Your skin is your biggest organ and you show it to the world every day.…. so it makes sense that your skin should rate high on your list of New Year’s resolutions for 2010!

Take charge of your skin this year. As you reflect on the past year and look forward to the next, commit to a few new and simple actions that support and enhance your skin’s health and appearance.

Also, consider treating the one skin problem that you’re the most bothered by.

5 Resolutions to Improve Your Skin In 2010:

1. Wear sunscreen every day

Work to prevent wrinkles, age spots and skin cancer by committing to regular sunscreen use.  Apply a sunscreen with at least 5% micro sized zinc oxide everyday to the uncovered areas of your skin every morning, even in the winter.

2. Eat real foods.

Think of food as medicine; a healthy diet filled with natural nutrients goes a long way towards making beautiful skin.  Don’t plan to compensate for a poor diet by loading up on vitamin supplements.    Make a commitment to your body and give it mostly healthy food, packed with nutrition.  Consider processed and chemical laden ‘food’ as entertainment and eat it when you need a treat, but don’t make it your main food source. You are what you eat, so eat for health and beauty.

3. Keep your skin hydrated from the outside in

Moist skin is healthier, more resilient and less prone to irritation and rashes.  Drinking lots of water does NOT keep your skin hydrated, you need to care for it from the outside in.  Unless you have oily, naturally moisturized skin, you’ll need to make a little effort to keep your skin hydrated.   Cleanse with a soap that doesn’t dry out your skin, like a natural glycerin soap. If you still feel dry, add a moisturizer after washing

4. Commit to an anti aging facial care regimen

The simplest anti aging action is to wear sunscreen everyday. To make even bigger changes and slow the current rate at which  your facial skin is aging, add one of the 3 powerful anti aging skin care treatments: Retin A (tretinoin), glycolic acid or vitamin C.

5. Treat your worst skin care problem.

Whether it’s…..

• Acne
• Seborrheic dermatitis
• Athletes foot
• Dry hand skin
• Rosacear
  
• Or something else

Craft a plan to make meaningful improvement now. Research solutions online, see your doctor or skin care specialist and get the advice you need.

Photo attribution:

I just let this guy out for a few minutes, was it gopher holes or the compost pile?

Note the wagging tail!

Mister, you are sooooo busted.

My dear friend Lorraine from Australia sent me this photo of a French Poodle in France, does this guy ever get mud masks?

This meal is the essence of simplicity; it’s a tasty fish dish where the vegetable’s nutrients are sealed in by the cooking process, it’s quick to prepare and easy to clean up.

After the holidays, I yearn for simple nutritious food and minimal fuss.  This is it- simple and healthy!

In my kitchen, I use this recipe is a template for an infinite number of possible variations.  The components are:

1. Mild fish, either a flaky white fish or salmon
2. Thinly sliced vegetables
3. A little oil
4. Herbs or spices to complement or add to the flavor
5. Cooking in the oven in a tightly sealed container that locks in nutrients and allows the flavors to merge harmoniously

The following proportions make a dinner for 2.

Ingredients

2 pieces of fish (I used orange roughy with this combination.  I recommend you check it well for bones)
2 tsp Earth Balance Natural Butter Substitute
Vegetables (and/or fruit) of choice, all thinly sliced with a mandolin blade or food processor eg. :

• ½ red onion
• Carrot
• 1 or 2 medium potatoes
• ½ cup cabbage
• 2-4 large mushrooms
• ¼ apple

Salt to your taste.
About ¼ tsp marjoram.

Preparation

Use a small but heavy casserole pan with a tight fitting lid (or make an envelope with parchment paper and divide the ingredients into single servings).  Spread about ½ tsp of the Earth Balance on the bottom of the pan.  Place the fish pieces in the pan in a single layer.   Salt the top of the fish.  Layer the veggies on top of the fish (The flavors will permeate the fish so layer your favorites first.  I like the mushrooms first, then carrots, potatoes and finally the onions and cabbage tossed together).  Sprinkle with a little marjoram, top with the rest of the Earth Balance distributed in little pats, then place the apples on top of everything.  Cook in preheated oven at 375’ for about 25 minutes.  This dish is most delicious when the fish and veggies are not over cooked; they should be fully cooked and hot, but not mushy).  Divide the food onto dinner plates.  For a complete meal add a salad of pre-washed  micro green lettuce to the plate; a one plate meal for easy clean up!

Tips to vary the dish to suite your tastes and what you have on hand in the kitchen:

Use any casserole dish that has a good seal to hold in the moisture and nutrients.  I first started cooking fish this way using the parchment paper envelope recipes for Fish en Papillote, which seal in the moisture and nutrients for a moist flaky fish dish.  The heavy casserole is easier and now I use a Le Creuset casserole pan.

I keep a bag of flash frozen fish from Costco in the freezer for convenient work day meals.  Fresh fish would be great too, but entails a trip to the store.

Any harmonious combo of veggies will work. I always use onions, but everything else varies.  I’ve used zucchini, tomatoes, green beans, spinach, garlic etc.  Be creative and use what you have.

Match the herbs or spices to complement the flavors.  The fish is mild and will pick up the flavors of the veggies, herbs and/or spices, not compete with them.

Use any healthy oil that you like in moderation. I’ve used both butter and olive oil.  I like the buttery taste of the Earth Balance and it’s what I use now in place of butter in my kitchen because I don’t do well with cow dairy at this point in my life.

Be sure to pick out the fish bones before cooking because they will be hard to see once the dish is cooked.

If you found this post helpful, you may like to read these other posts:

Dermatologist’s Recommendations for Natural Skin Health; Kefir, the best probiotic for healthy skin

Natural Skin Health; Dermatologist’s Diet Recommendations for Healthy Skin

The Alkaline Mediterranean Diet; A Magic Wand for Overall Health and Beauty

Making Sense of the Vitamin D Dilemma and Sun Exposure

Vitamin A Rich Curried Winter Squash Soup For Natural Skin Health

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Winter weather is hard on all of your skin, including your lips.

If your lips are chapped due to the weather they will improve when you moisturize them with a simple, but high quality lip balm. Unless you’re a big time lip licker, or constantly out in harsh weather (think fishermen and skiers), your lips should respond to lip balm. If your lips don’t heal with consistent use of a good lip balm, you could be allergic to a food or to your lip care products; find the allergen and heal your lips!

I see a lot of patients with chapped lips. Before they’ve seen me, they’ve tried numerous chapped lip remedies, all without improvement. When I see that both the top and the bottom lips are chapped, I suspect an allergy as the cause. In my practice, the most common lip allergens are:

1. Citrus: This includes the twist of lemon in your beverage, drinking orange juice, eating an orange etc. This is my lip allergen. I get chapped lips every time I squeeze lemon in my water or use it generously on food. I have citrus trees and love using the fruit. I know to expect dry, scaly lips after ingesting citrus and because I love the fruit I do it anyway. I can lessen the chapping by wearing Ceralip (see below) as a barrier, using a straw if I’m drinking the citrus and washing my lips soon after the exposure.
2. Mint: Mint is in many products including gum, breath mints, dental products etc. I have a patient whose chapped lips were caused from regularly drinking mint tea.
3. Cinnamon: Cinnamon products are less common but there is cinnamon in some dental products, teas and beverages. One of my patients developed dry lips from the cinnamon in Good Earth’s Original Flavor herb tea, which is loaded with cinnamon.
4. Lip balms: Many ‘healing’ lip balms designed to treat chapped lips actually contain well intended allergens that you can be allergic to. The product I see the most problems with is Bert’s Bees Lip Balms, but there are many other products patients bring me that are loaded with allergens. The common lip product allergen ingredients include vitamin E (tocopherol), rosemary, eucalyptus, mint, lanolin, non mineral sunscreen ingredients as well as the fragrance and flavors in the lip products.

If your chapped lips are due to an allergy, they become chapped within a few days after exposure to the allergen, and can take a week or more to heal. If you think that you may have chapped lips due to an allergic reaction, try avoiding the allergens that I listed above for a month. Moisturize your lips with a simple, low allergen product. My favorite is Ceralip, which is why I sell it at OTB Skin Care. Other options include pure shea butter (L’Occitane has a nice Mini Pure Shea Butter tin with 100% pure shea butter). You can also try plain vasaline, but it’s irritating to some people. When your lips have healed, retest just one of the allergens. If your dry lips reoccur you have your answer.

If you found this post helpful, you may also want to read:

Essential Winter Skin Care: 2 Simple Tricks To Healthy Winter Skin

Dermatologist’s 3 Simple Steps for Sandal Ready Feet by Spring

Dermatologist’s Simple Tips for Athlete’s Foot Fungus Treatment

Brilliant Skin Care For The New Decade

Pandemic Of Dry Hands: Hand Sanitizers, The Swine Flu And Tips To Save Your Hands

Dermatologist’s Tips For Dry Flaky Skin on Your Face and Scalp-Tis the Season for Seborrheic Dermatitis

Making Sense Of The Vitamin D Dilemma And Sun Exposure

Photo attribution:

My soup is truly food as medicine…..

1. Winter squash is a vitamin A extravaganza! One cup of cooked winter squash has 450% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A .
2. Your skin loves vitamin A so this soup is a great prescription for your skin’s health.
3. The vitamin A in winter squash is in the form of beta-carotene which has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and possibly anticancer benefits.
4. Winter squash is also a great source of fiber, folate, omega 3 fatty acids and a lot of other important vitamins and minerals.
5. As if that’s not enough, the curry powder in this soup contains turmeric which has even more anticancer benefits.

I grow a lot of winter squash in my summer garden.  This year my favorite variety is the beautiful Italian squash Marina Di Chioggia with its green bumpy surface and delicious rich orange flesh.  These attractive squash make great fall décor, and then yummy winter dinner. Now is the time for me to start cooking up these pretty nutritional treasures.

Marina Di Chioggia squash on the dining room table

My squash soup is SO EASY to make and a big time saver for me during the work week. I made a pot on Sunday and it stretched for several night’s dinners. I ‘brown bag’ my lunch every day at work and I brought the soup in a glass microwavable container for  easy lunches.  This soup freezes beautifully and what we didn’t finish this week, I froze in freezer safe containers; in a month or so I’ll welcome a little more soup as an additional course to a weekend lunch or dinner.

My squash  soup recipe is very forgiving and thus these proportions are approximate. I use whatever size squash I have and just add more or less water to get the consistency I want.  I also vary the amount of the other ingredients to get flavor I want.

Ingredients
1 medium/large orange flesh winter squash (my favorites are butternut, buttercup and Marina Di Chioggia)
1/8 cup canola oil
2 t black mustard seeds
3T curry powder
2 large tart apples peeled and cored
1 medium onion
10 medium garlic cloves peeled and smashed
1 ¼ T finely chopped or grated ginger (optional)
4 cups or so of broth (chicken or vegetable)
Salt to taste

Soup Topping Options: Kefir or plain yogurt, grated coconut, raw slivered almonds, raisins or dried cranberries, chopped apples, chutney, chopped parsley

To prepare the soup:

Cook the squash in the oven by cutting it in ½ or ¼ and removing the seeds. Place the cut squash  skin down in shallow roasting pan with a little water (about 1/2 inch of water in the bottom of the pan) and cook at anywhere from 350 to 450  until the squash is soft and scoop-able.  (The roasting time depends on the size of your squash and oven temperature) You could also roast it skin side down in a dry pan at 500 for 50 minutes or so for a more ‘roasted’ flavored soup.  You choose how you like to cook the squash, just keep an eye on it while it’s cooking.  When your squash is cooked and soft, let it cool so that you can handle it and then scoop the orange pulp from the skin and set it aside.

In a heavy soup pan or dutch oven add the oil and the mustard seeds and cook on low heat until the seeds start popping (a minute or so), be careful not to burn them.  Stir in the curry powder and cook for 1 minute.  Add the onions, apples, squash pulp, garlic, ginger and broth.  Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer 20 minutes or so until everything is soft.  If you want a silky consistency, puree the soup with a food processor, or even easier, a hand held blender.  For a thinner consistency, add more water.  Season to taste with salt.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and serve it topped with your choice of the topping items above.  I like to add chutney, coconut, dried cranberries, my home brewed kefir and raw almonds.  These healthy toppings further enhance the nutritional benefit of this vitamin rich meal.  (Remember, don’t cook the kefir because it kills the beneficial probiotic microorganisms).    My squash soup is a nutrition bonanza and a big time saver.  Served with a salad, it makes a very nice winter meal.

If you liked this blog post, you may also want to read:

A Simple and Nutritious Fish and Veggie Dinner

Cynthia Bailey MD’s Recommendations for The Alkaline Mediterranean Diet

The Alkaline Mediterranean Diet-A Dietary Magic Wand for Overall Health and Beauty

Natural Skin Health: Dermatologist’s Diet Recommendations for Healthy Skin

Dermatologist’s Recommendations for Natural Skin Health: Kefir the best probiotic for healthy skin