Quick tip to boost your anti-oxidant intake

Just a quick note on how to increase your anti-oxidant intake. As you know, we can get anti-oxidant vitamins, minerals and other nutrients such as phytochemicals from vegetables and fruits, but darker and brighter the colour, they are more powerful in defending power. Here are some examples - choose red grapes rather than white, red onion rather than white or choose the darkest leafy vegetables if you are not sure what to buy. Of course, any fruits and vegetables have beneficial nutrients, so I am not denying white or paler colour foods. It's only something to remember if you have a choice over few different ingredients.

Food to focus - Nuts

Nuts are now popular choice for a healthy snack, but I am asked occasionally if nuts' high oil content would increase the weight. There are few epidemiological studies confirmed that nuts are NOT contributing to the rate of obesity. In fact, is was found that people who consumed the most nuts were less obese. This is because eating nuts produce satiety, and we cannnot really over eat nuts! As you know nut oil contain beneficial fat (essential fatty acids), so we don't need to restrain ourselves to choose nuts for our snacks. However check your food lables because flavoured nut products may contain a lot of sugar, salt and other ingredients that we don't want. Also cheap commercial roasted nuts can be produced by deep-frying with saturated fats such as coconut oil or palm kernel oil. Thus it is best to buy raw nuts and roast at home. If you buy unshelled raw nuts, it is best to keep in the fridge if you don't use them for a long time due to its high content of oil (to avoid getting rancid).
Here are few listings why nuts are good for your health  (eventually for your skin too!):

• Good source of beneficial oil that could prevent heart disease.
• Good source of dietary fibre that can maintain healthy blood sugar level.
• Best source of arginine (amino acid involved in wound healing, detox process, immunity, hormone secretion and blood vessel toning).
• Protein source.

日本国内よりも海外で見られる傾向ですが、ナッツ類はヘルシーなスナックとして捉えられています。しかし、時々ナッツに含まれている油分が体重増加に影響しないかとの質問を受けます。これまでにいろいろと疫学研究がなされていて、ナッツ類を食べることは体重増加とは無関係との結論が出ています。しかも良く食べる人のほうが肥満の率が少ないそうです。ナッツ類はああ見えても、結構腹の足しになってお腹が一杯になりますよね。しかも食べ過ぎるほどは一度に食べられるものでもありません。ですので、食間のスナックに罪悪感なしにどんどん食べても大丈夫です。但し、市販されているものには砂糖、塩その他の食品添加物が含まれているかもしれませんので、ラベルをきちんと確認してみてください。また安価のローストナッツなどは、飽和酸が含まれている油でディープフライして製造している場合がありますので、本当は生のナッツを自分でローストするのがベストです。しかし、日本の台所にはオーブンがない場合が多く、一度にたくさんローストできませんよね。その場合はトースターか、油を引かないでフライパンでローストしてみてください。焦げやすいので、気をつけて。

ナッツ類がなぜ体にいいのか（その結果肌状態にも影響しますよね！）の数例は；

• 不飽和脂肪酸など体にいい油が含まれており、心臓病の予防にもなります。
• 食物繊維を豊富に含んでいます。
• アミノ酸の一種であるアルギニンのとても良い摂取源です。アルギニンは傷を治したり、デトックスを助けたり、免疫系をサポートして、ホルモンの分泌にも関わり、そして血管壁を健康なものにします。
• たんぱく質も含んでいます。

ナッツといえばピーナッツを思い浮かべるかもしれませんが、ピーナッツは他のナッツよりも炭水化物が多いので食べすぎは体重に影響が出るかもしれません。また、他にもっと栄養的に優れているナッツ、例えばアーモンドやブラジルナッツなどがありますのいろいろ試してみてください。

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New year resolution - Exercise

How is your 2012 so far? In the beginning of the year, many people make their new year resolutions and the most popular one could be 'Do more exercise'. In fact, January is the most busiest time in the gym but that trend is dying out in the following months... We all know that exercise is good - for weight management, heart health, type 2 diabetes and mood improvement etc. However we may feel irrelevant if you are not currently experiencing any health issues. Of course exercise is a powerful tool as a preventive method but we may need to be motivated to make it into a habit. I think knowing what is happening in the body would bring deeper understanding and rationalise why everyone should do exercise. There are many biological activities going on with an exercise, but here are few examples:

• Exercise increases growh hormone secretion in the body. As we know, growth hormone production decreases with increasing ages, and it is one of the ageing reasons. It is known to heal & repair the cells, retaining muscle mass, keeping healthy bone density and keeping up libido. Yes, growth hormone is a major anti-ageing hormone and good for our skin condition and healthy muscular tone! Also this heal & repair function is very important because it affects every cells' health in the body - thus preventing future illness.
• Exercise reduces cortisol level in the body. Raised cortisol level could cause many physical and mental problems including your beauty status. In a big picture, high cortisol level is a result of stressful lifestyle & type of food we eat, and that could affect the hormon balance in every kind. Excess cortisol accelerates the aging process in the skin cells, promotes hypertension, suppresses immune function and can cause fatigue.
• Exercise improves cognitive function. Incresed blood flow and oxygen delivery, plus increased production of dopamin, serotonin & other neurotransmitters improves your brain function.

These are only few functions but it is enough to motivate you to do a regular exercise? Exercise is not only for weight management but powerful tool for anti-ageing and health maintenance too. If you care about what to put on your skin and what to eat, next thing is a regular exercise! Make it your habit for whole year.

新年を迎えて２週間近く経ちましたが、皆様いかがですか。今年の抱負は守られていますか。よく聞くものに　’もっとエクササイズをする’　というものがあります。実際、ジムは１月が一番忙しい月のようです。利用者は月を重ねることに減っていくらしいですが。エクササイズは減量や体重維持のほかに健康維持や病気の予防にいいと言われていますが、何一つ問題なく暮らしている人にはあまり関係ないことのように聞こえるかもしれませんね。でも、エクササイズのよって受ける恩恵を少し理解したら、定期的にやっていこうと思えるかもしれません。下記は数ある中からほんの数例です。

• エクササイズは成長ホルモンの生成を助ける。成長ホルモンは大人になっても分泌されていますが、年を重ねるごとに減少していきます。成長ホルモンは細胞をリペアし、ダメージを修復するため体全体の健康維持に重要なだけでなく、肌細胞を若々しく保ってくれるので、アンチエージングのキープレイヤーです。その他、成長ホルモンは筋肉を維持してくれるため、若々しい体または肌状態をキープしてくれます。
• エクササイズはコルチゾールの量を減らしてくれる。高ストレスな生活や食べ物によっては体内のコルチゾールが上がりすぎてしまします。高コルチゾールは全てのホルモンバランスを崩してしまうので、悪いことばかりです。肌細胞の加齢を進めてしまいますし、高血圧になってしまったり、免疫力の低下も促します。
• エクササイズは脳にいい。エクササイズは脳の血のめぐりや酸素のデリバリーを向上し、ドーパミンやセロトニンなどの生成を助長するので、脳の活動を活発化させます。

上はほんの数例にすぎませんが、これで定期的にエクササイズしてみようという気になりましたか。これまで、化粧品と食べ物には気を使っていたという方、次なる目標はエクササイズですね。

New Year trip for Hakone Hot Spring

A Happy New Year! I hope you had a lovely break. I had a short holiday with my family just after new year's day in Hakone area, Japan. It is situated in Kanagawa prefecture and 2 to 3 hours drive from Tokyo including expected traffic jam. Japan is famous for its abundant choice of hot spring destinations but one of the criteria is its quality of the spring water. There are nine category of hot springs in Japan based on the substances found in the spring water such as carbon dioxide, chloride and sulfur. For example, carbon dioxide hot spring is known to be good for high blood pressure, joint pain and infertility, chloride for eldery with joint pain and recovery from illness and sulfur for high blood pressure and chronic skin disorder. We had the sulfur hot spring which has a distinct smell of sulfur and cloudy white colour. Once you experienced the natural hot spring bath, you will notice it is very different to ordinary home bath with tap water. The body keep its warmness for a long time after the bath, and if you have it regularly you may experience to improve your health. It is surprising to know that even in an area of Hakone (which is only one region in Japan!), there are quite few different variety. When you choose the hotel for your hot spring holiday, I would recommend to check its quality and health benefit as well.

Below is a photo of Owakudani, where hot spring is gushing out.