Free Holistic Beauty from the Inside Out by Julie Gabriel Page B

with fiber, you risk depleting your stocks of iron, calcium, and zinc, which can be disastrous not just for your skin but for your overall well-being. To avoid this, the best option is to go easy on supplements, especially wheat bran, and eat instead a lot of various natural foods that are rich in fiber. Unfortunately, as beneficial as plant fiber can be to health, there’s nearly always a side effect of excessive gassiness. Gas production, as unpleasant as it seems, is actually quite healthy: it protects the gut from carcinogens, speeds up bowel function and even improves the health of cells that line colon walls. But when we eat too many fiber-rich carbohydrates (most often, legumes), the colon starts being loud. One of the options is to reduce the amount of gas-producing beans and members of the cabbage family in one meal and to never eat them together. I also found that eating small-sized legumes such as lentils is less problematic for the colon than larger varieties such as white, kidney, or lima beans. If you really mustuse your white beans for a specific recipe, say, baked beans or a casserole, soak them overnight—this simple trick greatly reduces the gas factor. And remember that when you embrace fiber-rich foods, your intestinal flora will prosper, which, in turn, improves your body’s ability to deal with gas-producing foods without causing your belly to explode. Sooner or later your body will learn how to cope with beans or cabbage without becoming explosive.
    TURN BACK THE CLOCK WITH ANTIOXIDANTS
    When planning a weekly shopping list, aim for antioxidants. Environmental pollutants, smoking, drinking, a nutritionally deficient diet, and excessive sun exposure all generate free radicals—oxygen molecules with one electron which allows them to latch onto every molecule available. As long as they can hold onto the molecule, the destruction by oxidation begins. When our bodies become oxidized too quickly, they begin to age prematurely, with all the unpleasant side effects that come along with that. It is estimated that nearly one-third of all cancer deaths in the United States could be prevented through better diet, especially by increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables rich in antioxidants. 73
    Not only are antioxidants vitally important to ward off premature aging, they support your whole body’s functioning, which, in turn, brings a healthy glow that no bronzer is able to fake.

    Some of the most important dietary antioxidants are green tea polyphenols, curcumin, genistein from soy, resveratrol from grapes, and lycopene from tomatoes and carrots.
    When consumed regularly, they add to the mighty punch against cancers of the skin, prostate, breast, lung, and liver. They also keep your skin glowing and hair flowing no matter your age.
    Fruits and vegetables with the most intense colors are highest in age-rewinding phytochemicals. It makes your life a bit easier as you approach the fresh produce aisle. Beetroot, aubergines, all kinds of berries, broccoli, spinach, sweet potato, kale, pumpkins, and butternut squash—as long as the produce is brightly colored, grab it and place it into your basket. No guesswork required!

    There are thousands of antioxidant combinations in brightly colored fruits and vegetables, and some antioxidants exist only in a single type of plant. Some of them are especially helpful in achieving a glowing, resilient complexion.
    Green tea contains antioxidant polyphenols that help prevent skin damage from excessive sun exposure. In this way, green tea can help prevent skin cancer if taken orally 74 or applied topicallyas a toner or when included in a moisturizer. 75 You can strengthen the sun protective potency of your sun cream by lightly misting your skin with green tea and allowing it to soak in and dry before applying the moisturizer. Just one or two cups of green tea daily will strengthen your skin’s defenses against the sun.
    Milk thistle is a well-studied antioxidant herb that