My Learning Curve

Wow! I thought I have reached a small plateau in my beauty learning curve, but I suddenly found a whole lot of new and good reads through The Body Shop Blog, after voting for Viva Woman to win the Naturally Beautiful Blogger Award.

Those other blogs offer perspectives that are different, refreshing, and thus brings me new beauty knowledge. As usual, I like to take down notes as I read, and here are some of the highlighted ones that I want to incorporate in my life, and so wish to share with you:

1. 5 Wonderful Health Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar
~ by Beauty Secrets Revealed

Picture Courtesy of Beauty Secrets Revealed

Actually, I have known of Apple Cider Vinegar for 10 over years already. And I have tried drinking it before. But gave up, cos it is just too horrible to down a normal 250ml cup.

But what caught my eye is "just ingesting 2 teaspoons before meals"!

hahaha. That's so clever!

For locals who have listened to FM97.2 and know of Easy Billy/Dongfang Billy, you may have heard of him talking about using Apple Cider Vinegar for slimming. My mother bought his "secret recipes" book back then. But he didn't say in his book that 2 teaspoons before each meal is enough. So I tried to drink a whole cup a day. LOL.

Note: The book was written as a notebook about the food explorations done during his fight against throat cancer. Accordingly, he says that those health recipes helped him recover from cancer the first time. Unfortunately, the disease has now returned, after some 10 years.

2. Minty Mouthwash
~ by Wellness Oasis

Picture Courtesy of Wellness Oasis

What I really like about this is that it does not contains alcohol. Alcohol mouthwash can actually be bad, as alcohol is drying, and may end up inducing bad breath instead. There are also tonnes of worries of how alcohol mouthwash have the same effect as drinking alcohol, thus causing cancer etc.

Also, Wellness Oasis has so many super duper natural recipes for weird things, like nail treatments, footspray, deordorant etc. haha, just like how Viva Woman has yummy DIY masks recipes and more.

I totally must try all these out some time.

3. My #1 Piece of Health Advice
~ by All Natural Annie

Picture Courtesy of All Natural Annie

To fight flu, just use "one finely chopped clove of garlic and a tall glass of water".

Sounds like a really good idea! I normally drink 3 in 1 ginger tea if I feel the flu coming. I never knew garlic could be drunk like that.

I don't like to take medicine when I fall sick, because I belong to one of those who subscribe to the belief that taking so much panadol and antibiotics will make your immune system so use to it, that you develop resistance towards simple medicine, like panadol. And then you will end up having to take stronger and stronger medicines. But potent medicines have A LOT of side effects. Don't forget, they are still drugs afterall.

So natural garlic method is the way to go! =)))

Note: I have a friend who was wrongly diagnose of SARS during the SARS period, and he was made to take the SARS antibiotics, because the country just couldn't risk having someone out in the public with suspected SARS. It now ends up that he complains his body has weakened drastically, and he has lost his pre-SARS size and muscles. Basically, he said "it's just not the same anymore."

4. Interview with Patricia M. Bannan, registered Dietitian.
~ by All Natural Annie

I am so glad to find this post, as it gives a very good list of health food to swap your current meals for. This is something that I have posted about, but mine is an incomplete list, and also does not explains why each food is good.

I think those who like me, are trying to eat healthier, will find the tips really useful.

Below is a snippet of the list that I have taken the liberty to make. All credits to All Natural Annie and Patricia M. Bannan:

You hear of a lot of top 10 lists for healthy food/super foods, what top 10 items come to your mind when you think of healthy food?

A variety of colorful vegetables (e.g., spinach, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli)
A variety of colorful fruits (e.g., oranges, berries, kiwis)
Whole grains (oats, quinoa, barley, whole wheat)
Nuts (e.g., pistachios, almonds, walnuts)
Omega 3-rich fish (e.g., wild salmon, herring, sardines, mackerel)
Beans (e.g., black, kidney, garbanzo, navy)
Lean meat and poultry – natural when possible (e.g., Hormel® Natural Choice® deli sandwich meat)
Whole soy (e.g., tofu, soy milk, soy nuts, edamame)
Tea (e.g., black, green, white, oolong)
Low-fat dairy (e.g., plain low-fat yogurt, skim milk)