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.

Benefits of Fermented Foods 2

I am enjoying this series of fermented foods between preparing them for you as readers to see in videos and exploring the actual process of making them. Some foods I have been consuming for years as well as making, and others are completely new! Thank you again for taking this journey with me. Fermented and cultured foods are extremely healing to the body due to the deep nutritional benefits and abundant healthy bacteria.

I cannot stress enough the necessity for healthy bacteria to be predominant in the body. Eating fermented and cultured food is a super way to enhance the bacteria count. A healthy gut is equivalent to a healthy immune system. You cannot have one without the other. Did you know that there is a nervous system inside the gut called the enteric system? When we become stressed, depressed, sad, angry, happy, or scared all of those emotions are felt in our gut...our intestines. Managing stress is integral to gut health. Having a healthy body is one way to manage stress. Being diligent to eat to live and using food as medicine is half the battle. Nutritional deficiency can lead to an unbalanced chemical composition.

Our fermented food for today is kefir. It's origin goes back to the process of making kefir being discovered in the Causasus Mountains. Traditionally you'd take what are called kefir grains, which are not really grains at all, but rather a symbiotic bacteria, and you'd put the grains into animal skin bags with cow, goat, or sheep milk. The bags would be hung in a doorway and left to sit for several hours. Marco Polo actually mentioned the making of kefir during his travels according to the East. Russia was the first country to sell kefir commercially.

Well, the way kefir is made today, at least the way I am going to show you is a little bit different. We will be using kefir grains. I originally obtained mine from Marilyn the Kefir Lady. Her website is kefirlady.com in case you would like to order them. She sends wonderful instructions along with the grains. For extra instruction watch my video below.

You will need:
1Tbsp Kefir grains
At least 4-6 cups of either raw or only pasteurized milk depending on the laws in your state
A 1/2 gallon or gallon glass jar
A micro mesh strainer
A large glass bowl
A spoon

Benefits of Fermented Foods

Before I have discussed the benefits of probiotics. Probiotics are like the beneficial bacteria already in our bodies. Probiotics help the good bacteria grown and control the bacteria that is not beneficial. Healthy intestines alone contain over 100 trillion healthy bacteria. We have bacteria all over and in our bodies.

While taking a high quality probiotic supplement like Young Living Life 5 or Prescript Assist, we need more. The best way hands down to get our vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and healthy bacteria is through our food. We were designed to be nourished. We should be eating to live not living to eat.

An on going goal of mine is to include more fermented and and cultured foods into my and my children's daily regimen. It's cheap, effective, and beneficial to our health. At first sound fermented foods might not sound all that appealing. Whether you realize it or not you are probably already in small quantities consuming them.

Some fermented and cultured foods include yogurt, kefir, kimchee, sauerkraut, pickles, miso, tempeh, natto, and a favorite of mine, kombucha. Foods are fermented by using healthy bacteria with the food or drink and storing them. When the bacteria populates the food it becomes a powerhouse of nutrition.

Kombucha is a fermented tea full of healthy bacteria, B vitamins, and amino acids. Adults and children alike love this beverage. It is yummy, effervescent, and great for you! In today's video I included a step by step guide on how to make plain kombucha. Once you become a kombucha pro, you can flavor it with fruit. I like to use ginger. This is great for families because its easy and low cost.

In order to make kombucha you need the bacteria culture called a scoby. It's a type of fungi or mushroom. You can easily order a scoby or get one from a friend already making kombucha. A good friend gave me a scoby she had grown and instructed me how to make it. I'll teach you what she taught me in the video.

A new scoby will grow on the top of the kombucha as it brews in the jar. What makes it effervescent is the new scoby forms a seal at the top. So CO2 gas naturally builds up inside. Once you make the tea and it goes into the jar with the scoby it will sit on the counter for about 7 days. You should start to see a new scoby grow within a day or two depending on weather and warmth of your house.

Do not store the kombucha in anything other than glass. You don't want toxins from the plastic to leak into the kombucha. Also do not store kombucha in stainless steel either. Once the kombucha is made you store it in the fridge. Any glass container will do, but in order to keep the effervescence use a flip cap bottle. You will need to have a few of these, if the jars/bottles are on the small side, to store almost a gallon of kombucha.

Be aware that there will be strands of bacteria from the scoby either in the bottom or floating around in the tea. That's perfectly normal and healthy to drink.

In order to make your own kombucha you will need:

One scoby
4 organic plain black tea bags
1 cup organic sugar
3 quarts of filtered water
1 stainless steel pot
1 bamboo spoon
1 gallon glass jar
1 6in x 6in square of fabric
1 rubber band
Glass carafe or flip top lid bottles preferably to keep the effervescent bubbles fresh.

Vitamin and Mineral Misconceptions

I've been so busy at home lately it can be difficult to keep up. I understand a hectic schedule. Nonetheless we need to be diligent in taking care of ourselves properly. We were created for a great purpose. It's not all about us, but it is all about Him, Yeshua the Messiah! When He created the world He made wonderful real whole foods for us to consume. Whole foods are not a new trendy concept, it was literally God breathed. King Solomon, in the bible, was right in the book of Ecclesiastes 1:9 when he wrote, " That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun."

Over the next couple of weeks I want to touch upon the missing nutrients from our daily diets, and the ones we are told to supplement with that can actually be dangerous. Today we will focus on magnesium and calcium. Have you noticed that calcium is put into almost everything these days? There is calcium put into milk, it's put in by the way because the natural calcium gets taken out by the harsh processing of the ultra pasteurization and homogenization. It's put into cereals, orange juice, non-dairy milks, and even chewing gum.

 The calcium that is put into these food like products is called fortified calcium, in other words synthetic man made in a lab calcium, extracted from rocks and shells. We were originally designed to naturally absorb our vitamins and minerals from our foods. It was not intended for our nutrition to come from rocks and shells. We were actually given fruits, vegetables, and other seed bearing plants like it says in the bible in the book of Genesis  1:29-30, "And God said, See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food; and it was so." 

From childhood it is drilled into our heads that we need so much calcium. Don't get me wrong, we need calcium, its an important mineral. Our concept of how much we need, however is very askew. I can't help but wonder if its purposeful sabotage to keep us sick along with some many other lies we are told. It can be dangerous to accumulate too much calcium in our bodies, especially when it is synthetic. Not all vitamins and minerals are the same. Too much calcium can be dangerous for the heart and arteries. Often times older women are told by traditional doctors that they need to supplement with calcium, then she will go to Walmart and get the cheapest supplement she can find, and think she is doing the right thing. I frequently encounter older women who come to see me for health counseling or to buy supplements at the natural supplement store I work just in that same position. Most times these women haven't been shown any kind of proof for a calcium deficiency.

There are tremendous amounts of calcium in chia seeds, blue green algaes/seaweed like chlorella and spirulina, and leafy greens like kale, spinach, collards, and swiss chard.  If you are fortunate enough to still live in a state in the USA where raw milk is legal that is also an excellent source of calcium. There is absolutely no reason why enough calcium could not be taken in through a healthy daily diet...unless you are missing the usually under-looked and missed magnesium.

Magnesium is a major mineral. Unfortunately due to an unbalanced fast food diet filled with well...fillers like white bread, rice, and sugar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, processed soy, and other garbage that makes its way into grocery stores and school cafeterias everyday, its no wonder we are deficient. Deficiencies can be caused from heavy metal toxicity from aluminum, lack of vitamin D3, too much sugar in the diet as it pulls minerals out of the body, lack of greens in daily diet, and filtered water. When we filter our water from all of the yuck, we are also filtering healthy minerals. It's important to replace those minerals by eating organic produce from soil that is mineral rich, using unprocessed sea salts like Celtic and Himalayan that contain magnesium. Avoiding caffeine is imperative because it decrease magnesium quite a bit in the body.

Magnesium actually affects our absorption of calcium. SO it is super important that we are getting enough. It is almost impossible to get too much. A lack of this super mineral can cause symptoms like migraines, fast heart beats, mood swings, trouble sleeping, and lethargy. Magnesium supplementation is not a bad idea if you don't not eat a varied diet. A natural homepathic supplement called Calm is a wonderful choice. Often times children that have hyper active tendencies, ADD, ADHD, or autistic are deficient in magnesium. Foods rich in magnesium are chlorophyll rich foods like green veggies, nuts and seeds like sunflower, flax, sesame, almonds, and pumpkin. Brown rice, tart cherries, and dried herbs like coriander, chives, and basil.

An additional way to maximize magnesium absorption and relieve stress that depletes magnesium is making it a weekly practice to do a foot soak in warm water with epsom salts. Epsom salts are a combination of magnesium and sulfate. Both of these minerals are taken in well through the skin. I suggest doing this 2-3 times a week in the evening as it can be relaxing and magnesium is helpful for resting and sleeping. Take 1/2 cup of epsom salts and pour into a tub or basin with warm water and soak feet for 20-30 minutes. Feel free to add wonderful healing essential oils like lavender or four thieves blend.

Supporting Articles:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/12/17/magnesium-benefits.aspx

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/dangers-of-too-much-calcium/

http://www.everydayhealth.com/heart-health/too-much-calcium-may-double-death-risk-in-women-9770.aspx

http://thebreathoflife.net/learningcenter/the-importance-of-magnesium/

Hemp Milk

Several weeks ago I talked about how hemp seeds are really AWESOME! They are a great source of fiber, healthy fat, and protein. Hemp seeds are really versatile in the kitchen. A fun and yummy way to use them is to make seed milk with them.

The great part about making your own non dairy milk is you control what's in it. The stuff on the shelf is basically a processed food. You also control what you keep it in. Using a glass jar or bottle would be the optimal way to store them. You want to prevent leakage of toxins from plastic or aluminum.

I am using the recipe from my earlier post, with a slight variation. That's another reason to make your own is you can get creative! Flavor it however you want.

Hemp Milk Recipe

4 cups of filtered water
1 cup raw shelled hemp seeds
1/2 Tbsp Simply Organic Vanilla

Just blend!