Fruits and Veggies for Your Skin

By Kelly Emberg, Submitted by Daughter -in-Law Diaries –

Houston native Kelly Emberg became a house-hold name with her success in front the camera.

After achieving supermodel status in the 1980’s, she then launched an accomplished interior design business. It seems no matter what Emberg decides to do she is a success.

So, it’s no surprise that when she turned to gardening as a hobby and stress release from her numerous photo sessions and runway shows, she found her green thumb.

Her love of gardening began with a 12 x 12 plot of land at her weekend retreat in Pennsylvania, where she learned to turn her harvest into homemade jam. Her enthusiasm for gardening flourished and grew over the years, as well as the size and scope of her gardens. She has turned her passion for nature and growing fresh fruits and vegetables into a website: The Model Gardener. Kelly writes on her blog, “I have been gardening for a while now and I can’t describe how wonderful it feels to have it. I feel so capable and aware of nature. I can do it!” And She wants everyone to know that they can do it too. Her goal is to get the masses to “grow their own.”

Kelly also believes helping to teach the importance of nutrition to our nation’s young, and imparts her love of all things homegrown. “I believe that we should teach our children about growing so that they can understand what fresh is, and how important it is to eat healthy food. You would be surprised to see how many children and adults don’t know what a fresh vegetable tastes like. My focus is not only to show people that they can grow their own, but to help inspire people to pay attention to what they are putting on their table for their family to eat. Education is everything, and it is so simple. Growing your own will feed you emotionally and spiritually, while filling your belly with delicious, beautiful, nutritious food. Let’s get back to understanding the seasons and knowing what is good for us to eat. Education is the key. ‘One Seed Can Change Your Life’, maybe even the world!”

Kelly believes in thinking big, but starting small if that is what fits your current lifestyle. Planting a pot of herbs is a great place to begin! Once you taste how wonderful your food by adding something you grew yourself, you may be inspired to grow more.

Kelly has graciously shared her knowledge with DIL Diaries about achieving our optimal skin health by nourishing our bodies inside and out. What a better person to learn about beautiful skin from than a supermodel? Great skin is something all women aspire to have, and what a perfect way to bond with your mother-in-law than passing along these fabulous tips from Kelly?! Read on to learn what fruits and vegetables have an amazing impact on your skin:

Fruits and Veggies are packed with all kinds of vitamins and minerals that are good for our skin. When you really examine the benefits of them you will find out that eating certain fresh produce can help you look younger. At my age, anything I can learn about anti-aging that works, is a topic I am interested in. Let’s face it, no pun intended, we all want to look and feel our best no matter how old we are. Age is just a number, right?

I did a little research on Fruits, Veggies and Skin and this is what I came up with:

FRUITS – In the fruit department, some of my favorite fruits that I have been eating are helping my skin and I didn’t even know it!

Tomatoes
Some of you will be surprised to see that the tomato is in the fruit column and technically it is a fruit because it has seeds. Anything with seeds is considered a fruit, even peppers. This is truly my favorite fruit/ veggie, spicy peppers are a really close second. There is an abundance of anti-oxidants called lycopene in tomatoes, especially the cooked variety. Lycopene protects your skin from the free radicals in your body caused by cigarette smoking or pollution. Consuming lots of tomato sauce or paste will help protect your skin from UV rays, premature aging and skin cancer but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t wear sunscreen. When you look at the Italians and the Greeks who eat a lot of tomatoes, you can see that I am telling you the truth! Oh and by the way, I grew all of these tomatoes myself.

Cantaloupe
Another one of my favorites! Who can resist that juicy, peachy in color, firm in texture and undeniably sweet fruit, and to think that it is so good for your skin among other things! I grew all kinds of melons last year and can’t wait to start planting this season. This fruit also has lots of anti-oxidants, and will have the same skin boosting benefits that the tomato does with fighting the free radicals, but it also is full of water. Our bodies are made up of mostly water and when you devour this tasty fruit you are hydrating your skin at the same time. Vitamin A helps turnover the cells in the skin. Cantaloupe is loaded, and I mean loaded with it, which will keep your skin looking bright and glowing. You can get lots of beauty benefits from this amazing fruit! You should try growing them as well. You will have extra melons to make a delicious summer drink.

Berries & Plums
Berries are amazing for your skin! The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has reported that black berries, blueberries, strawberries and plums have the “highest total anti-oxidant capacity” of any food out there! If you haven’t tasted fresh local grown berries or plums you haven’t lived! The fresher the better the benefits. If not eaten soon after they are picked, the fruit will loose some of the vitamins and taste. You can’t get them any fresher if you grow them yourself though and it’s easy. If that isn’t an option, frozen berries are almost as good. The fruit is picked and frozen immediately to assure freshness. I grow my own strawberries myself and encourage all of you to try it too. They really don’t take up that much room, you can even grow them in a pot. Yum Yum.

Vegetables

Broccoli
My boys use to call broccoli ”trees”. Most children like the dark -green vegetable that comes from the cabbage family, at least all of mine do. This Italian favorite is chocked full of vitamin A and C. Like the cantaloupe, this means eating broccoli will help rejuvenate your skin’s cells faster, giving it a fresh glow. Broccoli is full of anti – oxidants to help fight the free radicals in your skins cells. I could go on all day about the health benefits of broccoli because the list of vitamins and minerals is endless. When is comes to broccoli growing it is fun to watch and simpler than you think. You will need a lot of space since this plant can be 3 foot in diameter. I am about to plant my broccoli seedlings for now for a summer harvest.

Sweet Potatoes
Like the cantaloupe, sweet potatoes contain anti- oxidants called beta carotene. Anything that has that pumpkin color hue will be full of vitamin A and anti-oxidants and sweet potatoes are no exception. This colorful potato will help your skin recover from sun damage. I know I need to add these to my diet more since I baked in the sun all through my teenage years, lathering myself with a concoction of baby lotion and iodine. My best friends Suzy Beaver and Alison O’meara were my partners in crime and we would try to see who could get the darkest. What were we thinking? I haven’t grown sweet potatoes yet but I will definitely plant them this summer!

Carrots
Another favorite veggie for the kiddies is carrots and that is a good thing. I still love raw carrots but I am not a fan of them cooked which is better for me since most of the vitamins and minerals are lost once cooked anyway. I am a sucker for carrot juice and grow my own for juicing or buy organic carrots for my vitamin A and beta carotene quota. There are only 90 calories in an 8 oz. cup of juice and that is all you need daily. Anymore your body will not be able to absorb it and your skin might turn a yellowish orange. Don’t worry, it isn’t permanent. Vitamin A, Beta Carotene, is essential for tissue growth for the body. It is an excellent natural antioxidant which fights the free radicals in your body and slows down the aging process. Carrots have carotnoids which helps with the UV rays and fights sun damage. Another vitamin that carrots has and is essential for the skin is Vitamin C. It helps the growth of collagen. I just love them carrots!

I don’t know which one of these vegetables or fruits are better for you but they all sound pretty good! Now when I am sipping my carrot juice cocktail and savoring my cantaloupe and berries for breakfast I know that my skin will be looking exceptionally fresh and vibrant really soon. What a wonderful beauty secret!

Stay tuned…Kelly is working on a new gardening show that is currently being pitched to the networks. We will keep you posted! You will find her at her new website The Model Gardner: http://kellyemberg.com/.