REAL FOOD, REAL COLLAGEN, REAL BEAUTY
Everyone wants a pretty face, right? Of course we do! It’s natural to want to continue looking youthful as we age because that’s when we looked our best. In our youth our young bodies are lean and strong and our face and skin is far from being worn from years of abuse, and just plain wear and tear! We are beautiful in our youth and not so pretty as we age. At least that’s how most people perceive themselves. So how do you help with your wrinkled broken down skin, do you follow the fads? Admit it, you know you do! You have tried every face cream, scrub, collagen pill, powder, drink and snake oil that hit the market since you were a teenager. And now you keep waiting for the 9,999th product to come along, because everyone said it’s supposed to be great, you know, different from the others! This kind of thinking (or brainwashing) is equivalent to thinking your car gets newer every time you wash it. When you see the amount of dollars wasted on fake powders and pills that promise beautiful skin, you would think it’s a national sports competition! It’s more than some countries’ annual budgets.
So what is this sought after collagen thing that is worshiped by most every woman (and some men) on the planet? It was a discovery by an Indian scientist named Gopalasamudram Narayana Ramachandran in1953 and from that discovery we have learned how to consume the correct amino acids to feed it, naturally. Collagen is what keeps our skin plump, pretty and smooth so naturally we all want that. It’s a protein created by our consumption of amino acids and it’s not just for great skin. This protein makes up approximately 30% of the proteins in our body. These are fibrous connective tissues located throughout our body including our ligaments, bones, cells, eyes, digestive tract, tendons and organs and more. It’s a tissue that weakens as we get older, or as we continue to feed our bodies highly processed foods, with ‘’no’’ amino acids!! So by eating inflammatory acidic foods, the wrinkling of our face may just be our own fault, maybe, read on!
The foods you consume play a much larger role in your health than you think. If you eat highly processed foods, you get diarrhea. Eat too much cheese, you get constipation. Don’t eat the right foods, your body won’t produce collagen, that’s a fact! Consuming overpriced pills and powders that are basically lifeless, just don’t, won’t, and never have worked to create a healthy body. The marketing, the hype and the pretty packages are usually what draws your attention, not to mention the ‘’lifelong drain’’ on your wallet. Having beautiful skin is as easy as eating delicious food. The earth was created perfectly to nourish our bodies with a deliciously healthy diet but as early as the year 1800 food refineries were up and running in America, and thus the American way started. More on that topic in my book ‘’healed by Farm’’.
Here’s my suggestion and what I do for youthful skin. Bone broth is my number one collagen builder. And don’t even think about hurrying over to your closest vitamin store for the processed powder kind, that’s not what I’m talking about here! Most farmers markets will have some beef bones and/or chicken parts from free range animals available just for you. It’s very easy to make your own and extremely rewarding. Eggs, lamb, beef and pork along with fish are great collagen foods. You know, some of the lifesaving foods that we were told not to eat by professionals 5 decades ago! We were told these foods make us fat and sick, not true, just the opposite! Foods with abundant amounts of vitamin-C like fruits and vegetables work great for collagen building also. Seeds and nuts work great also but seem to be what most people look over way too often. One of my vitamin-C favorites this time of year is watermelon. Watermelon is also rich in lycopene and other nutrients that have the ability to increase blood flow, something vitally important for muscle (collagen) growth.
Show up and load up at your local farmers market this week and stock your kitchen with, yes, the real collagen builder. Start cooking extremely delicious foods today and stay healthy my friends.
~John Rankin~
