Feeling good, looking good
There’s truth to the adage, “you are what you eat.” Once you start fueling your body with healthful foods, it’ll show on the outside!
Take, for example, your skin. It’s the body’s largest organ, taking up about 12 percent of your body weight, and it’s the first thing you present to the world. Your skin is alive – it breathes, it needs moisture and the right nutrients to keep it not just blemish-free, but glowing and attractive. And its arguably your most important organ of all – it keeps your muscles and organs and bones protected from the elements.
The old, dry top layer of your skin sloughs off and it replaced every day or two. The body’s system of self-repair when you damage your skin is remarkable – when you get a cut or scrape, blood flows into the wound to flush out any foreign particles, then your white blood cells go to work to fight infection. Then nutrients like zinc and calcium kick in to build new skin cells to repair the damage. It’s pretty amazing when you think about it.
You can repay all the good things your skin does for you by feeding it foods rich in the nutrients it craves. All plant foods contain a substance called bioflavinoids, which give plants’ cells the solid structure they need. In the human body, bioflavinoids serve the same general purpose, nourishing the cells of your own blood vessels. When these blood vessels, called capillaries, weaken and break they leak blood, causing “spider veins.” These reddish splotches can appear anywhere on your body, particularly your cheeks, nose and legs. By eating foods rich in bioflavinoids, you’ll help to keep your blood vessels strong. Besides spider veins, weak blood vessels also lead to a variety of circulatory problems, including the tendency to bruise easily.
When it comes to looking your best, healthy skin is of the vital. As an organ, one of skin’s most important functions is to eliminate waste products through your perspiration. As with urine, the moisture that passes out of your body when you sweat carries with it the end product of the nutrients you didn’t need for your bodily functions. Animal products contain very concentrated protein – when excess protein is filtered through the body, whatever your kidneys can’t handle makes its way out of your body through your sweat. Some of it clogs your pores, making your skin dry and flaky, and can lead to increased blemishes.
By eating a meatless diet, you won’t be making your kidneys work so hard, you’ll have less impurities passing through your skin, and you’re helping the blood flow freely through your blood vessels. That glow of good health is the mark of a vegetarian!
The sweet scent of good health
We’ve talked about how eating meat clogs up the bowels and fills the body with toxins that it has trouble eliminating. Constipation is one side affect of this, when waste matter gets trapped in the intestinal tract. When that happens, toxins circulate throughout your body, looking for a way to get out, and many of them end up in the lungs, to be eliminated through your breath. This is called halitosis – and no amount of breath mints can help.
Believe it or not, chronic bad breath can be eliminated by paying attention to the other end of things. Colon cleansing, which you’ll remember from the chapter on nutrition, often clears up halitosis. Not that this should be a problem if you’re a vegetarian – all those healthy whole grains, fruits and vegetables are loaded with fiber, and clogged bowels are unlikely to be a problem.
But if you’ve yet to completely give up meat, you’ll find your breath will be all the sweeter after its by-products are out of your body. And your whole body will smell better overall. When we eat meat, we’re also eating whatever those animals ate, and the various toxins stored in their fat. When you work out and burn your own stored fat, these toxins are sweated out through your skin. The less toxins tou have in your body, the less your sweat and breath will smell.
Water in, water out
Almost every aspect of our body’s functionality is regulated by hormones. When we eat meat, we ingest protoglandins, hormone-like substances present in animal products – including our own bodies. Excess protoglandins can cause an imbalance of your own hormone levels, causing water retention.
While nobody wants to be puffy – and when switching to vegetarian diet, most people quickly see an improvement in their appearance because of decreased water retention – this is especially unpleasant when a woman is having, or about to have, her menstrual cycle. Premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, is marked by inflammation, swelling and bloating due to an excess of protoglandins. If you’re a woman and you’ve begun a vegan lifestyle, you’re almost entirely assured that you’ll see your symptoms of PMS diminish. If you’re an ovo-lacto vegetarian, try cutting out cheese and dairy during the week before you begin your period, giving your hormones a breather so you can have a less uncomfortable cycle.
What you’ll find, as you get further into your vegetarian journey, is that you’ll look better, feel better, and even smell better when you’ve stopped eating meat. You’ll also have more energy, which will help you be more active – and the more exercise you get, the better you’ll look and feel. It’s hard to believe that we’re attractive when we feel lousy, our sluggish, fatigued bodies just dragging along from meat-based meal to meat-based meal. But as a vegetarian, you’ll have a spring in your step and a better outlook – how can you not feel good about yourself when you’re eating healthy, socially responsible meals, and treating yourself in the best way possible? So along with your shinier hair, clearer skin and boosted energy, you’ll radiate with the confidence that comes from taking excellent care of yourself – and that confidence is irresistible!
