Whole grain goodness? Or massive age accelerator?

I see clients for skin care.  Facials, age-management, acne, and more often than not, clients have concerns about the texture, color and signs of aging.

The root source of all aging is inflammation.

Changes in skin texture, color and other signs of aging are caused by inflammation.  Changes that are visible on the skin often reflect what is going on inside the body.  External inflammation reflects internal inflammation.  In other words, when you see aging on your skin, you are also aging internally.

Research is showing more and more than we really are what we eat.  Eat junk = look like junk.  Eat vibrant whole foods, look vibrant.  Simple.  However, many of us are eating foods that cause inflammation, specifically sugars, starches (grains) and processed fats.

Yep, that brownie may actually cost you a few wrinkles.  Ok, maybe not one brownie, but if you are eating pro-inflammatory foods every day, you can count on a few more lines across your cheeks.  Of course, excess sun exposure, smoking and stress don’t help either, but we need to start somewhere…

Now for the bomb:  grains are pro-inflammatory!  Especially if you have an intolerance to one or more of them, the most common being gluten from wheat, rye and barley.  It is estimated that as many as 1 in 33 people are intolerant to gluten, and 99% of those individuals are undiagnosed!  By some estimates the number is even higher.  For more information check out www.thedr.com

Even if you are not gluten intolerant, grains, even “whole grains”  are converted to sugar in the body.  When you eat sugar, your body produces insulin.  The more insulin your body has produced over a lifetime, the shorter your lifespan.  Why?  Because sugar (grains) is  a massive pro-inflammatory!  AGING!  If you are gluten intolerant(and chances are you don’t know it), you might as well be throwing gasoline on that internal fire.

So what are you going to have for breakfast today?  More wrinkles?