Posts filed under ‘summer’
Love Your Skin from the Inside Out
The cosmetic industry is full of products that make claims to “defy the aging process.” While
these creams and ointments may be marketed to hydrate, moisturize, and revitalize, they may do so at the cost of your health. A large majority of conventional skin care products contain chemicals such as parabens, phthalates, food dyes, and other preservatives. Some of these chemicals act as “endocrine disruptors,” meaning that they can interfere with normal hormone functioning and may be linked to conditions such as thyroid disease and breast cancer. Learn more about the safety of your cosmetics here.
Instead of spending $40 on that overly marketed moisturizer this summer – nourish your skin from the inside out with simple diet and lifestyle modifications to create radiant skin:
- Hydrate: While you are outside watering your garden this summer, remember to replenish fluids for yourself as well. Healthy skin depends on optimal hydration to promote circulation and soften collagen.
- Fend off Free Radicals: Increase foods in your diet that are rich in antioxidants such as vitamins C, E, beta carotene, and anthocyanidins (found in dark berries). Antioxidants slow the aging process by protecting cells from damage and inflammation.
- Fatten Up!: Omega-3 fatty acids found in flax oil and fish oil not only help repair damaged and inflamed skin, but they also improve skin elasticity and reduce dryness. Other food sources of “good fats” for the skin include olive oil, avocado, walnuts, and almonds.
Sunscreen Safety
Now that summer is officially underway, it is time to trade in those winter woolly boots for flip flops and intensive skin salves for chapped dry skin for high-grade SPF sunscreen. Protecting yourself and your family from the growing intensity of the sun’s rays may not be as simple or as safe as grabbing the cheapest SPF 50 spray-on sunscreen from the drugstore shelves. Most traditional sunscreens contain numerous chemical compounds that absorb through the skin and can disrupt healthy hormone functioning (also known as “endocrine disruptors”). According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a research group dedicated to raising awareness about environmental exposures that impact health, only 8% of 500 sunscreens tested were deemed both safe and effective. The top rating sunscreens are mineral-based and do not contain oxybenzone or vitamin A (which may be harmful to skin with exposure to UV rays). To check the rating for your sunscreen and to read more about sun safety, visit the EWG’s 2010 Sunscreen Guide.
Garden Views: Feeding the Need
One of Baltimore City’s most bountiful urban gardens is now on display right in front of City Hall (Fayette & Holliday St.). This is not the typical ornamental garden of petunias and begonias that cover many city plots, rather the City of Baltimore has invested in a vegetable garden to feed the homeless with fresh in-season produce. Created by landscape designer Angela Treadwell-Palmer, this garden was also made possible by numerous donations of plants and volunteer support. To date, Angela calculates that 1,500 pounds of vegetables have already been harvested and donated to Our Daily Bread, a local soup kitchen that serves 700-800 meals per day. You may want to add this to your ”list of attractions” as you tour visitors around Baltimore this summer!
Do you have a garden story to share? Please send a photo and any comments about what inspires you to keep growing to dremilytelfair@gmail.com.
When Life Gives You Lemons…Just Add Stevia!
Beat the Baltimore heat this summer with a refreshing treat that will help balance your blood sugar level and curb your craving for sweets. Stevia-sweetened lemonade is my favorite new beverage for quenching thirst after digging around in the garden. The sour taste from the lemons balances strong sweet-tooth cravings and the plant stevia ,which grows easily in most gardens, is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar. Fortunately, the sweet taste of stevia does not come with the calorie count or blood sugar spiking effects of the sugar cane plant. In fact, stevia is safe for use in diabetics since it actually helps to stabilize blood sugar levels. The key to using stevia is knowing that a little goes a LONG way. A small pinch is enough to sweeten a cup of tea and when baking with powdered stevia preparations, 1/4 cup of stevia can often replace 1 cup of sugar. Using too much stevia can shift the experience on your palate from sweet to bitter. Stevia is available at most health-food stores and through Dr. Emily’s dispensary.
Stevia-Sweetened Lemonade Recipe:
- Juice 3 lemons and add to 10 cups of filtered water
- Dissolve 4 tsp of powdered stevia into a small amount of warm/hot water
- Add dissolved stevia to water and lemon mix. Stir and chill.
Entire mixture contains approximately 36 calories
(source: Omnivite Nutrition, Inc.)
