Grapefruit Diet (Diet!)
Throw out the pizza and beer
Grapefruit Diet (Diet!)
Oh, get those jelly donuts out of here
Grapefruit Diet (Diet!)
Might seem a little severe
Grapefruit Diet (Diet!)
I’m gettin’ tired of my big fat rear…”
– “The Grapefruit Diet, Weird Al Yankovic
I don’t usually eat grapefruit, but every once a while I’ll get the urge to take a bite or two and as soon as the lip puckering tang gets in my mouth, I’ll remember why I don’t like the stuff. Apparently I’m not alone. Google “I hate grapefruit” and you’ll get nearly 578,00 hits! According to a poll of 8,066 respondents taken on the website Amplicate, 26 percent were grapefruit averse, many of whom would no doubt concur with the American playwright Harry Crews who wrote in his biography that when he first tasted the sour fruit, “I only had to touch my lips to my piece to know something was wrong, bad wrong.”
The grapefruit, which has been around for a couple of hundred years is the accidental love child of two types of citrus, the pomelo and the sweet orange which were inadvertently hybridized by Caribbean farmers in the early 1700’s. It’s Latin name “citrus paradisi” (citrus of paradise), refers to its tropical origins and it’s the only citrus fruit that did not originate in Asia. Originally called “The Forbidden Fruit”, possibly as result of its manmade, supposedly non-divine origins, it got the name “grapefruit” in the middle of the 19th century in reference to the grape like cluster in which it grows in.
One of the most common and poorly misunderstood ingredients in the world of skin care is silicone. It’s nearly impossible to find a moisturizer, anti-aging formulation, makeup, foundation or even hair care product that doesn’t contain it. Since its invention in the 1950’s, it’s been prized by cosmetic formulators and consumers for its soft velvety texture, smooth tactile quality, ability to protect the hair cuticle, waterproofing properties and ability to improve the application of products, allowing them to be applied with a frictionless feel with no greasy or oily sensation.
Silicones are highly processed chemicals derived from silica, a blend of silicon (the 14th element on the periodic table and NOT the same thing as silicone!) and oxygen, the 2 most abundant elements on earth, which together form nearly 60 percent the planet’s crust. Silica, also known as silicon dioxide, is a common constituent of sand quartz crystals and is widely used in the production of glass.
There is no one ingredient called “silicone”. Rather silicones are a family of molecules that come in numerous forms, all of which are inert chemicals, structured like a chain made up of repeating units of links called “siloxanes”, substances that are similar to water, except for the substitution of an atom of hydrogen with an atom of silicon. The net result is a siloxane molecule (technically Si2O instead of H20), that has the liquidy qualities of water with a different characteristic feel. This feature of being water-like, with a distinct and highly unique texture, is what gives silicone its multifunctional characteristics and is the main reason for its ubiquity in the world of cosmetic formulations.
The sunscreen business is a 1.3-billion-dollar business fueled by dermatologic dogma and consumer concerns about the dangers of the sun. According to the market research group Datamonitor Consumer, profits are expected to increase by 6.5 percent by 2017. Much of that growth can be attributed to the development of high SPF products that tend to have a higher price point. A 2007 Environmental Working Group analysis found that more than 1 in 7 products makes claims of SPF values higher than 50+. Not too long ago, SPFs of 30 were considered state of the art, now it’s not unusual to find products touting numbers as high as 70 or more.
While it may seem like sunscreens with higher SPF ratings would provide more benefits, that may not be the case. Using an SPF 80 improves protection over an SPF 30 by a mere 1.75 percent. Even doubling SPF potency will only deliver slightly more protection; an SPF 50 sunscreen blocks 98 percent of sunburn rays while an SPF 100 blocks 99 percent.
Vegetables are nutritional powerhouses. They're a great source of vitamins and minerals, with electrolytes like potassium, calcium and magnesium. They contain unique plant nutrients unavailable in other foods. They’re low in sugar, fat and calories. They're filling and tasty too. Recently it’s been discovered that they can regulate the growth of blood vessels, stimulating their production when necessary for the health of the lungs, muscles and reproductive organs. They can also shut blood vessels down to fight cancer. As it turns out, malignant cells, which start out as harmless microscopic clumps, can only develop and divide when they stimulate the production blood vessels to supply them with nutrients. According to a 2012 article in the Journal of Oncology, many vegetables can fight and even reverse cancer by blocking the growth of these blood vessels, depriving it of the resources it needs, and essentially starving the tumor to death.
Because much of the nutritional value in veggies is locked up in lipids, to really leverage their nutritional value, you want mix them up with fatty foods. We don’t often think of veggies as having a fat nature, but they do, particularly in the peels and pulp of the fruit-veggies, such as cucumbers and tomatoes, and spread throughout leafy greens, like spinach, lettuce, kale, broccoli, and cabbage. By braising or steaming veggies with butter, you’ll free the phytonutrients and fatty vitamins, making them more digestible and easy to assimilate. Many of the minerals are locked up in the fats, so you’ll get more value from those nutrients too. Combining fats and veggies is an especially important eating strategy for anyone dealing with malabsorption issues, with liver or intestinal disease, or with those who had a gall bladder removed.
Enjoying butter with your veggies can be a delicious way to improve skin health, particularly for older women. As ladies approach the menopausal years, their ability to process fats can become compromised. This can manifest as dry, thinning or otherwise aged skin. Using fats with veggies can liberate fatty phytonutrients, like beta carotene and bioflavonoids, which can be very helpful for preventing sun damage. In the near future, you can expect to see vegetable based topical products that take advantage of the skin protective power of the vegetable. You can actually make your own sun protective, anti-wrinkle facial product by blending veggies and coconut oil into a paste, adding a little mayonnaise and using it topically as an anti-aging face cream. You’ll get anti-aging Vitamin E and good fats from the coconut oil, skin softening protein from the mayo, and the veggie nutrients will keep your skin safe from the sun and other environmental assaults.
Ayurvedic medicine, a form of traditional Indian healing, first popularized by Deepak Chopra in the 1980’s in the book Quantum Healing, has become (nearly) mainstream, but there was a time, in our part of the world, when the 7000-year old science was unknown. I first learned of it in pharmacy school from an Ayurveda trained dermatologist named Amrit Singh, who regularly used it in his practice, endlessly extolling its virtues for skin health and the healing of many internal ailments that Western Doctors considered untreatable. Plant medicine plays a major role in Ayurveda. One of Dr. Singh’s favorite healing botanicals was the Indian Gooseberry known as Amla, the fruit of the Malaca Tree, revered by Hindus as the home of the God Vishnu.
