-
CREDITINHERE
00 33
II
WANTTOBEHAPPIER,HEALTHIER,
SLIMMER?OFCOURSEYOUDO.COMBININGTHELATEST
KNOWLEDGEFROMTHEWORLD’SEXPERTS,OVERTHENEXTTHREEWEEKSWEREVEALATEN-POINTPLANTOGETYOU
INTOSHAPE—MENTALLY, PHYSICALLYAND
EMOTIONALLY.WITHDELICIOUSRECIPESTOHELPYOUEATWELLFORLIFE,
YOURGOODHEALTHSTARTSHERE
INNERSTYLEWELLBEING SPECIAL
1 LEARN TO RELAXAccording to the yoga guru Maya Fiennes,
learn-ing to chill out is one of the most powerful waysto reinvent
yourself. “Relaxation is key to crea-ting a happier, healthier
self,” she says. “For mostwomen, there is just too much going on,
not justphysically, but in our heads as well. Our mindsare on
overload. If you learn to breathe properlyand focus on the present
moment, you will find iteasier to tap into your intuition, that
little voicethat tells you what it is that would really makeyou
happy.”A former classical pianist, Fiennes, who has
been dubbed the Nigella of relaxation, has dev-eloped a
celebrity following in LA, where shelives with her music-producer
husband, Magnus(brother of the actors Ralph and Joseph). It’s
nothard to see why she is in such demand — sheoffers strategies
that anyone can try withouthaving to check into an ashram.Fiennes’s
tips are startlingly new because they
are quick and maximise those dead zones of time— queuing in the
supermarket, sitting in traffic orwaiting for the computer to do
its thing. They arebased on balancing the chakras, the seven
powercentres of the body. And the good news is, youcan access this
energy without contorting yourlimbs or standing on your head.
CHAKRA-BALANCING ON THE GOFirst chakra Governs confidence and
securityArea of the body Feet, legs and colonRemedy Traffic-light
chill-out: whenever you’rein the car and you hit a red light, use
those mo-ments to take three deep, cleansing breaths.Make it a
habit. You won’t take any longer to getwhere you’re going, but you
might arrive a lotless stressed. Other places you can adopt
thisritual include the bus stop, supermarket queues,
waiting for your computer to reboot. Ask yourselfthese three
questions. “Where am I right now?”Here. “Who am I right
now?”Myself. “What’s thetime?” Now.Second chakra Governs
creativityArea of the body Sexual and
reproductiveorgansRemedyWashing-up meditation: anything youdo with
awareness is meditation. Just quietlyconcentrating on your own
breathing is medita-tion. Chores are a great way of practising.
Enjoythe feeling of the warm water on your hands;focus on the
colours of the bubbles. Look at eachplate or dish. You are making
them shiny andnew again. You are doing this as an act of love
foryour family or friends. It may seem a little Step-ford Wives,
but go with it. Just be there in themoment and see how it
feels.Third chakra Governs self-esteemArea of the body Solar
plexusRemedy Confidence-boosting exercise. Fiennesoften suggests
the following tip to actors who suf-fer from stage fright, but it
can be used in anysituation to banish butterflies in the
stomach.Inhale through the nose, then exhale powerfullythrough the
mouth, making a long “Shhhhh”sound. Repeat several times.Fourth
chakra LoveArea of the body HeartRemedy Kissing-hands ritual. If
you want tobring love into your life, lie down on yourback with
your hands by your side. Slowly bringyour left hand to your mouth
and kiss it,while visualising receiving love. Then do thesame with
your right hand, only now imaginegiving love, to yourself and
others. Onewoman who did this exercise at a Fiennesworkshop met her
future husband in the lift onthe way out.
t’s time to get holistic about your health.Not just because it’s
January and timefor new resolutions, and not just be-cause the
release of the movie of theinternational bestseller Eat, Pray,
Lovewill have us all feeling the need to getsome spiritual speed in
our lives. No,holistic health is important because it is
not just about how the body works, it’s aboutunderstanding how
our minds and emotionalselves play a part in keeping us
healthy.Over the next three weeks, we will outline a
brilliant 10-point plan to get you physically andemotionally to
a place of genuine wellbeing. Wewill showyou how to recover your
energy, how tostop your past from holding you back, and howto
measure your homocysteine levels, a key togood health that most of
us have never heard of.We will also have a special issue on how to
con-centrate on you: how to find “me” time, how tofeel strong and
confident in yourself, how to finda purpose in life and how to
exercise smart.Mental health is just as important as physicalhealth
when it comes to howwe feel and howwelook, and once we’re
physically and mentallyhealthy, everything we wish for in life has
a wayof coming true.Alongside all of this, we will feature
delicious
recipes from the Nordic Diet, a diet for life that’snot about
punishing yourself and cutting backon calories but about guiding
you to eatinghealthy, but scrumptious, food, the kind yourbody
actually needs to function at its optimallevel.To kick it off,
we’re focusing on the fundamen-
tals. We look at how to get your gut workingproperly, because
what your body digests andabsorbs affects your energy, your life
span andyour state of mind, as well as your general health;how to
relax properly, with exclusive tips fromthe LA guru everyone is
talking about; andwhich health and beauty supplements youshould
choose from the thousands on offer. Wealso introduce you to the
best foods for good
digestion and to protect against ageing.This new year, there
really could
be a whole new you — we’lldrink (two litres of water aday) to
that.
Edwina Ings-Chambers
I RECENTLY LEARNTHOWTOI RECENTLY LEARNTHOWTOMEDITATE. I THOUGHT
IT WOULDMEDITATE. I THOUGHT IT WOULD
BE IMPOSSIBLE FORME, BUTBE IMPOSSIBLE FORME, BUTEVEN
SITTINGQUIETLY FOR FIVEEVEN SITTINGQUIETLY FOR FIVE
MINUTESCANREALLY HELPMINUTESCANREALLY HELPSERENA REESSERENA
REES
THE 10 RULES1 LEARN TO RELAX2 PERFECT YOUR DIGESTION3
SUPPLEMENTARY BENEFITS4 RECOVER YOUR ENERGY5 GET THE PAST OUT
OFYOUR PRESENT
ABETTERYOU
6 MEASURE YOUR H SCORE7 MAKE MORE ‘ME’ TIME8 EXERCISE SMART9
REVEL IN ‘STRONG’ MOMENTSFIND YOUR PURPOSEIN LIFE
10
-
35
Fifth chakra Governs communicationArea of the body throatRemedy
Meditation. When you’re about to meet someone who annoys you, goto
the ladies’ just beforehand, inhale through the nose, exhale
noisily through themouth. Repeat 10 times, visualising the person
smiling. By the time you see them,you will be too chilled to let
them get to you.Sixth chakra Governs intuitionArea of the body
Third-eye pointRemedyTap into feminine energy by closing your right
nostrilwith your right index finger. Touch your left ring finger to
yourleft thumb. Inhale and exhale to the count of three.
Breathingthrough the left nostril brings in calming, intuitive
energy.Seventh chakra Governs spiritual connectionArea of the body
Crown of the headRemedy School-run mantras. For the most stressful
traffic situations, Fiennesrecommends playing CDs of mantras in the
car and chanting along. “Whenever Igive a lift to someone who
doesn’t know me very well, they say, ‘There’s somethingwrong with
your CD, it keeps repeating.’” When you feel yourself losing it,
stop,acknowledge the feeling and say to yourself, “Okay, I am going
to change this.”
Yoga for Real Life by Maya Fiennes (Atlantic Books £14.99);
mayaspace.com
2 PERFECT YOUR DIGESTIONBloating and an acid stomach are
inevitable consequences of overindulgence,but you can easily get
yourself back on track by resurrecting your digestive
health.Nutritionists claim that the digestive system is overworked
yet often overlooked —until it begins to cause problems.Digesting
and processing food affects everything, from energy levels to our
physical
and emotional health. Poor digestion stops us absorbing vitamins
and minerals andcan lead to illness. “During the average lifetime,
about 100 tonnes of food pass alongthe digestive tract and 300,000
litres of digestive juices are produced to break downthat food,”
says the nutritionist Patrick Holford, author of The 10 Secrets of
100%Healthy People. “It is a colossal operation. You are not what
you eat, you are what youcan digest and absorb.” Simple practices
such as chewing food properly can ease thestrain on the gut.
“Enzymes in saliva help to break down carbohydrates, so keepchewing
until food is a liquid mush in your mouth.”Visitors to the
exclusiveViva Mayr Centre, in Austria, are given spelt bread to
prac-
tise repetitive chewing, but any high-fibre food (or day-old
bread) will do. Timing ofmeals is also crucial, says Dr Harald
Stossier, medical director of the clinic. Our diges-tive systems
run to a 12-hour cycle, and most of us “eat too much, too late in
the day”.Because digestion slows during the day, eating a big meal
after 6pm is in-advisable as food remains partly undigested,
carbohydratesstart to ferment in the gut and proteins begin to
putrefy.Good digestion is also about choosing gut-
friendly substances that should “comprise two-thirds alkaline
foods — vegetables, ripe fruits,milk and cold-pressed vegetable
oils — andonly one-third acid foods: animal and veg-etable protein,
processed and refinedfoods, legumes, coffee and alcohol”.If you
suffer from bloating, you
may have an intolerance. To test, geta home kit (from
yorktest.com), orkeep a diary and avoid foods thatdon’t agree with
you; frequent of-fenders are wheat, milk and yeast.Digestive
enzymes or probioticscan kick-start your gut: researchby the
British Nutrition Founda-tion suggests gut-friendly supple-ments
and drinks can help with di-gestive complaints.
3 SUPPLEMENTARY BENEFITSNutritional supplements are an insurance
policy: take them regularly and theywill keep you healthy, strong
and even enhance your beauty. “Think about theanatomy of the skin,”
says Dr Howard Murad, who has pioneered the use ofbeauty
supplements. “The dermis, where the topical solution goes, makes
upjust 20%; below that is epidermis, and then fat. These lower
levels can only bereached by what you put in your body.”However,
with so many on the market, which to take? So far, beauty
supple-
ments have focused on the one-tablet-does-all idea for the
enhancement of skin,hair and nails, but we’re starting to see a
marked growth in supplements de-signed to tackle more specific
beauty dilemmas. Take Dr Nicholas Perricone, aresearch
dermatologist who recently launched his Pigment Corrective
System,which contains a unique plant extract with antioxidising
properties that help to
“combat the oxidative stress involved in the over-production of
skin pigments”.How many daily vitamins and minerals we need
is widely debated among nutrition professionals.The UK Food
Standards Agency suggests we canget all the nutrients we need from
food and sets itsrecommended daily amounts at the minimumneeded for
wellbeing; yet experts such as Holfordpoint to research that
suggests supplementing the
diet with some nutrients helps fight the ageing process and
disease. Here are hisrecommendations:1 Essential omega-3 fat
supplement, containing at least 600mg of EPA, DPAand DHA. Omega-3
fats reduce your chances of heart attack, keep the skinmoisturised
and can reduce aggression.2Vitamin C: the best value for money is a
supplement that also contains herbsand nutrients known to boost
immunity, such as echinacea, ginger and zinc.“Ideally, you need
2,000mg vitamin C a day,”Holford says. “That’s 200mg fromfruit and
veg and 1,800mg from a supplement.”3 Multivitamin and mineral: “You
can’t get enough of all the necessary nutri-ents in one tablet, and
the water-soluble vitamins B and C are flushed out ofthe body in
four to six hours, so need to be taken twice daily,” he says. “A
goodstandard supplement provides 100mg magnesium, 10mg zinc, 25mcg
each ofselenium and chromium, and at least 10mcg vitamin D a
day.”
The 10 Secrets of 100%Healthy People by Patrick Holford (Little,
Brown £12.99);patrickholford.com
1 Start every day with a cup of warm, boiled waterto cleanse and
hydrate your system. Add Epsom saltsfor a really thorough cleanse,
says Dr Harald Stossier.
2 Avoid or reduce foods that are bad for your gut,
includingwheat, sugar, salt and milk.
3 Ease a bloated or gurgling stomach with digestive enzymes,
saysPatrick Holford. Try alpha-galactosidase after pulses or
glucoamylase after cabbage or sprouts. Heal a digestive tract
afterillness or overindulgence with glutamine or a course of
probiotics.Totally Nourish (www.totallynourish.com), BioCare
(biocare.co.uk),and Solgar (solgar-vitamins.co.uk) all stock
extensive ranges.4 Go raw: eating raw foods, such as uncooked fruit
and
vegetables, before a main meal can help to prime your
digestivesystem. However, they should only be eaten before 4pm,
as
they are tough to digest.5 Eat soft fruits, such as melons,
nectarines andberries, as between-meal snacks, not as adessert.
They ferment easily and could
upset digestion, says Holford.
top tipsTOGETYOURGUTINSHAPE
topfive BEAUTYSUPPLEMENTS1 Imedeen Time Perfection. Created for
the 40-plus age group,these tablets contain a selection of
antioxidants and vitamins, andclaim to reset the skin’s moisture
balance and visibly reduce finelines in 12 weeks. £38.50 for 60
tablets; imedeen.co.uk2 Dr Murad Youth Builder. A patented formula
with glucosamineand amino acids designed to boost collagen.
Clinical researchshows it increases skin elasticity by 18%. £44.50;
020 7843 90603 BeautyScoop. A drinkable powder (to maximise
absorption)containing peptides and lipids, the building blocks for
healthyskin and hair. Clinical trials back up its efficacy. £136,
fromHarveyNichols4 Perfectil Plus. This hugely popular beauty
supplement (Britain’sNo 1) combines essential fatty acids to
hydrate the skin withlycopene and lutein to help create a barrier
against UV damage.£16.95 for onemonth’s supply, fromBoots5 Viridian
Ultimate Beauty Complex. A reasonably priced two-a-dayformula that
fuses vitamins, minerals and vita-nutrients to helpmaintain
collagen in the skin. £8.75; lovelula.com
I DETOXTWICEAYEAR.IDETOXTWICEAYEAR.I STAYAWAYFROMREFINEDI
STAYAWAYFROMREFINEDSUGARANDWHEAT,ANDSUGARANDWHEAT,AND
TAKEALOTOFSUPPLEMENTSTAKEALOTOFSUPPLEMENTSGEORGINAGOODMANGEORGINAGOODMAN
FRUIT ISTHENEWDRUGS:FRUIT ISTHENEWDRUGS:I’DEATANAPPLE
INAI’DEATANAPPLE
INACLUB,NOPROBLEMCLUB,NOPROBLEMMRHUDSONMRHUDSON
INNERSTYLEWELLBEING SPECIAL
Next week Rules 4 to 6: How to recover your energy, getthe past
out of your present and measure your H score
PHOTOGRAPHS:CHADPICKARDANDPAULMCLEAN.STYLING:NATALIEHARTLEY.HAIRANDMAKE-UP:CHARLOTTECAVEATNAKEDARTISTSUSINGGIORGIOARMANIANDAVEDA.MODEL:CHLOEPRIDHAMATSELECT.PHOTOGRAPHER’SASSISTANT:LUKEGLOVER.STYLIST’SASSISTANT:
FLOSSIESAUNDERS.HAIRANDMAKE-UPASSISTANT:ELLESHORTEN.DIGITALASSISTANT:JAMESMORIARTY.PREVIOUSPAGE:BRABYDAMARIS;FLOWERSBYBASIAZARZYCKA;BASIA-ZARZYCKA.COM.THISPAGE:DRESSBYMARKFAST,G-STRINGBYGAP,FLOWERSBYVVROULEAUX
-
January 10, 2010
A happier, healthier, slimmer you for 2010 Combining the latest
knowledge from the world’s experts, over the next three weeks we've
a ten-point plan to get you into shape
By: Edwina Ings-Chambers
It’s time to get holistic about your health. Not just because
it’s January and time for new resolutions, and not just because the
release of the movie of the international bestseller Eat, Pray,
Love will have us all feeling the need to get some spiritual speed
in our lives.
No, holistic health is important because it is not just about
how the body works, it’s about understanding how our minds and
emotional selves play a part in keeping us healthy.
Over the next three weeks, we will outline a brilliant 10-point
plan to get you physically and emotionally to a place of genuine
wellbeing. We will show you how to recover your energy, how to stop
your past from holding you back, and how to measure your
homocysteine levels, a key to good health that most of us have
never heard of.
We will also have a special issue on how to concentrate on you:
how to find “me” time, how to feel strong and confident in
yourself, how to find a purpose in life and how to exercise smart.
Mental health is just as important as physical health when it comes
to how we feel and how we look, and once we’re physically and
mentally healthy, everything we wish for in life has a way of
coming true.
Alongside all of this, we will feature delicious recipes from
the Nordic Diet, a diet for life that’s not about punishing
yourself and cutting back on calories but about guiding you to
eating healthy, but scrumptious, food, the kind your body actually
needs to function at its optimal level.
To kick it off, we’re focusing on the fundamentals. We look at
how to get your gut working properly, because what your body
digests and absorbs affects your energy, your life span and your
state of mind, as well as your general health; how to relax
properly, with exclusive tips from the LA guru everyone is talking
about; and which health and beauty supplements you should choose
from the thousands on offer. We also introduce you to the best
foods for good digestion and to protect against ageing. This new
year, there really could be a whole new you — we’ll drink (two
litres of water a day) to that.
1: LEARN TO RELAX
-
According to the yoga guru Maya Fiennes, learning to chill out
is one of the most powerful ways to reinvent yourself. “Relaxation
is key to creating a happier, healthier self,” she says. “For most
women, there is just too much going on, not just physically, but in
our heads as well. Our minds are on overload. If you learn to
breathe properly and focus on the present moment, you will find it
easier to tap into your intuition, that little voice that tells you
what it is that would really make you happy.”
A former classical pianist, Fiennes, who has been dubbed the
Nigella of relaxation, has developed a celebrity following in LA,
where she lives with her music-producer husband, Magnus (brother of
the actors Ralph and Joseph). It’s not hard to see why she is in
such demand — she offers strategies that anyone can try without
having to check into an ashram.
Fiennes’s tips are startlingly new because they are quick and
maximise those dead zones of time — queuing in the supermarket,
sitting in traffic or waiting for the computer to do its thing.
They are based on balancing the chakras, the seven power centres of
the body. And the good news is, you can access this energy without
contorting your limbs or standing on your head.
Chakra-balancing on the go
First chakra Governs confidence and security
Area of the body Feet, legs and colon
Remedy Traffic-light chill-out: whenever you’re in the car and
you hit a red light, use those moments to take three deep,
cleansing breaths. Make it a habit. You won’t take any longer to
get where you’re going, but you might arrive a lot less stressed.
Other places you can adopt this ritual include the bus stop,
supermarket queues, waiting for your computer to reboot. Ask
yourself these three questions. “Where am I right now?” Here. “Who
am I right now?” Myself. “What’s the time?” Now.
Second chakra Governs creativity
Area of the body Sexual and reproductive organs
Remedy Washing-up meditation: anything you do with awareness is
meditation. Just quietly concentrating on your own breathing is
meditation. Chores are a great way of practising. Enjoy the feeling
of the warm water on your hands; focus on the colours of the
bubbles. Look at each plate or dish. You are making them shiny and
new again. You are doing this as an act of love for your family or
friends. It may seem a little Stepford Wives, but go with it. Just
be there in the moment and see how it feels.
Third chakra Governs self-esteem
Area of the body Solar plexus
Remedy Confidence-boosting exercise. Fiennes often suggests the
following tip to actors who suffer from stage fright, but it can be
used in any situation to banish butterflies in the stomach. Inhale
through the nose, then exhale powerfully through the mouth, making
a long “Shhhhh” sound. Repeat several times.
Fourth chakra Love
Area of the body Heart
Remedy Kissing-hands ritual. If you want to bring love into your
life, lie down on your back with your hands by your side. Slowly
bring your left hand to your mouth and kiss it, while visualising
receiving
-
love. Then do the same with your right hand, only now imagine
giving love, to yourself and others. One woman who did this
exercise at a Fiennes workshop met her future husband in the lift
on the way out.
Fifth chakra Governs communication
Area of the body Throat
Remedy Meditation. When you’re about to meet someone who annoys
you, go to the ladies’ just beforehand, inhale through the nose,
exhale noisily through the mouth. Repeat 10 times, visualising the
person smiling. By the time you see them, you will be too chilled
to let them get to you.
Sixth chakra Governs intuition
Area of the body Third-eye point
Remedy Tap into feminine energy by closing your right nostril
with your right index finger. Touch your left ring finger to your
left thumb. Inhale and exhale to the count of three. Breathing
through the left nostril brings in calming, intuitive energy.
Seventh chakra Governs spiritual connection
Area of the body Crown of the head
Remedy School-run mantras. For the most stressful traffic
situations, Fiennes recommends playing CDs of mantras in the car
and chanting along. “Whenever I give a lift to someone who doesn’t
know me very well, they say, ‘There’s something wrong with your CD,
it keeps repeating.’” When you feel yourself losing it, stop,
acknowledge the feeling and say to yourself, “Okay, I am going to
change this.”
Yoga for Real Life by Maya Fiennes (Atlantic Books £14.99);
mayaspace.com
2: PERFECT YOUR DIGESTION
Bloating and an acid stomach are inevitable consequences of
overindulgence, but you can easily get yourself back on track by
resurrecting your digestive health. Nutritionists claim that the
digestive system is overworked yet often overlooked — until it
begins to cause problems.
Digesting and processing food affects everything, from energy
levels to our physical and emotional health. Poor digestion stops
us absorbing vitamins and minerals and can lead to illness. “During
the average lifetime, about 100 tonnes of food pass along the
digestive tract and 300,000 litres of digestive juices are produced
to break down that food,” says the nutritionist Patrick Holford,
author of The 10 Secrets of 100% Healthy People.
“It is a colossal operation. You are not what you eat, you are
what you can digest and absorb.” Simple practices such as chewing
food properly can ease the strain on the gut. “Enzymes in saliva
help to break down carbohydrates, so keep chewing until food is a
liquid mush in your mouth.”
Visitors to the exclusive Viva Mayr Centre, in Austria, are
given spelt bread to practise repetitive chewing, but any
high-fibre food (or day-old bread) will do. Timing of meals is also
crucial, says Dr Harald Stossier, medical director of the clinic.
Our digestive systems run to a 12-hour cycle, and most of us “eat
too much, too late in the day”. Because digestion slows during the
day, eating a big meal after 6pm is inadvisable as food remains
partly undigested, carbohydrates start to ferment in the gut and
proteins begin to putrefy.
-
Good digestion is also about choosing gut-friendly substances
that should “comprise two-thirds alkaline foods — vegetables, ripe
fruits, milk and cold-pressed vegetable oils — and only one-third
acid foods: animal and vegetable protein, processed and refined
foods, legumes, coffee and alcohol”.
If you suffer from bloating, you may have an intolerance. To
test, get a home kit (from yorktest.com), or keep a diary and avoid
foods that don’t agree with you; frequent offenders are wheat, milk
and yeast. Digestive enzymes or probiotics can kick-start your gut:
research by the British Nutrition Foundation suggests gut-friendly
supplements and drinks can help with digestive complaints.
3: SUPPLEMENTARY BENEFITS
Nutritional supplements are an insurance policy: take them
regularly and they will keep you healthy, strong and even enhance
your beauty. “Think about the anatomy of the skin,” says Dr Howard
Murad, who has pioneered the use of beauty supplements. “The
dermis, where the topical solution goes, makes up just 20%; below
that is epidermis, and then fat. These lower levels can only be
reached by what you put in your body.”
However, with so many on the market, which to take? So far,
beauty supplements have focused on the one-tablet-does-all idea for
the enhancement of skin, hair and nails, but we’re starting to see
a marked growth in supplements designed to tackle more specific
beauty dilemmas. Take Dr Nicholas Perricone, a research
dermatologist who recently launched his Pigment Corrective System,
which contains a unique plant extract with antioxidising properties
that help to “combat the oxidative stress involved in the
overproduction of skin pigments”.
How many daily vitamins and minerals we need is widely debated
among nutrition professionals. The UK Food Standards Agency
suggests we can get all the nutrients we need from food and sets
its recommended daily amounts at the minimum needed for wellbeing;
yet experts such as Holford point to research that suggests
supplementing the diet with some nutrients helps fight the ageing
process and disease. Here are his recommendations:
1 Essential omega-3 fat supplement, containing at least 600mg of
EPA, DPA and DHA. Omega-3 fats reduce your chances of heart attack,
keep the skin moisturised and can reduce aggression.
2 Vitamin C: the best value for money is a supplement that also
contains herbs and nutrients known to boost immunity, such as
echinacea, ginger and zinc. “Ideally, you need 2,000mg vitamin C a
day,” Holford says. “That’s 200mg from fruit and veg and 1,800mg
from a supplement.”
3 Multivitamin and mineral: “You can’t get enough of all the
necessary nutrients in one tablet, and the water-soluble vitamins B
and C are flushed out of the body in four to six hours, so need to
be taken twice daily,” he says. “A good standard supplement
provides 100mg magnesium, 10mg zinc, 25mcg each of selenium and
chromium, and at least 10mcg vitamin D a day.”
The 10 Secrets of 100% Healthy People by Patrick Holford
(Little, Brown £12.99); patrickholford.com
TOP TIPS TO GET YOUR GUT IN SHAPE
1) Start every day with a cup of warm, boiled water to cleanse
and hydrate your system. Add Epsom salts for a really thorough
cleanse, says Dr Harald Stossier.
2) Avoid or reduce foods that are bad for your gut, including
wheat, sugar, salt and milk.
3) Ease a bloated or gurgling stomach with digestive enzymes,
says Patrick Holford. Try alpha-galactosidase after pulses or
glucoamylase after cabbage or sprouts. Heal a digestive tract after
illness or overindulgence with glutamine or a course of probiotics.
Totally Nourish
-
(www.totallynourish.com), BioCare (biocare.co.uk), and Solgar
(solgar-vitamins.co.uk) all stock extensive ranges.
4) Go raw: eating raw foods, such as uncooked fruit and
vegetables, before a main meal can help to prime your digestive
system. However, they should only be eaten before 4pm, as they are
tough to digest.
5) Eat soft fruits, such as melons, nectarines and berries, as
between-meal snacks, not as a dessert. They ferment easily and
could upset digestion, says Holford.
TOP FIVE BEAUTY SUPPLEMENTS
1) Imedeen Time Perfection. Created for the 40-plus age group,
these tablets contain a selection of antioxidants and vitamins, and
claim to reset the skin’s moisture balance and visibly reduce fine
lines in 12 weeks. £38.50 for 60 tablets; imedeen.co.uk
2) Dr Murad Youth Builder. A patented formula with glucosamine
and amino acids designed to boost collagen. Clinical research shows
it increases skin elasticity by 18%. £44.50; 020 7843 9060
3) BeautyScoop. A drinkable powder (to maximise absorption)
containing peptides and lipids, the building blocks for healthy
skin and hair. Clinical trials back up its efficacy. £136, from
Harvey Nichols
4) Perfectil Plus. This hugely popular beauty supplement
(Britain’s No 1) combines essential fatty acids to hydrate the skin
with lycopene and lutein to help create a barrier against UV
damage. £16.95 for one month’s supply, from Boots
5) Viridian Ultimate Beauty Complex. A reasonably priced
two-a-day formula that fuses vitamins, minerals and vita-nutrients
to help maintain collagen in the skin. £8.75; lovelula.com
Sunday London TimesSunday London Times 1.10.2010Sunday London
Times PG2 1.10.2010
The Sunday Times full article 1.10.2010