How to Eat Well for Skin and Health while Indulging a Little

So Gynneth Paltrow has been advising people on how she eats well, but indulges on favorite foods.  

The things is, it isn't tricky.  And I don't understand why people make it so hard that they need Gwynneth's advice.

 What you do is eat mostly very well. And occasionally indulge a little. 

See? It's no so hard. Eat mostly real, whole nutritiously dense anti-inflammatory foods, as I've mentioned over and over in past posts such as the two below.  You do that. And a few Oreos won't hurt you. Although, I'll bet as you start eating better and trying quality foods, you won't like those Oreos so much anymore.  They don't compare to quality chococolate.

An Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Clear (and Wrinkle Free) Skin

What To Do for Clear Skin: The Basics

Make Yourself Some Treats That are Good for your Skin

No need to avoid all treats. There are hundreds of ways you can make perfectly healthy alternatives to commercial boxed snacks or sugary traditional homemade recipes.

Here's a few to get your started. 

Perfectly Healthy Banana Cookies

The basic recipe calls for 2 ingredients, a couple of overripe bananas and a cup of quick cooking oats, place by the spoonful on a greased cookie sheet and bake just like other drop cookies.  But it's easy change it up.  Other than the first time, I've never actually followed that recipe. And actually, since I placed a dark chocolate chip in the center of each cookie, I didn't follow it then.  Most of the time now, I mix the bananas with dried coconut instead of or in addition to the oats,  and add ginger and dried fruit.  Whatever you do, add a little bit of sea salt. This really is essential to flavor.

Make good dark chocolate healthier:

Coconut, Seed and Nut Dark Chocolate Bark

Melting good low sugar dark chocolate with coconut, nuts and seeds to increase nutrients and lower the glycemic impact.  (Fats and fiber slow the absorption of sugars, always have some when indulging in dessert.)  I sprinkle a single not quite solid layer of chocolate on the bottom of silicone cake pan and microwave on half power for a minute at a time until pretty well melted.  Then sprinkle on coconut and  sprouted sunflower seeds, another of my staples, and usually raw cacao nibs. And a slight sprinkling of coarse sea salt. And stir it all in with a spoon. Then pop into the fridge to chill.  When solid, break into pieces.  The cacao nibs increases the cacao content of my already dark chocolate treat. If you want a sweeter treat, you can add some dried fruit. Another tip is to leave a whole in the center before microwaving as the chocolate in the center is liable to burn before the rest melts.

Better than Pie Sauteed Fruit

Slice and saute apples, peaches, pears or other fruit in a little butter, just until slightly soft. Don't overcook to retain nutrients.  Sprinkle with cinnamon or whatever spice you like with that fruit.  I like Chinese 5 Spice Powder with the peaches.  Sprinkle with chopped nuts if you like.

Frozen Bananas Taste Just Like Banana Ice Cream

You save your over ripe bananas in the freezer, right?  If not, you should be.

If you cut bananas in chunks before freezing, you can easily drop a few in your blender with some berries for berry flavored ice cream, cocoa for chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, dark chocolate....

Living A Long And Healthy Life

Avoiding Glycation, Methylation, Oxidation and Inflammation are the Keys to a Long and Healthy Life

The evidence is strong that glycation is closely involved in most if not all degenerative diseases and in aging. Dealing with this and the three other '-ations' -- methylation, oxidation and inflammation- should be a priority for anyone concerned with living a fulfilling life with minimal illness.

The methylation is about gene expression and epigenetics.  Your genes don't control everything happening in your body. Your genetic expression does. And that can be changed by your diet and lifestyle.

To put it simply, Glycation is caused by sugars drifting around in your blood stream.  Every time you consume more sugar than your cells can take in, damage occurs.

Again, to put it simply, Oxidation is caused by free radicals from smoke, exhaust, pollution, stress, too much sunlight, prolonged extreme physical exertion (anyone running any marathons?) common topicals and pharmeceuticals like benzoyl peroxide.

And chronic inflammation is caused by all the above, other inflammatory foods and abdominal fat.  In addition to added sugar, hydrogenated and trans fats are examples of other inflammatory foods to avoid.  This means avoiding nearly all commercially baked goods as they nearly always contain crisco, margarine and the like, or are fried in oils that become trans fats at frying temperatures, or just plain shouldn't be consumed, period.  Vegetable oil and shortening doesn't come from vegetables, btw.

Studies into How Isotretinoin Clears Acne Reveal Dietary Impact on Biological Pathways that Lead to Acne

In addition to the many ways diet and lifestyle affects your acne by affecting the function of the various organs involved in managing hormones and inflammation: liver, gut, adrenals, thyroid, brain, etc.  There are some pathways and systems involved.  Both of the below are recent studies looking into how isotretinoin tends to clear acne.  Because they've been prescribing it to children for a couple of decades without really know what it does.

mTORC1 Signaling:

Dietary intervention in acne: Attenuation of increased mTORC1 signaling promoted by Western diet -1

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the endocrine signaling of Western diet, a fundamental environmental factor involved in the pathogenesis of epidemic acne. Western nutrition is characterized by high calorie uptake, high glycemic load, high fat and meat intake, as well as increased consumption of insulin- and IGF-1-level elevating dairy proteins. Metabolic signals of Western diet are sensed by the nutrient-sensitive kinase, mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), which integrates signals of cellular energy, growth factors (insulin, IGF-1) and protein-derived signals, predominantly leucine, provided in high amounts by milk proteins and meat...

It is conceivable that isotretinoin may downregulate mTORC1 in sebocytes by upregulation of nuclear levels of FoxO1.

Fox01 Deficiency

The role of transcription factor FoxO1 in the pathogenesis of acne vulgaris and the mode of isotretinoin action. 2

QuoteNuclear FoxO1 deficiency is the result of increased growth factor signaling with activated phosphoinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) and Akt kinase during growth hormone signaling of puberty and increased insulin/IGF-1 signaling due to consumption of insulinotropic milk/dairy products as well as hyperglycemic carbohydrates of Western diet.

Sources:
1- http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/dermatoendocrinology/article/19828/?show_full_text=true  The full text of this study is available here.

2 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20930691