Inside Skin Care

 

We all know the saying “you are what you eat” but what does this actually mean and is it really true? The answer is YES, in fact it couldn’t be more true. The body is a collection of highly organised cells made up of vitamins and minerals. These essential building blocks are necessary for building healthy cells, including skin cells.

Most of us know that we should aim to eat a healthy, balanced diet including five portions of fruit and veg a day, drink more water, and limit our caffeine and alcohol intake. But is this enough?

In fact, what you eat is only half the story. Modern food may not contain all the vitamins and minerals the body needs and certainly not the quantities necessary for health and vitality.

Food is not as nutritious as you think. Lots of things have changed in the way we farm, import and export food. The loss of important nutrients occurs through a number of factors:

Growing conditions

Land is farmed to yield the largest crop possible. The same piece of land is farmed continuously, therefore the soil has no time to recover and replenish nutrients. The use of pesticides and growth hormones further depletes the nutrient content of the soil. Organic farming is not necessarily more nutritious. It is better to eat organic foods as pesticides are not used during farming, however the soil is still not left to recover between crops thus affecting its nutrient content.

Storage

Very rarely are fruit and vegetables grown in the UK. Foods which were once seasonal are now imported and available all year round. As soon as fruit and vegetables are picked, they start to oxidise. It can take up to two weeks to transport the food and once it reaches the UK it can be stored in the supermarket for anything up to four days. The customer will then purchase the food and take it home to store for any number of days. As an example a sliced cucumber will lose 50% of its Vitamin C in just three hours!

Cooking

It is actually better to microwave vegetables as the more heat and water you use during the cooking process, the more nutrients are lost. When vegetables are boiled they can lose 20 – 50% of their B vitamins, 50% of their vitamin C and 20% of their minerals.

Refining

Foods are refined in order to increase their shelf life. Nutrients are removed which must then be put back in order to sell the food. Following this process the term “fortified with vitamins” is used. This makes the customer believe that additional vitamins have been added to the food. This is not the case. The nutrients that were initially removed have simply been replaced, often at lower levels. An excellent example of this is wheat. 25 nutrients are removed to store wheat, yet only four are replaced.

Another point to consider is that we don’t even absorb all the nutrients present in the foods we eat. Absorption is hindered by alcohol, stress, tobacco, antibiotics, coffee and tea.

Government surveys confirm many of us are not even getting our Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of certain nutrients. The RDA is actually set at a low level, just enough to stop you living in a state of disease and not what you require to live in a state of health.

This has highlighted that supplements are required for overall health and wellbeing.

Nutrition is also the foundation of good skincare. Nutrition is fundamentally involved at every stage of skin development. When the body doesn’t get enough nutrients, the skin is the first place that suffers. If the body is under attack all the excess nutrients will go to that area, for example for excess alcohol consumption, all nutrients go to the liver.

So how can we feed the skin with the nutrients it needs?

 

The Advanced Nutrition Programme originally created by Doctor Patrick Holford is more than just a wellbeing range of supplements. It is a skin specific range created especially for salons and clinics to enhance the effects of skincare from the inside. This ‘beauty food’ feeds the skin over the entire body in an absorbable form, feeding even the deeper layers. Each product within the range is designed to target specific skin issues.

The right vitamins and minerals are essential for making good skin cells, therefore by starting with a healthy skin we know we can achieve even better results with facials and skin treatments. Using skincare alone is not necessarily enough, especially if you are looking for the best results in the shortest amount of time. If you were trying to lose weight as quickly as possible you wouldn’t just  cut down on food intake, you would need to exercise as well to get the best, long lasting results.

Advanced Nutrition Programme supplements are absorbable, natural and pure. The range is superior to others on the market due to the number of nutrients contained in the products and the strength of them. Many of the high street brands just work to the RDA. They are also natural and pure, avoiding artificial colours, sweeteners and flavourings which require the body to process them.

So, can we get everything we need from eating a good diet? The answer is definitely NO!

At Euphoric we promote and recommend a three-pronged approach to skincare. Book a consultation to find out more about the Advanced Nutrition Programme together with our Environ Skincare and Jane Iredale Skincare make-up.