November is National Healthy Skin Month!!

Here are a few tips on how to keep your skin healthy this month:

1. Get a Spot Check: Did you know that the late fall and winter months are some of the best times to get a full body screening? Your skin is at its palest during these months, which makes it much easier for your dermatologist to check for irregular spots.

 

2. Wear Sunscreen: We know it's not beach weather anymore and even though it doesn't feel like the sun is damaging your skin, it could be. Make sure to apply sunscreen to the parts of your skin that will be exposed to the sun, especially your face. Not only will this protect you from harmful UV rays but it will also keep your skin moisturized!

 

3. Stay Away From Tanning Beds: It may be tempting to hop into a warm tanning bed when it is cold out, but avoid it at all costs. Studies have found a 75 percent increase in the risk of melanoma in those who have used indoor tanning beds, and the risk increases with each use.

 

Have a wonderful week!   

 

Alicia 

 

 

 

 

Besides being the title of a mega-seller diet book, Enter The Zone, The Zone is a place where we find ourselves "feeling alert, refreshed, and full of energy," according to the author Barry Sears, PhD. Like other popular diet books, Enter The Zone offers more than just claims about weight-loss. By retooling your metabolism with a diet that is 30% protein, 30% fat, and 40% carbohydrates, The Zone diet authors contend that you can expect to turn back encroaching heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Another much-touted advantage is better athletic performance. Sears doesn't come right out and claim he has found the cure for heart disease or diabetes or discovered how to win athletic competitions. Instead he provides glowing anecdotes from people who have taken The Zone diet to heart.

What The Zone diet does boldly claim is that much of the current thinking about good nutrition - a diet high in carbohydrates, low in protein, and fats - is "dead wrong." What's more, Sears contends, that type of diet has contributed to our risk of contracting serious, even life-threatening ailments such as heart disease, diabetes, and possibly cancer.

The Zone diet does not recommend that you eat fewer calories than you're currently consuming, just different ones. Although the book has a complicated and exacting measure of what to eat, it can be simplified as:

• A small amount of protein at every meal (approximately the size of your palm of one small chicken breast) and at every snack (one in the late afternoon, one in the late evening).  
• "Favorable" carbohydrates twice the size of the protein portion -- these include most vegetables and lentils, beans, whole grains, and most fruits.  
• A small amount of carbohydrates if you have chosen "unfavorable" ones --these include brown rice, pasta, papaya, mango, banana, dry breakfast cereal, bread, bagel, tortilla, carrots, and all fruit juices.  

Dairy products are not verboten, but The Zone diet devotes little time to them, except to explain how quickly they release glucose. Sears prefers egg whites and egg substitutes to whole eggs, and low-fat or no-fat cheeses and milk. The Zone Diet keeps saturated fats to a minimum but includes olive, canola, macadamia nuts, and avocados. Certain unfavorable carbohydrates are restricted because they release glucose quickly" grains, breads, pasta, rice, and other similar starches -- a deviation from conventional definition so a good diet. Overall, the diet is higher in protein and fat than traditional diets, which would have us eat nearly three-quarters of all calories as carbohydrates. Sears is fairly rigid about the amount of protein/fat/carbohydrate each of us needs, and takes the reader through a short course in determining our protein need, based on size, age, and activity, which then determines the amount of fats and carbohydrates we should be eating.

The Zone diet draws mixed reviews from nutrition experts. Researchers at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which rated several fad diets, recently put it on their acceptable List. "If you ignore the scientific rhetoric, the diet isn't bad," says Bonnie Liebman, MS, nutrition director for the center's publication, Nutrition Action Healthletter. As a caveat, she points out the diet restricts carbohydrates more than necessary. "You are getting carbohydrates from fruit and vegetables on the diet, but a lot of the science is bunk,' she says. What she likes is that the diet is relatively easy to follow: "You have a piece of protein the size of your palm, and you fill the rest of your plate up with fruits and vegetables."

Other nutritional experts, including some of Sears' former colleagues, are critical of his conclusions from the scientific evidence, contending that he has distorted or exaggerated the meaning of much of the basic research. They point out that no direct studies to verify his conclusions have been performed.

The 40-30-30 ration of The Zone diet applies to all meals all the time, and a broad range of foods are allowed, so there are no confusing schedules or conditions that need to be memorized. Though dieters find it easy to follow, nutritionists give The Zone diet mixed reviews.

 

 

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