If the old axiom “you are what you eat” is right, then why not eat a vibrant assortment of foods? Our eye is naturally attracted to deep green of landscapes and the rich red of roses, then why do we eat a mottled gray colored diet? French fries, hamburger, and an artificially flavored drink. Oh they try to spice it up a little bit, throwing in a flimsy slice of tomato or a sorry excuse for lettuce, but overall a gray and brown meal—how exciting. We eat this stuff because it tastes good. However, its taste is artificially altered because chemicals are added which can cause addiction and cravings, also it tastes good because it is loaded with as much fat, salt, and sugar as they can manage. A test to discover if what you are eating is truly good can often be based on color.

Vivacious and natural reds, blues, greens, and yellows can indicate an abundance of nutrients within. Perhaps it comes from evolution. Maybe the ancients ate the foods that attracted their eye and in time human bodies developed a need for their nutrients. Maybe in 4,000 years our bodies will be able to survive off fat and sugar and artificial chemicals alone. But don’t hold your breath.

For whatever reason, our bodies need an assortment of vitamins and minerals to perform all functions. Each nutrient has specific tasks within the body, and without them problems arise. Colorful fruit and vegetables are known for their density of nutrients.

Dark green vegetables are infused with antioxidants which destroy dangerous free radicals that enter our body through the air and environmental agents. They are also brimming with vitamins A, C, and K, folate, iron, calcium, and fiber. Some of the best dark green foods include spinach, broccoli, and romaine lettuce.

Red colored plants have an important nutrient named lycopene. Lycopene is one of the top ten anticancer carotenoids (or the pigments that create color in plants). Good red foods are things like raspberries, cherries, beets, strawberries, and tomatoes.

Blue or dark purple plant foods such as blueberries, blackberries, grapes, or plums also have anticancer qualities. They contain a pigment called anthocyanin as well as vitamin C, fiber, flavonoids, and antioxidants.

Orange and yellow foods are very unique in their properties. These types of foods actually reduce the effects of aging. They promote healthy eyes, joints, and work with calcium to create strong bones. So make sure to have a variety of apricots, carrots, peaches, pumpkin, and sweet potatoes to your diet.

Also look for white (mushrooms, onions), pink (grapefruit), black (black beans), and dark red (kidney beans) colors.

Filling your life with all these colorful, tasty fruits and vegetables will spice up your life in a healthy way. Even with all this smart eating, we sometimes miss out on needed nutrients, because let’s face it, it’s hard to fit in all these colors and the other food groups (also important, don’t forget about them!) on a daily basis. So add a daily multivitamin to your day to make sure all your bases are covered. Eating healthy is the best way to get vitamins and minerals, but supplementing good eating with a multivitamin is the best way to go. Spice up your life and make your body happy by making smart, exciting choices about what you eat.

Both women and men have unwanted hair, and we use some extreme methods to do away with that unwanted hair; soaking our skin in chemicals that are proven to be unhealthy for both us and our environment is one example, and one that is not easy to avoid. The most common at-home methods are shaving, waxing and using hair removal cream. Most shaving creams, hair removal creams, shaving oils and waxing kits have these harmful chemicals in them.

When picking out a hair removal product, it’s good to know some chemicals to watch out for:

Polyethylene, which is a commonly used plastic;

Titanium;

Titanium Dioxide (also known as C177019);

Tocopheryl Acetate, which has the potential to cause health concerns such as cancer;

Ethylene Glycol, which is found in antifreeze and is the chemical that causes the ‘sweetness’ found in antifreeze;

Methylparaben and Propylparaben, which are both parabens, and which can be rapidly soaked up through our skin, and then metabolized. (Unfortunately, they are not always quickly carried away and the majority of metabolites in parabens have been shown to gather in our human bodies. Most notably, parabens have been found in the tissue of women’s reproductive organs such as breasts and ovaries.);

Then there is Calcium Hydroxide, which can cause harm if inhaled, ingested, or if it comes into contact with mucus membranes.

Going natural with hair removal

An alternative to these are natural hair removal methods that do not involve harsh chemicals on the skin. A few commonly used are tweezing, waxing, sugaring, threading and shaving.

Tweezing, is best for facial hair. Tweezing pulls out the hair by the root, which is good, but the downside is that it can be painful, especially in sensitive areas like around the eyes. It is recommended that you use a moisturizer or steam your face before tweezing, as steaming helps to open up your pores and moisturizing soothes the skin.

Waxing is good for both small to medium sections of unwanted hair. You can find many natural waxing kits at your grocery store or health food store, and most natural and/or organic-based spa’s offer organic waxing treatment, and often have the waxing kits for sale as well. Waxing is similar to tweezing in the way that it pulls the hair out by the root, but it is faster so the pain doesn’t last as long.

There is also sugaring. Originally sugaring was an all natural method, but now there are some sugaring recipes that do not use all naturally found ingredients. Sugaring uses a paste or gel. Using warmed paste is the original way of sugaring, applying the paste against the hair, and then applied to go along with the hair growth to pull it out.

Threading works best when confined to small areas, such as the face. How threading works is two pieces of cotton thread are twisted over each other once, then pulled over the skin and pulled together, trapping the hair and then pulling it out by the root.

Shaving is an option for both large and small areas. You can find natural shaving creams and gels at most grocery stores nowadays. Shaving can be done with either electric or blade razors, but be sure to do it while your skin is wet or you can end up with razor burn!

There are also electric hair-removal machines, some that just shave at the skin level and some that pull hair out by the root (more painful of course!). If you want to go all-natural, then you might consider the environment with these tools and the electricity they take up. However, they don’t require water so that is another way to save resources, and they’re much faster than the other methods sometimes.

There is no one way to do hair removal, and usually a person finds what’s best for them and for their hair type. A person with fine, easy to remove hair on the legs may be able to do a quick natural wax job. Whereas someone who has thicker and dense hair may need to do maintenance to their legs more often with a razor. Find what’s best for you, but remember to keep it healthy!