Can nutrition make you look younger? Absolutely! But how?

First, it is necessary to understand that there is more than one kind of energy in food. Aside from caloric energy, there is a vitality in good nutrition which makes a difference to your health and your looks. Take for example sprouted grains: they’re growing, and that sprouting process is an energy going through that grain– it’s a vital force. The opposite would be a highly processed shelf food, which can actually affect you negatively from a nutritional basis. It is true that you are what you eat, and by extension, in a very real sense you look how you eat. The living enzymes in certain grains have a very different effect than the alternatives. You want to be eating the best quality food possible to maximize both your body’s vitality and your body’s natural ability to heal and look more beautiful. I work with clients to on a personalized nutrition plan to identify which foods enhance their particular body’s vitality and which diminish it.

Another key to getting the most health and beauty benefit when you eat is to know where to get the right kind and amount of antioxidants. Antioxidants protect our cells from oxidation, or the breakdown of a cell. It is oxidation which is one of the key causes of aging. There are several different factors that contribute to this, including:

Oxidative Stress
Too much oxidative stress. This is caused by toxins in our environment and/or our foods. “The average American consumes over 150 pounds (the average human body weight) yearly in mostly unnecessary and possibly harmful ingredients to support a multibillion-dollar food-processing industry (Elson Haas, 1982).” Those ingredients include sprays used to fertilize fields, color dyes added to improve the look of a food, preservatives added to lengthen shelf-life, hormones and steroids used to enhance profit margins, antibiotics added to animal feed, irradiation to alter food, and genetically modified materials and cells. “In addition, there are 250,000 chemicals that make their way through our food through the production, packaging, and distribution process (Haas).” I teach women and men how to avoid many of these toxic compounds in their daily life in order to look and feel younger and protect the health of their cells.

Dehydration
A second major cause of oxidation is dehydration. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Water detoxifies the body by removing waste through the kidneys and intestines. Water is also critical in maintaining the shape of cells and sustaining metabolism. Even mild dehydration slows metabolism. It also slackens skin tone. Everyone’s needs are individual and depend on factors such as body weight, diet, and activity level. I teach what an individual’s particular hydration needs are and evaluate how their body is doing at flushing out toxins.

Insufficient Micronutrient Antioxidants
A third cause of accelerated oxidation in our bodies is an insufficient supply of micronutrient antioxidants. Some of these come from healthy fats, which play a key role in both health and beauty. Unfortunately, many people do not understand how to identify which fats are healthy in general and which are healthy for them in particular. Even moderate amounts of healthy fats can improve cellular metabolism. Not only that, but one of the main functions of those fats is to protect the cells, being an important component of the cellular myelin sheath which is essential in inhibiting oxidation. Consuming the right amounts and types of antioxidants directly results in anti-aging benefits. This is to say nothing of the anti-inflammatory effects. Through metabolic testing, I can help a person identify how much of each type of fat their body needs.

Those are some of the ways nutrition can translate into enhanced appearance. But what about health? And fitness? There isn’t space in this article to address all of these, but the effects of eating quality food targeted to your particular metabolic type are just as great in these areas. As I stated before, everybody – every body– is different. That is why I use metabolic typing.

What is Metabolic Typing? Metabolic typing is a nutritional technology that can rapidly identify highly-individualized dietary needs. It uses a series of tests to analyze how well your body is metabolizing nutrients and what it’s missing. Our health and our vitality can be the direct result of dietary deficiencies and imbalances. By correctly evaluating nutritional problems, we can tailor individual solutions.

Are you ready to learn more about nutrition for looking and feeling your best? I offer individual metabolic type testing, as well as nutrition coaching for wellness.

You can look and feel better by utilizing metabolic typing technology to identify your own dietary needs. You will know how to select the right body fuel including food combinations and nutrients that can enable your body to function more efficiently. This will slow down the aging process and allow you to lose weight naturally. Through learning about your unique genetic nutritional profile, you can reduce the risk of degenerative diseases. You will enhance your body’s ability to:

• Maintain your ideal weight.
• Optimize your physical energy and mental clarity.
• Extract nutrients from foods.
• Handle stress.
• Strengthen the immune system.
• Decrease joint pain and muscle pain.
• Look good and feel fantastic!

Have more questions? Ready to begin? Contact me to learn more.

Reference: Hass, E. (1982). Staying Healthy With Nutrition. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co.