Part 1 Vegetables are good: better skin and body odour
Maurice Di RossoIn today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to fall into the trap of convenience foods and forget one of the simplest, most beneficial ways to improve your health, feel better, and ultimately be more productive….eating more vegetables. Whoever you are, and whatever stage of life, whether you’re cooking for yourself or caring for a loved one, incorporating a higher quantity and greater variety of vegetables into your diet can have immense benefits. When I talk about the health benefits, for me it all boils down to one core objective: to maintain independence through my entire life by staying healthy. But of course, we shouldn’t forget the environmental and financial benefits of incorporating more veggies in our diets.
In this series of articles, I’ll give you a high-level summary of the research I’ve done on the benefits of eating vegetables, for us and for the environment. It’s worth noting that my focus is always on fresh and minimally processed foods – Veg Blocks have been cooked and frozen in a way that maintains all their nutrients, and without adding anything else.
Let’s start off with two particularly interesting, and not commonly known, benefits of eating lots of veggies.
You smell better!
Your body odour improves when you eat more veggies! Eating fresh vegetables results in a more pleasant-smelling sweat, with ‘floral, fruity, sweet, and medicinal’ qualities! This has been demonstrated by researchers in a study at Macquarie University. The study tested the impact of sweat samples of men to women, to find which BO was most appealing, and surprise surprise, the diet that contained more veg came out on top! Personally, I can tell difference in my BO when I have particularly sugary, and non-veg heavy, weekend – so it’s not a surprise to me.
If you’re keen on saving a few dollars on deodorant, and want to smell like roses, then veg it is!
Better skin
Consuming more veggies improves your skin, which in turn, better regulates your body temperature and hormone level management. Not to mention it looks good!
Skin is the largest organ in the body, but it’s so underrated, as is the value of regulating your body temperature. The skin manages water balance and heat exchange with the outside environment, which in turn, keeps you nice and regular (temperature wise 😉). Having a well balanced body temperature means that you are maintaining a high immunity, and you’re also reducing your risk of suffering from heat or cold related illnesses. You’re also preventing dryness and irritation, meaning you won’t need that skin lotion to get that baby-smooth feel.
The properties of vegetables that help us achieve this are:
- Antioxidants found in veggies help to fight free radicals, which cause skin damage and ageing.
- They contain anti-inflammatory compounds that help to reduce redness and irritation.
- Fibre helps to de-toxify and our bodies and balance our hormone levels.
- They’re very rich in vitamins and minerals.
What to take away from this:
- Eating veg makes you smell better, so you won’t need as much deodorant.
- Your skin will be improved by eating more veg, feeling smoother, looking better, and support your overall mental and physical health.
Stay tuned for future articles to this series on why vegetables are good. Next up, despite the high and seemingly constantly rising price of veg, it’s still the financially smart choice.
Sources:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1472029921001752
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507838/