Simple Healthy Skincare: Feed Your Skin

Recently I taught a natural skin care class at church for a ladies event. It was a ton of fun and I wanted to share some of the concepts here with you. This will be the first entry in a series of the topics I spoke about that evening. The first thing you need to understand is our skin is the largest organ in our bodies. It is not just a covering for our inside parts. It serves a great purpose. Our skin works with our liver and gallbladder as a detoxing station for the body. It is directly part of the lymphatic system, our glands. Our glands are right beneath our skin and we need our glands to stay clear and healthy. When our glands become stressed then our hormones are not properly secreted, which is a danger zone for our health.

The best start to healthy skin care is eating a healthy diet composed of lots of real, fresh, raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds as well as clean animal foods, gluten free grains, and legumes. Making sure to consume plenty of clean water daily is also a must. Our skin is like a gigantic sponge. It soaks up everything we put on it from make-up, lotions, creams, make-up remover, to perfume. It all goes straight into our blood streams. Being aware of this fact should make us conscious of what we put on it. What we feed our body is reflected in our skin.

Skin conditions like acne, eczema, overly oily or dry skin, and rosacea are all usually results stemming from malnutrition. You can eat plenty and still have a malnourished body. Acne and rosacea are usually issues beginning with an unbalanced gut. They are often symptoms of a yeast infection. That's right, a yeast infection. Yeast infections display themselves in the body in all different ways. While I don't intend to get too deep into how to heal a yeast infection, I will say that taking antibiotics is not a solution and will only make it worse. What has to happen is a specific kind of dietary cleansing for a period of time, the use of a few natural supplements, and then proper maintenance. I offer health counseling sessions to heal the gut from yeast overgrowth and infection. Contact me at www.kingdom-health.com if you'd like to set up a consultation.

Back to our skin, so in general we need to eat well. Here are just a few foods that are extremely beneficial:

Avocados, coconut, nuts, seeds: provides healthy fats which give moisture and softer skin

Watermelon, coconut water, cucumbers: provides water along with necessary minerals for hydration

Citrus fruits: provides real vitamin C for purification and proper pH balance

Raw Apple Cider Vinegar: provides pH balance (makes a great toner)

My most favorite food for skin care over the entire body is coconut oil! Keep one jar in the kitchen and one in the bathroom! In one of my superfood posts I wrote about the wonders of the coconut. Coconut oil for over all body care is paramount because it is composed of medium chain fatty acids: capric, capryllic, and lauric. Each fatty acid holds anti microbial and anti bacterial properties. They help control and prevent acne. Lauric acid specifically is converted in the body to a compound called monolaurin. This monolaurin is an amazing and pertinent immune system builder. The only other food to contain it is breast milk.

Years ago the main oil used in our foods was coconut. When the myths started circulating that it wasn't healthy for the body we switched to truly unhealthy oils like canola and soy. We are paying a high price for that now. Not that using these oils are our only problems nutritionally, though it has definitely caused major issues for our immune systems. Big pharma is making a fortune by our frequent trips to the doctor.

Since the skin soaks everything in using organic unrefined coconut oil is like feeding the body a highly nutritious meal. It makes an excellent make up remover, over all moisturizer, face cleanser, anti microbial application, and much more! Oil also diffuses oil. Our bodies were designed so intelligently by our Creator Yeshua that when we use something natural to the body like oil, which is a food, our bodies know what to do with it. The skin will acclimate itself to the oil and either stop over producing or under producing. Our skin does not know what to do with lotions and creams. It doesn't know what to do with harsh cleansers either. Rule of thumb for the skin, if it came from the grocery isle and it is nourishing to the inside of of the body, then it is good for the skin. If you go to to the cosmetics or toiletry isle, and you wouldn't eat it, then it's not good for your skin.

How to Use Coconut Oil in Beauty Care

• Keep a popsicle stick in your coconut oil jar for application. If using it as a facial moisturizer a little bit goes a very long way. Just apply some to your clean finger tips and massage into skin. Same goes as a moisturizer for the body. Feel free to add essential oils.

• To use it to remove make-up simply apply some to a cotton ball and gently wipe away the make-up on your face.

• To use as a cleanser use like you would in removing your make-up, then add the additional step of washing. Simply get a clean cotton wash cloth, wet it with warm water, open it up, place over the face for just a moment. The warmth will open the pores, then gently wipe the face with the cloth. Its that simple!

• Apply to rashes, skin irritations, and small cuts.

Below is a simple recipe for a great face and body scrub! Gently exfoliating our skin helps the skin do its job and remove toxins.

Coconut Face & Body Scrub

1/2 cup of raw sugar & ground oatmeal mixed
1/4 cup of organic, unrefined, virgin coconut oil
1 tbsp avocado, sweet almond, or apricot kernel oil
6 drops genuine frankincense essential oil

Mix all together in a bowl. Keep in a glass jar. Keep away from sunlight. Stick a popsicle stick in the jar for easy application later. I keep my jar in the shower. Again this is for face and body. When applying on your face just gently rub the scrub with your finger tips all over the face and neck in a circular motion.This can also be relaxing and therapeutic.Take your time with it to de-stress for a few minutes.Then simply rinse.

Sugar: Do You Know How Much You're Eating?

Just a quick blurb about the white stuff. Sugar consumption is an epidemic in the USA. The way white sugar and artificial sweeteners alter the brain is comparable to cocaine. You can experience sugar addiction. Sugar like white table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and corn syrup all pull minerals from the body. Sugar also contains bleach...do you want to eat bleach? The best way to defeat sugar addiction is adopting a whole foods based lifestyle and adding in more and more healthy food daily. This concept is referred to as crowding in by The Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

In case you didn't know, fat doesn't make you fat...sugar does! Our bodies need fat for proper cognitive function in the brain, joint health, heart health, lung health, and dental health. There are better types of fat to consume though than others. We want to focus on healthy saturated fats like organic unrefined coconut oil, real butter, nuts, and seeds. Monounsaturated fats are good as well like in olives.

Sugar isn't all bad. Sugar is measured on a scale called the glycemic index. It needs to be on the low end a majority of the time.We need to use wisdom when and how we consume it. Sugar along with fiber like in fruit is wonderful. Eat fruit though in moderation, but you get can too much fructose, which is the sugar in fruit. In other whole foods like raw honey and coconut nectar in moderation it is also fine. Choose low glycemic grains and pseudo grains like brown rice, black rice, quinoa, amaranth, and millet.

Eating mostly vegetables, especially greens, lots of raw ones for enzymes and proper digestion, some fruit, some healthy grains and pseudo grains, some healthy fat, and a little clean animal products in addition to drinking plenty of clean filtered water on a consistent basis will cure the sugar addiction.

 Check out this info graphic from Dr. Joesph Mercola. It is a chart showing how much fructose, usually genetically modified fructose from corn, is consumed by the American public.

Discover the fructose content of common foods, beverages, sauces, and even sugar substitutes in our infographic "Fructose Overload." Use the embed code to share it on your website.

Discover the fructose content of common foods, beverages, sauces, and even sugar substitutes in our infographic "Fructose Overload."

Vitamin and Mineral Misconceptions 2

What's one thing all of these foods have in common: lemons, acerola cherries, amla, camu camu, oranges, spinach, grapefruit, kale, bell peppers, broccoli, and kiwi? They are all loaded with real vitamin C. High amounts of vitamin C is necessary for the body to function properly. Vitamin C is essential for a healthy immune system.

The best way to ensure we get enough vitamin C is to have a wide variety in a highly plant based diet. While that may not be a surprise, perhaps what could be is the vitamin C we get from our food is not the same vitamin C that is in most supplements on the market, including "all natural" supplements.

Check the back of your multivitamin or vitamin C bottle. Does it says ascorbic acid? Ascorbic acid is not vitamin C. It is an isolate or a fraction of vitamin C. It is a separated portion of the whole food originally provided by our Creator, Yeshua the Christ. It is most often times synthetic, which means man made, from genetically modified cornstarch! Taking vitamins in isolate forms are dangerous to the body. These isolates because they are divided from their whole food form do not operate as they should.

Ascorbic acid, unlike whole vitamin C, actually does not support the immune system. It runs right through the body into the urine, not contributing any health benefit. What it does, however is increase the white cell count and deplete minerals from the body.

There are a select few whole foods sourced vitamins on the market. You always want whole foods sourced supplementation. We only take in vitamins and minerals from our food. My absolute favorite vitamin C on the market is Healthforce Nutritionals Truly Vitamin C Powder. I love powders because they are easy to regulate depending on your needs. It's made from real fruit! I always put it in my water and smoothies when I need an immune boost. I eat a plant based diet, so I don't supplement with it daily. This brand is a real food though, so it's completely safe.

Be a savvy supplement shopper. Know that superstores and pharmacies do not usually carry the best brands. Do not trust everything you read on a label either. Do your research. See if what something says is really true. Don't believe everything infomercials say or what doctors on talk shows say either. Use wisdom. I hope this entry was helpful. Feel free to ask questions at the bottom.