Eating Your Way to Healthy Hair

By Danielle Dowling
Reviewed by QualityHealth's Medical Advisory Board

You do almost everything to maintain healthy hair: You wash and condition it regularly, you stay away from blow dryers, curling irons, and all manner of other heat-styling devices, you neither perm nor bleach it, you use a scrunchie rather than an elastic when pulling it up into a ponytail, you wear a bathing cap when swimming, you've even invested in satin pillowcases and a boar-bristle brush. But if you're not consuming the nutrients that healthy hair requires, you might as well let your mane wither into a brittle mass of knots. Your diet is crucial to the maintenance of luxurious locks. In fact, certain restricted-calorie/restricted-fat diets can wreak havoc on your follicles, yielding dull, lifeless strands and sometimes even hair loss. Drawing your meals from the following foods will ensure healthy hair, but remember that eating right won't produce results overnight; it might take six months to a year for your nutritional efforts to take shape.

Protein, vitamin B, and zinc: Or more specifically, iron-rich protein, which supports the production of hair-strengthening keratin. Your body more easily absorbs this type of protein from meat than it does from vegetables. Any lean meat will do, so why not try buffalo? It's leaner than chicken with just 1.8 grams of fat for every 100 grams of meat. It's also a great source of healthy-hair-promoting zinc and vitamin B12; zinc is necessary for tissue growth and maintenance and ensures that the oil glands function properly while B vitamins such as B12, B6, and folate are vital to the creation of red blood cells, which supply the scalp and follicles with nutrients. Shellfish, like clams and oysters, also offer plenty of iron-rich protein, B vitamins, and zinc. But if you prefer to get your protein from vegetables, you can't go wrong with lentils or soybeans, which have B6 and folate, respectively, to boot.

Vitamins A and C: If you pair a food chock-full of ascorbic acid with a vegetable-based iron-rich protein, you'll boost your body's ability to extract that protein. A tofu stir-fry with broccoli and peppers is a good combo. Vitamin C also plays an important role in the formation of collagen, which is important to hair growth, so you may want to top off that stir-fry with a smoothie made from guava, oranges, and strawberries. Meanwhile, vitamin A is not just good for your eyesight; it is also key to the preservation of healthy hair and skin. The best sources of vitamin A are carrots and liver. Indeed, the ancient Egyptians used liver to cure night blindness, a symptom of vitamin A deficiency.

Updated: July 1, 2009

Copyright © 2010 QualityHealth.com. All rights reserved.

5 Ways Honey Can Heal You

Even more reasons why I love this stuff

By Susan McQuillan
Reviewed by QualityHealth's Medical Advisory Board

Honey, one of nature's most natural and intense sweeteners, has been used for centuries as a home remedy for various ailments. In more recent years, science has confirmed what folk medicine has pretty much already proven: Honey heals.

The color of honey, which ranges from pale amber to deep, dark brown, depends on the source of nectar. Although there are exceptions, most light colored honeys, such as alfalfa, orange blossom and clover, have a mild flavor while dark honeys, such as those made from buckwheat or avocado blossoms, have bolder, more distinct flavors. The darker the honey, experts say, the higher its concentration of healing substances. Here are some of the ways honey contributes to good health:

Source of Antioxidants: Normal oxidation in the body can injure cells, which contributes to aging and development of various disease such as cancer and heart disease. Honey has high levels of antioxidants and researchers at the University of California in Davis found that people who added four tablespoons of honey to their diet every day for a month increased the antioxidant levels in their blood.

Burn Remedy: When used to treat wounds, honey absorbs moisture from the air and uses it to help keep the skin hydrated so it can heal properly. Studies that have been performed to determine whether or not honey actually promotes healing have had mixed results but experts seem to agree that a minor burn dressed with honey and guaze will feel better and heal sooner than a similar wound dressed with antibiotic creams and ointments

Antimicrobial (antibacterial): Honey contains an enzyme that produces hydrogen peroxide, which gives it antibacterial qualities for treating minor cuts, abrasions and even mild forms of acne. Some types of honey, including Manuka honey from the New Zealand Manuka bush, claim to have the highest antimicrobial activity of all.

Cough Suppressant: A study performed at Penn State University confirmed what advocates of folk medicine have been reporting for centuries: A spoonful of honey will relieve a bothersome cough better than the active ingredient in many over-the-counter cough suppressants. The researchers found that children with upper respiratory infections who took buckwheat honey before going to bed had fewer and less severe coughing bouts throughout the night and got better quality sleep. And so did their parents!

Energy Source: Honey is easily digested and absorbed into the bloodstream, which means it's a great source of quick energy. But the good news is: it's not quite as high on the glycemic index as table sugar, which means it's less likely to cause spikes in blood sugar.

Resources:

UC Davis

http://broadcast.ucdavis.edu/search/printable_news.lasso?id=150&table=broadcast

NYU Langone Medical Center: Honey

http://www.med.nyu.edu/patientcare/library/article.html?ChunkIID=155289

Penn State University

http://live.psu.edu/story/27584

HoneyO/Healing Properties of Honey

http://www.honeyo.com/honeyhealing.shtml

National Honey Board's State-by-State Honey Locator

http://www.honeylocator.com/search.asp

Updated: January 14, 2010

Copyright © 2010 QualityHealth.com. All rights reserved.