s got nothing to do with batteries.

Many will remember the subject of pH balance from high school chemistry classes, but probably only in the context of acids, bases and those baking soda volcanoes. Still, a knowledge of pH balance is not only necessary for science fair projects but can help you maintain a healthy body.

This holiday season, let’s try and keep our bodies a little less acidic and a little more alkaline. The pH scale runs from 0 for things like battery acid to bases or more alkaline compounds, such as bleach or lye, which can have a rating of up to 14. Water is right in the middle of the scale with a pH level of 7.

Human blood must maintain a pH level of between 7.35 and 7.45 and the slightest deviation in these levels can lead to serious health conditions and even death.

When it comes to nutrition, foods are rated acidic or alkalinizing depending on the effect they have on the body. It is very important to have a balance of both acidic and alkaline foods in our diet.

Many scientists and nutritional experts including William Howard Hay -- originator of the Hay Diet in the 1930s -- believe that 80 per cent of our diet should consist of alkaline foods while the remaining 20 per cent should be acidic foods, after all, our blood is on the alkaline end of the spectrum.

The next question, of course, is: which foods are acidic and which are more alkaline?

It’s a little trickier than you may think. Acidic foods are the ones we tend to love the most: meat, poultry, fish, dairy, grains such as bread and pasta, sugars, most nuts, most seeds, most beans/legumes, pop, candy, drugs, alcohol and preservatives.

While there might not seem to be much left that isn’t acidic, somehow 80 per cent of our diet must come from what is left.

So what’s left? Fresh raw fruits, vegetables and sprouts.

Sprouting transforms dormant, acidifying grains, beans, nuts and seeds into alkalinizing foods which are alive and carry the life energy of a whole potential plant inside its compact little structure.

Just a quick glance at the list of acidic foods can give you an idea of just how easy it can be to mess with our blood’s proper pH levels.

Even if you are not a “raw foodist” or a vegetarian, it is fun to play with raw food recipes and to discover new ways of sneaking nature’s original foods back into our diet. We must slowly re-learn that these alkaline foods should be fundamental staples of our diet and that all of the other “goodies” -- hopefully organic, whole foods for the most part -- can be eaten, but in smaller doses.

Let’s get back to the matter at hand, the holidays. Tis the season for overindulgence and elevated stress levels, and this is a rough combination for our body’s pH.

An overly acidic body can play host to many chronic and acute diseases that thrive in this type of environment. An acidic body can lead to sleep problems, arthritis, cancer sores, chest pain, fatigue, constipation and cancer to name a just a few.

What’s worse is that acid levels can affect our mental state. So while we’re running around trying to make everyone happy over the holidays an acidic body can slow us down. Our body is always striving to keep us alive, that is its primary job. When we are too acidic our body will use the minerals in our bones, our nerve cells and our muscles to buffer or neutralize the acids and therefore keep our blood’s pH stable. Mineral loss can make us highly irritable, cause headaches, depression, fatigue and slow in our thinking processes.

This is not how we want to feel with our loved ones and when we are facing the inevitable mall frenzy!

Here are some handy pH strategies.

Keep ample supplies of fruits and veggies cut and on hand; in your glove compartment or purse while on the go or in the fridge when family heads over for the holidays. Eat as much as you would like -- the crunchy vegetables are great when stress hits -- so that you can enjoy some traditional and possibly very acidic favorites during festive gatherings.

You can also try keeping a mug of homemade soup broth close at hand. Whether it is veggie or meat-based, minerals do not get destroyed by heat and are leeched out of the soup bones and vegetables during cooking so the broth becomes a warm and comforting mineral drink.

Have a green smoothie an hour or so before you go out and you will be amazed at your decreased desire for high fat, high sugar and high refined carbohydrate-based foods.

Make raw desserts such as fruit and veggie platters. Start the holidays off by creating healthy options and kick off some new wholesome traditions.

If nothing else, take a good liquid trace mineral supplement and a green powder such as chlorella, spirulina, or blue-green algaes that have a remarkable calming effect and energize at the same time! Not to mention it will alkalinize you and sweep toxins right out of your body.

Apply these suggestions and desperate New Year’s resolutions can be a thing of the past.