Holiday Health Tips

Quite often, people tell me how they will skip breakfast and lunch during the holidays because they are going out to another dinner party.  Skipping meals is not only counterproductive to maintaining a healthy weight and blood sugar during the holidays, but it is detrimental to your immune system.  The nutrients we get from our everyday fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and protein shakes is what makes for a healthy immune system.  If you do not eat a normal breakfast and lunch, you will be famished by dinnertime and overindulge.  You will also be compromsing your immune system and if you become ill, that will be the end of the partying for you!

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  Don't be a Dummy!  During this holiday season, start every day with a healthy breakfast, segway into a sensible lunch; later on, at those holiday dinner parties, you won't be famished - you'll eat sensibly and your immune system will thank you for it!

Alcohol and Your Skin

We all know that cigarettes are bad for our skin, but what about alcohol?  Alcohol can aggravate conditions such as rosacea, psoriasis, hives, cause epic breakouts of acne and, last but not least...make your nose look like W.C. Field's.  Some individuals have an 'allergic reaction' to alcohol which manifests in a bright red/almost scarlet face and heart palpitations or cluster headaches.  Beer and red wine will cause the greatest flushing of the face, so if this is what happens to your skin when you imbibe, you'd be better off with a distilled spirit such as vodka, gin or whiskey.  If wine is your beverage of choice, look for a sulfite-free wine..there are many tasty wines made without sulfites.  Ask your wine merchant about these choices.
Mixed drinks and cocktails are usually made with sugars or sweet syrups.  Some contain liqueurs (Kahlua, Amaretto, Baileys) that are very high in sugar; if you're looking to pack on the pounds or pimples, these are the drinks to have....NOT!  Have a mixed drink made with club soda; fewer calories and less sugar.

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  Please use your head.  Drink responsibly and in moderation.  The American Heart Association suggests this to be one drink a day for women, and one to two drinks for men (depending on their size).