Beauty Diet

Beauty Diet

Your diet contributes a great deal towards making you beautiful. Therefore eating a proper healthy diet is important to keep looking beautiful. Given below are a number of food items that you should include in your beauty diet.
Almonds: These nuts are known for their anti-aging properties. They contain a lot of vitamin E and have a high amount of fatty acids that help to keep your skin supple. Almonds also contain antioxidant selenium. Do not too many of them as they will add calories. A handful is enough.
Protein: To keep nails strong and moisturized by eating plenty of protein. Protein helps in the build up of keratin. Keratin is the substance that makes up nails. Skinless, boneless chicken breast, lean turkey, tuna and beans are rich in proteins.
Vitamin B: Food that is rich in vitamin B makes your hair shiny. Important sources of this vitamin are eggs, milk, green vegetables and poultry. Silica is important to keep your hair elastic, shiny and healthy. Raw oats, cucumber skin, onions and bean sprouts are rich in this mineral.
Fish: Eating oily fish like salmon that contain omega-3 fatty acids will help hydrating and nourishing skin.
Zinc and Calcium: Both these minerals help in eradicating pimples. Zinc is found in oysters, turkey, seafood, eggs and milk. Calcium is no doubt good for your bones, but helps in clearing your skin too. Calcium rich foods like skim milk, low-fat cheese and yogurt. These foods not only remove pimples but reduce wrinkles as well.
Vitamin C: Vitamin C helps in the build up of collagen, which reduces wrinkles. When your skin has more collagen your skin retains its elasticity and wrinkles take longer to form. Kiwi fruit is the best source of vitamin C. Other good sources are oranges, mango, honeydew and papaya.
Vitamin E: Vitamin E is known to ease the swelling and redness associated with sunburns. Swelling causes the stretching of skin that in turns leads to wrinkle formation. Eat plenty of peaches and blueberries to increase the build up of vitamin E in your body.
Vitamin C and Iron: Vitamin C and iron together help to reduce the dark circles under your eyes. Eat skinless chicken and red, yellow and orange peppers. These are rich in both and will help in reducing dark circles.
Water: Drink as much as water as you can. Water removes the toxins from the body and refreshes your skin and makes in glow. Water hydrates your skin and keeps it supple.
Tomatoes: Tomatoes contains skin-caner-fighting antioxidants: beta-carotene, vitamin C and lycopene. Eat tomatoes in any form and you will ingest these antioxidants. To increase the body's absorption of lycopene cook tomatoes in a little olive oil.
Apples and Celery: To remove stain from the enamel of your teeth eat crunchy foods like apples and celery. link...

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Sleep and rest

Sleep and rest

Body maintenance
Quash the stereotype of the man who has to be at death's door before he'll go near a doctor or look after his health. We've got information to raise your health awareness and protect your long-term health.

Shakespeare described sleep as "the chief nourisher in life's feast", acknowledging that for most of us deep rest is necessary for keeping body, mind and spirit in good form.

What if restless nights are normal instead of the exception?

Sleep deprivation isn't just bad for us, it's also bad for people around us: tens of thousands of traffic accidents are attributed to sleepy drivers every year.

But the average night's sleep in the UK now averages about 90 minutes less than it did in the 1920s, when it was nine hours a night.

What is sleep?
Sleep is made up of different stages. The ten-minute period of light sleep (drifting off from wakefulness) is called Stage One. Stage Two is deeper and lasts about 20 minutes. Stages Three and Four come after this, and are types of deep sleep.

Deep sleep is the part of sleep that our body and brain needs to recover from the day. It's sometimes called delta sleep, after the delta waves the brain generates. We don't dream during this time. After about 90 minutes of deep sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep begins.

During a normal night, people usually cycle through the various stages several times. Problems arise when the pattern of cycles is broken.

Are we getting enough?
Those of us who don't have the luxury of an afternoon nap still tend to get sleepy at about this time. Interestingly, people who increase their night-time sleep find that this afternoon 'dip' disappears. A ten-minute nap at lunchtime is just as effective.

Sleep problems, including dozing off, can be a symptom of many other conditions, from problems with the thyroid gland to depression - and even occasionally rare sleep disorders such as narcolepsy. So it's important to speak with your GP if you're currently experiencing insomnia or another sleep problem, since it could be indicative of another condition.

Sleep and mood are interlinked in intriguing ways that are still not understood. But a satisfying sleep, like a satisfying meal, can leave one happy and content - with room perhaps for just a little more.

Remember to use your bedroom primarily for sleeping, making it as comfortable, airy and dark as possible. link...

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Eating out - choosing healthier options

Eating out - choosing healthier options

Your weight
Expert advice to help you maintain a healthy weight

Dissatisfied with your weight?
We're bombarded with scare stories about weight, from size zero to the obesity 'epidemic'. But a healthy weight is determined by different factors for each of us. Our expert advice is designed to help you achieve and maintain a healthy, life-enhancing weight.

Overweight or underweight?
Being the right weight has a positive effect on wellbeing but also on our health, as being the wrong weight can cause a range of medical problems.


More and more of us are eating out on a regular basis, whether it's for a business lunch, a girls' get together, or for a family meal.

The 2006 Family Food Survey found that households where the head of the household was under 30 years old were spending more than 40 per cent of their food budget on eating out.

Eating out usually means that we have little control over how the food is prepared or how large the portion is. Foods eaten out tend to be higher in fat and research has shown that those who eat out regularly generally have higher intakes of fat, salt and calories. Studies have also shown that eating with friends can tempt us to overeat. Meals with multiple courses eaten over longer periods and with alcohol are all associated with overindulgence. Large serving bowls and spoons increase the likelihood of piling more food on your plate than you usually eat.

Unlike packaged food, foods bought from cafes, restaurants etc don't have to carry nutritional information and so opting for the healthiest option might not always be obvious, or easy. However, with some knowledge and thought, eating out can be enjoyable and healthy!

General tips
If you're unsure as to what something is, or what it contains - ask! If the waiter/waitress doesn't know, then the chef will.
Think ahead, if you know you're eating out later and it could be a lavish affair, choose wisely earlier in the day to keep calories, fat, sugar and salt intakes under control.
Don't eat an extra course just to be polite.
Only order a sweet after the main course, and only if still hungry. Opt for sorbets, or fruit dishes to balance out a heavy main course.
Think about sharing a course with a companion if the portions look large.
Speak up about how you'd like a dish prepared eg ask for no mayonnaise, dressing on the side.
You're more likely to overeat at an 'all you can eat' style buffet.
Choose side orders of salad or vegetables to fill up on.
Cut off any visible fat from meat to keep saturated fat intake down.
Look out for smaller portions ie a main meal option as a starter size.
Opt for dishes which are grilled, baked, steamed, poached or cooked in own juice rather than fried.
Check the menu for dressings on salads and ask for it to be served separately. An otherwise healthy and nutritious salad could be drowned in a high fat sauce, bumping up its calorie content.
Avoid cheese, cream or butter-based sauces
If you're a cheese lover, think about sharing the cheese board option to keep saturated fat, salt and calorie intakes in check. link...

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