It’s back to school time and nothing can ruin teens’ confidence (or adults for that matter) like acne can. We know that your diet affects your complexion. My teenage son is the perfect example. He is so sensitive to the wrong things in his diet that even a piece of bread shows up on his skin. He’s so acutely aware of this that he won’t even go near starches – and he’s a seventeen year old boy!

Believe it or not, the same dietary issues we talk about as the roots of diabetes and heart disease also cause acne in our kids (and adults). When you eat junk, aka pop tarts, soda pop, chips and cookies, sugary cereals, etc. you are eating what dietitians call easily digested carbohydrate (EDC). EDC are such small molecules that when you eat them, they go straight to the stomach and barely any digestion is needed. EDC causes an immediate blood sugar spike. And guess what? That spike feels good. You get a sugar rush and a serotonin release, but then your blood sugar crashes and when you take that turn, you get irritable and crabby and low energy and that makes you want to eat more EDC and spike that sugar again. Spiking and crashing goes on all day from morning until night. Every spike and crash causes inflammation and inflammation leads to disease. In teens and even some adults, that inflammation manifests itself as acne.

When you stop spiking and crashing your sugar, your skin clears. How do you do that? By eating a diet of fruits and vegetables and lean protein. Replace the morning pop tarts with lean protein and two colors from fruits or vegetables. In fact, two colors and a lean protein choice should be the rule morning, noon and night. This keeps your blood sugar nice and even and prevents those inflammation-causing spikes. Remember, nothing tastes that good to be worth having really bad skin. Why resort to potentially dangerous drugs like Accutane and others if you don’t have to?

Remember,
Fruits and Vegetables
+
Protein
=
Clear Skin.

Next week – My teenage daughter tests our spiking and crashing theory – and the results aren’t pretty!

Good Things are In-Season Now.

If you haven’t been through the produce section of your local supermarket lately, now is your time to get there!  Move away from the frozen fruits and vegetables and check out what’s fresh.  I try to buy organic whenever possible, but realistically, this is still expensive to do.  Even more important than organic on my list: buying local.  

Locally grown produce is available at your neighborhood supermarket or farmers’ market.  The benefits of buying local are many fold.

• Buying locally grown produce helps your local economy.
• When grown locally, transportation time is null.  Your fruits and veggies get from the farm to your plate in a much shorter time than if they’re grown somewhere in South America.  Travel time is huge for retaining nutrients.  The lesser the time in transit, the more nutrient dense your produce will be.  (Less time in transit also equals less gas used – you’re benefitting the environment!)

The most important thing when buying produce is to buy a variety of colors as every color is associated with a different type of antioxidant behavior.  Again, I buy organic when possible, but ultimately, it’s the look and firmness of the fruit or vegetable that sells me.  Just always make sure to wash your fresh produce thoroughly.

Springtime Fresh Fruits and Veggies You’ve Got to Try:

Have you noticed the strawberries this spring?  They’ve been gorgeous this year.  It’s only Tuesday and our family is on our second case this week!  We cut them up and serve with dinner – a giant bowl is gone in minutes at our house.  They taste great and are loaded with antioxidants.  They’re a power food!

Clementine oranges are affordable by the case right now.  They’re easy to peel and you can eat two or three at a pop.  A plus – kids love them!

Asparagus is everywhere this month.  We brush it with olive oil and a little Mrs. Dash or other salt-free seasoning and grill it on foil outside.  Grill it just enough so that it’s a little soft outside and crunchy on the inside.  This is another kid favorite and is high in vitamin C, and has a ton of antioxidant behavior. 

Artichokes are another seasonal veggie that are often overlooked.  They’ve looked great lately, too.  We simply steam them, pull off the leaves and eat the bottoms.  Then be sure to pull the ends of the leaves and eat the heart.  At dinner, we make two artichokes and everyone shares (except the heart – there is always a fight for that at our house)!

What you are about to read is not exact science. It’s an observation, but a scary one. It’s an area that I think we need to start researching. In my practice I have seen a lot of kidney failure recently. It’s been mainly men around 50-70 years old. The thing they all have in common though is that they come to me taking huge amounts of supplements, sometimes 35, 45, even 50 pills a day thinking that this will make them healthy. They’re taking so many things and it can be a little bit of a whole lot of different supplements or a lot of just a few kinds, but I’m seeing them in kidney failure.
This same age group is also taking a lot of prescription medications. When they add ridiculous numbers of supplements on top of their prescriptions, plus what normal aging does on its own, their kidneys are just shutting down. I’ve seen this eight different times in the last six months and it scares me. Where there is smoke there is fire. I’m not sure what the connection is between large doses of supplements (unnecessary supplements) and renal failure, but it sure looks like there is one.
One gentleman’s labs showed renal problems and it turned out he was taking 50 supplement pills a day. A lot of you are probably asking why. As you know, misinformation abounds. He had been advised at a health food store to take various things and he was self-medicating with things he’d read about online and seen on the news. He thought these were all good for him and was taking them in addition to his prescription medications. This relates to renal failure because your kidneys have to process everything you take in, the supplements, the prescriptions, everything and they just shut down.
Again, these are just observations, but they are affecting my practice. I’m now asking people for any additional supplements they’re taking in addition to what they’re naming and I’m looking at their renal function.

By Joan and James O’Keefe

Omega 3 is one of the most common nutrient deficiencies in Americans
today. For those at risk for or with diagnosed cardiovascular diseases,
it’s very difficult to get enough DHA and EPA (the two omega-3 fats
that benefit heart health and are found only in fish) from diet alone.
We recommend supplementing with 1,000 mg of DHA and EPA daily (more for
those with high triglycerides or other conditions – speak with your
physician regarding dosing). DHA appears to be the most important of
the two.

We have long compared omega-3 deficiency with sailors and scurvy. Years
ago, sailors discovered that limes cured/prevented scurvy. Of course,
we now know that scurvy is the result of severe vitamin C deficiency.
How many conditions/diseases will treating severe omega-3 deficiencies
prevent?

Most people get more than enough omega-6 fats in their diets. There’s
no reason to supplement with omega-6.

Omega-3 deficiency may be hurting our hearts (Read article from msnbc)

Sleep is a fundamental need that you may take for granted – that is, until you find yourself having trouble sleeping. We spend about one-third of our lives sleeping, and some consider it a waste of time. But we’re sure you don’t need us to tell you that chronic sleep deprivation makes you not just tired, but also generally irritable, unenthusiastic, unable to concentrate, and unhappy. So is sleep a waste of time? Certainly not. Life in general is just more difficult and less fun when you are sleep deprived.

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