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| Monday, September 22, 2008 |
| Colors and Your Health |
I write a lot about eating a colorful diet to improve your health and reduce risk of chronic disease. I’m always recommending adding herbs and spices like curry, turmeric and cayenne to everything you eat. These simple additions can help reduce inflammation and free radical damage.
As a “good” dietitian, I do exactly what I preach. I keep curry powder, chili and pumpkin spices on hand at the office. I buy Kashi Heart to Heart cereal and granola bars, dried blueberries and almonds for the office too. I even sprinkle curry powder on my salad! Hey, I want to continue looking and feeling young and full of vitality for a long time.
Unfortunately all my healthy habits interfere with my teeth whitening treatments! My teeth had become stained over the years from things like curry, green tea and red wine, so I decided to get treatments. Once I had them, my dentist told me not to eat or drink colorful stuff for 2 weeks post treatment while the teeth are re-mineralizing. That’s all right…I can switch to white wine, but what about the blueberries, blackberries, powdered greens, and white tea (which is really not white)? Not to mention the pomegranate concentrate I mix with water to take my vitamin D and calcium. What to do? He told me that eating dried blueberries will turn my teeth blue!
I refuse to take red wine, tea, turmeric and blue pigments from a capsule. If I took all these in capsule form, I would be missing out on a lot of other anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds. Furthermore, if I didn’t “eat” my colors, but took them in a capsule instead, what would I eat? A beige diet? I don’t think so.
See that’s the problem with taking nutrients from a capsule; we still have to eat. And sometimes people don’t eat as healthy when they are taking supplements, because they believe that taking supplements means they don’t have to eat the “real food”. Whereas my way of thinking is, while you are busy eating the healthy food, you get what your body needs, you fill up and are not hungry for the other stuff.
So I can make a few compromises for a white smile/not so white: I can drink tea with a straw, I can alternate red and white wine and I will brush my teeth quickly afterwards. I still will eat my reds, blues and put curry powder and turmeric on almost everything, but will also brush my teeth afterwards. I will also need to maintain a healthy white smile with occasional mini whitening treatments. At the end, I am still a winner, because with all that brushing and dentist visits I will avoid gum disease, which is a strong indicator of heart disease. That will be my next topic.
Carry on, eat your colors!
- Josée
Labels: fruits and vegetables, Josee
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posted by The Sensei Team @ Monday, September 22, 2008   |
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