By: Olga Maiko

It’s difficult to fit into one article all the tips for a healthy new year. However, the first thing you need to do is not to be hard on yourself and dedicate New Year’s resolutions, say, to improving your skin quality and adding more seasonal and local fruits and vegetables into your daily diet.

Speaking of healthy, glowing, and toned skin, I want to emphasize something defined as AGE. It’s not just you that is what you eat. You are, literally, what you digest.

Your choice of food and drink today will directly impact your skin quality in the near future. Obviously, the environment, blue light from smartphones, exposure to pollution, smoking and alcohol consumption, sleep patterns, etc, are all associated with skin quality. Still, certain foods lead to premature aging. They are called advanced glycation end products (AGE, an interesting abbreviation!). Simply put, when combined with sugar, protein and fats become glycated (glued) together.

Not only do these markers accelerate aging, but they also trigger inflammation processes in the body, may cause the development of atherosclerosis, and may speed up and trigger many chronic diseases.

When protein or fat is consumed together with sugar (all cakes and doughnuts, fast foods, sauces, everything grilled or broiled, everything with a crust on it – it all falls under the AGE category), leads to gluing the collagen tissues together (and we have over 20 types of collagen in our bodies!), causing skin sagging, early wrinkles, worsening of eyesight, weaker joints and connecting tissues, has an impact on the circulatory system, etc.

My task is not to scare you but to bring some fundamental information about healthy eating habits for everyday life. Sweets and treats are not forbidden. They just need to remain treats and be eaten from time to time, and not become substitutes for a wholesome meal. 

Our body is a temple, meaning that looking after it and feeling appropriately will make an enormous impact on your quality of life.

When it comes to seasonal eating (if it really resonates with you, my advice is to do some further research on biodynamics and how the body absorbs maximum nutrients from certain foods according to moon phases), I really recommend going as much as possible for local and seasonal. Why? Not only do we support our local farmers, but we consume foods that are typical for our season and climate and don’t travel for a long time to reach our fridges and plates. Our ancestors didn’t really eat blueberries and strawberries in December while it was snowing outside; what they ate was hearty and warm food, vegetable stews, porridge with butter, fermented fruits and vegetables, soups, and hotpots. Fatty fish, goat and sheep dairy, poultry, beans and pulses…Apples, pears, quince, pumpkin and squash, sweet potatoes, different types of cabbages, turnips, carrots and beets… the choice is endless. 

Fall and winter time is the period when you literally nurture your body from the inside. And winter time is not about dieting, calorie restrictions, and limitations. And please don’t go for low-fat! It’s not the fat that’s bad for you – it’s excess refined carbs that could lead to weight gain and elevated cholesterol levels in the blood.  

It’s about wholesome and warming foods and drinks. Instead of green salad with a glass of iced water for lunch (it’s December, remember?), go for pumpkin, turmeric, and ginger soup along with a nice cup of tea, and don’t be afraid of a piece of sourdough bread with some good quality butter. Perfect choice for a cold winter day.

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