Naked Skin Nutrition E-Book

Gary Chin

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 352

Beschreibung

Science With Asian Wisdom to Better Beauty

Leseprobe

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. It is sold with the understanding that the author is not engaged in rendering medical, health, or any kind of personal professional services in the book. The reader should consult his or her medical, health, or other competent professional before adopting any of the suggestions in the book or drawing inferences from it. The author specifically disclaims all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

Copyright © 2022 by Gary Chin and Terry Tong

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

To request permissions or to book the authors, contact [email protected].

Ebook ISBN: 9789811831300

Printed by GTCL Pte Ltd.

www.kumuya.com

www.gtclife.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

About The Authors

Foreword By Dr Tasneem Bhatia

WHAT IS BEAUTY?

Beauty Is A State Of Mind

Beauty Equals Nutrition

The Future of Beauty Is Clean

Beauty Through The Asian Ages

The Kumuya Philosophy

PART ONE: NUTRITIVE MIND

Chapter ONE

Creating An Attractive State

A Beautiful Mind

PART TWO: NUTRITIVE SKIN

Chapter TWO

The Skin Wellness Definition

Chapter THREE

Nutritive Skincare Is Whole Body Care

PART THREE: NUTRITIVE FOOD

Chapter FOUR

Your Skin Wellness Journey

Getting Ready For Nutritive Food

Chapter FIVE

What Is A Skin Detox – And Why Do We Need It?

Skin Treatments For Detoxing

Principles Of Clean Eating For Better Skin

Eliminating Foods

Chapter SIX

3 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Foods

Food Preparation Methods

Chapter SEVEN

Drink Your Way To Gorgeous Skin

Teas For Tea-riffic Skin

Chapter EIGHT

Foods For Common Skin Concerns

Chapter NINE

Food Benefits, Skin Concerns, And The Science

Chapter TEN

Food Synergies

A Concluding Thought

References

To our Asian parents, Alice and Peter, Linda and Kheng Chong, whose love meant nourishment by feeding us well and by which has shaped us to who we are today.

About The Authors

Their journey to live more consciously started due to late-stage cancer in the family. Overnight, the desperate attempt to prolong life by any means possible kicked in. There were lots of questions and uncertainty about the disease and the road ahead. Pouring through the internet, natural therapy options, and doctors - the conclusion could only be that nutrition to live out the remainder of life is the best way possible.

It wasn’t an easy first step, learning and relearning about the foods they usually consume without much thought. Living consciously meant paying attention to the foods they were consuming - what went into it, how it was farmed, and most importantly how it affected their bodies in the long run. The food industry is always under pressure to deliver food at low prices. The inconvenient truth is our food is then subjected to the use of growth hormones, systemic pesticides, adulteration, and just blatant fraud.

Today, Gary Chin and Terry Tong are living their mission as founders of multi-faceted wellness company, GTCL (Gourmet Taste Conscious Life), which produces clean food and plant-based beauty. Their love for honest quality food and mission to bring to the market products and services that nourish, meant leaving their corporate life of many years in tech, sales, branding, and marketing.

Often, they are told their skins are amazing and both look 10 years younger than they really are. Having experienced transformation with this sustainable and holistic approach, their mission is to help even more people to live optimally not just physically but also mentally.

Now as certified life coaches, nutritional advisors, and NLP practitioners, they combine unique clean food products (working directly with farmers), clean beauty, and coaching services to support the aspirations of as many people as possible.

From the wellness business they’ve built, to being debut authors, their hope is that even more people can benefit from their knowledge while fulfilling their dreams as wellness advocates. Through this book, they touch on content intended to empower people to thrive beautifully in the new post-pandemic normal.

Foreword By Dr Tasneem Bhatia, M.D.

Chasing beauty is common across all cultures and traditions. Our history is filled with stories and traditions of women and men finding ways to seek greater perceived beauty. That very impetus has driven the beauty industry into what we know it as today; an over $500 billion industry that shows no signs of slowing down.

Is there an endpoint to chasing beauty? The beauty cream leads to the next beauty procedure, and then to more procedures and where is the stopping point? Flipping the pursuit of beauty into one of wellness rather than just physical appearance is central to Chinese medicine and Eastern philosophies of beauty.

With over 4000 years of history, eastern systems of medicine have tied beauty and aging to our internal states; our mental wellness, sleep, nutrition, movement and more. In my integrative medicine practices, CentreSpringMD, I have witnessed this first-hand. As leaky gut or adrenal fatigue resolves, hair thickens, skin glows, and wrinkles relax. The right nutrition plan removes belly fat while movement brings blood flow to muscles, minimising inflammation.

Chinese medicine in particular, would use the face and scalp to determine and assess health. Sunken eyes are connected to poor kidney and liver health, furrows to repressed anger, and cheek breakouts to digestive issues. I have used all these principles in my practice, merging this information with western medicine to get the answers we all need.

The information in Naked Skin Nutrition reimagines beauty by merging the best of Eastern and Western medicine- and helping us all to understand that beauty is not just one dimensional but a three-dimensional reflection of our overall health. I am excited to see this information become more widespread so that beauty becomes so much more - than just skin deep.

WHAT IS BEAUTY?

"To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

When we first embarked into the beauty space, we’d already started developing some fairly visible signs of ageing - greying hairs, fine lines, and pigmentation.

The first instinct was to attempt to correct these “flaws.” After all, since birth, we have been constantly bombarded by the “ideals and standards” of beauty – from the covers of publications to the reinforcement in advertisements and even talent competition TV programmes. The pursuit of beauty became an underlying, unconscious ambition that we harboured. From our observations, we realised that beauty needs to be considered from three fundamental aspects: what we put on our skin, what we put into our bodies, and how we think.

The first aspect is from the mind. A lot of us feel the pressure of meeting certain beauty standards that society imposes on us. It doesn’t help that research1 showed physically attractive people doing better than their less attractive peers in their careers. From an initial glance, it seems like being beautiful means being better-off. In fact, other research2 confirms this positive correlation between being attractive and being happier in life. On the surface it all seems so linear - and we’ve been ingrained into believing so from the flashy ads. It’s no wonder how one can get sucked into this narrative so easily.

However, when we dwell deeper into these research, it was actually the outcomes of being beautiful, which truly makes us happy. The outcome of being beautiful is being more confident, which leads to more warmth in relationships. It also means being social adept, and thus forming more meaningful relationships. That is when we realised we needed to challenge this notion. What does being beautiful mean to you? Can you achieve your objectives by different means?

Rather than accept that we must enhance our attractiveness to be happy, we decided to flip the narrative and think first about being happy and balanced, with attractiveness as part of the collateral effect.

The second aspect of beauty is about the skincare products we use regularly. When we as a society think about “skincare”, beauty products immediately come to mind, whether it’s the next age-erase cream or gadget to zap our blemishes away.

Within the last decade, more people are becoming aware of the presence of synthetic ingredients in skincare products, leaning toward natural ingredients as more beneficial alternatives. Synthetic chemicals in skincare disrupt human hormone levels and can result in cancer, birth defects, and developmental problems. Besides allergic reactions, what are the potential long-term detriments to an individual's health? To us, the question in our heads was - “What are we feeding our skin, really?”

In addition, are the ingredients we apply truly delivering any nourishment or affecting our skin cells in the way we desire? Science has revealed the active ingredients that will give us the cellular impact for skin improvements. What are they? Are there micronutrients that can supplement the nourishment of our skin?

The last aspect of beauty is our diet – the food that we put in our bodies. Food is not only key to healthy skin, but there are also studies that show how certain foods are more efficient than others in supplying the nutrients to address specific skin concerns. What if caring for our skin now means we can supplement external products with targeted, internal nourishment? What if there’s a way to optimize what we’re already doing that doesn’t cost more money yet bring about beautiful glowing skin?

How do we define beautiful glowing skin? To us it is about having healthy yet not necessarily flawless skin - and that is what we want to help you to achieve! Healthy skin3 can be gauged by these indicators:

1. Well hydrated. Skin hydration aids in skin function such as regulating epidermal proliferation and inflammation, plus it also means we have less wrinkles.

2. Balanced sebum levels. Excessive sebum production can lead to acne, while insufficient sebum can lead to dry skin.

3. Even skin tone. Healthy skin is generally even in skin tone and colour, without any blotchiness, hyperpigmentation, discoloration, or inflammation.

4. High skin elasticity. The elasticity of our skin depends on the collagen levels. And with better skin elasticity, we would experience less wrinkles and fine lines.

So how do we approach beauty in this book? Being sceptics ourselves, we wanted to know how to truly age well, without subjecting ourselves to even more environmental toxins that we have little control over. Questions about what can really support better skin and nourish from the surface, how can food as a daily necessity play a more active role in managing our skin, and why what we think can manifest into how we look, all needed answers.

To pursue beauty is to consciously cultivate the mind while nourishing the skin and body. With that as our quest, our journey begins.

Beauty Is A State Of Mind

Do you remember your teenage years, trying to discover your self-identity and feeling insecure about how you and your body looked? We might not have come across as attractive back then.

However when you are in the mental state of happiness and feeling beautiful, you will project that with self-confidence, with an upright body posture. And as such, others will see you as beautiful, too.

You probably also know someone who has an immensely vibrant character – someone who is lively, positive, and radiates such beautiful energy. Did you notice how they may not be exactly the most beautiful person in the room? How did they make themselves so attractive?

We have heard the saying; beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Well, the inverse is true: beauty is also in the eye of the beholden. It is within our own power - no matter how big or small you think - to be beautiful, to be attractive.

We don’t always recognise this power we have, though. This is especially true in our Asian culture. The focus was less on the self and more on family and community. Culturally we didn’t always grow up with words of affirmation, and the sense of self wasn’t reinforced. The focus on our lives was in developing skills and earning our keep, rather than about self-identity and mental health. Hence when we think about beauty, part of it is in having a clean and nutritive mind - one that is open, positive, purposeful, happy, balanced and confident.

Science4 has proven that emotions do affect our physical bodies – negative emotions can raise cortisol levels and cause imbalances in our hormones, resulting in breakouts and dull skin.

Just think back to that feeling when you met your first love and you couldn’t help but blush. The hormone oxytocin is responsible for that feeling, and it also reduces inflammation and cortisol levels. The result is healthier, glowing skin!

That said, emotions are not the be-all and end-all for glowing skin.

Beauty Equals Nutrition

When we started the business, Gary’s father contracted pancreatic cancer, and that turned Gary’s world upside down, and frankly inside out. This was the catalyst that sparked our conscious effort towards eating healthy with a focus on nutrition.

From this experience, we learned to eat cleaner. In the past, we consumed a lot of carbohydrates in the form of white rice (a staple in most Asian diets), wheat noodles, processed foods such as canned meats and preserved vegetables, snacks such as chips, and sugary drinks. We adopted a curious mind and started schooling ourselves in food ingredients, always flipping the product packaging to read the ingredients list.

With that, we started eliminating foods that were heavily processed or contained preservatives. We looked for alternatives such as brown rice and noodles infused with quinoa and vegetables, which have a lower glycaemic index. It took some time to get our taste buds used to these new foods, and also cooking more often at home. When we also weaned ourselves off sugar (especially white sugar), we realised how our palates were so accustomed to such high levels of sweetness. That was when we also noticed several other changes – we started getting sick less, had fewer acne breakouts, experienced clearer skin, had faded pigmentation, and carried an overall vibrance and lightness. Who knew a gradual change in diet could make such a difference?

According to nutrition experts, foods play an integral part in how one feels and looks. Thus, it is very important to make sure that we are consuming a healthy diet. And by healthy, we mean a diet that is balanced, varied, and satisfying.

It seems simple in theory, isn’t it? Every meal is an opportunity to resolve all your beauty, health, or wellness issues. As Greek physician Hippocrates once said, “Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.”

If only it were that easy.

For those of us who live in a cosmopolitan city, there are a plethora of food options, but how many healthy options are there? How do we know what foods to eat or avoid? How can we not be tempted by those pastries?!

Being in the food business ourselves, we’ve had a glimpse in how commercial food is prepared and made. Let us tell you: it ain’t a pretty sight. Many commercially processed foods have been engineered to be addictive – literally. In fact, there were studies done on how the combination of fat and sugar together creates an addiction in our brain, similar to drug and gambling addictions.

The combination of plentiful food options plus addictive ingredient manipulations has brought about ‘hedonic hunger’5 – a powerful desire for food in the absence of any need for it. You can imagine what this desire does to our health and waistlines!

The Future of Beauty Is Clean

Human beings have always been fascinated by beauty. And for centuries, we strove to maintain the appearance of youth and healthy skin with little regard for the chemicals we were spreading onto our faces and bodies.

But over the last decade or so, we’ve learned that many of these ingredients like parabens and phthalates can leave us vulnerable to a variety of health issues, including cancer and hormone disruption.

So it’s not surprising that clean skincare has exploded in popularity over the last few years due to consumers' concerns about harmful chemicals and toxic ingredients in their skincare products.

Increasingly, consumers are switching to plant-based skincare alternatives, which are more natural and safe. These plant-based products use active ingredients derived from plants. Those with particularly sensitive skin find they don't cause any irritation or redness, unlike synthetic ones.

Synthetic ingredients, on the other hand, are ingredients which are artificially created, mimicking natural ingredients or are completely new ingredients. Research6 has shown that these ingredients can either stay on your skin or can be absorbed into your bloodstream. While you may not see an immediate reaction, there have been studies that linked long-term exposure to synthetic ingredients to a range of health problems such as cancer, infertility, and developmental issues in children.

Clean beauty is no longer a nice-to-have in our beauty regime. It is a movement that supports your body with healthy, clean ingredients while also caring for the earth by using sustainable practices. It's about being conscious of what you put in and on your body so you can have beautiful skin both inside and out.

Internal care or intake is as important for the skin as the products we apply to the body. While we have some phenomenal, topical skincare products, the role of effectively eating the right nutrients is a primary one. The right nutrients and skincare products should complement each other.

Many pieces of research and cross-sectional studies state that if one eats a lot of highly processed junk foods, the skin will not receive enough nutrients to be as strong and supple as it can be. Besides eating the right foods for optimal skin condition, supplementing with clean, topical skincare is necessary both to address internal and external conditions that our skin is subjected to on a daily basis.

Beauty Through The Asian Ages

With our ancestral roots in Asia, we wanted to share more about our ethnic Chinese heritage in this book, the way we ate growing up, and the wisdom that our mothers have imparted to us. In this chapter, we’ll focus on Asian diets, particularly South-East Asia, which embody a unique philosophy towards health and wellness through food.

Traits Of The Asian Cuisine

The Asian diet is, by reputation, a diverse, balanced diet. Many traits are common across most Asian diets, such as the daily intake of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains such as millet, buckwheat soba, and brown rice. The diet harbours proteins such as soy, fish, and shellfish. Eggs, poultry, dairy, and healthy oils are also staples.

Asian Beauty Foods

When it comes to eating foods for beauty, the Asian cuisine is filled with many unique foods which many in the western world might squirm at. A lot of foods associated with beauty specifically in Chinese cuisine have a gelatinous, slimy or bouncy texture, a dimension unique to the Chinese’s appreciation of food.

Beauty foods in Chinese cuisine include swiftlet’s nest (known as bird’s nest which is rich in epidermal growth factors) - a slightly crunchy jelly-like texture, transparent in colour, studied7 for its ability to promote collagen production. Other ingredients include fish maw (the swim bladders) which can be very gelatinous, sea cucumbers (filled with type 1 collagen) which have a bouncy slippery texture, and peach gum (rich in polysaccharides) a resin from the peach tree which turns soft and chewy when cooked in desserts. These gelatinous foods are thought to contain collagen, nourish the skin to improve hydration, and also improve elasticity.

Asian Philosophy Towards Food

In China, Korea and Japan, meals follow a social practice of one soup and three other dishes, ensuring a variety of foods are present in their diet. Many Koreans also practice Golgoru (or Washoku in Japan), which consumes a variety of different foods at every meal to get ample nutrients. Moreover, most Asian people consume fruits after every meal instead of sugary desserts.

Specific to Chinese food philosophy,8 the Chinese have four key principles towards food when it comes to nutrition. The first principle is about respecting the food we eat. The philosophy 食志-食功-食德 is about emphasising that one cannot eat just for survival, but also has to work hard to get food in an ethical way. The second principal is about 食医合一 - which translates to, “The unity of food and medicine.” In Traditional Chinese medicine, which has a history of over 4,000 years, medicine originated from using food as therapy, and this was the formative idea that was then organised into a formal medical system. The third principal hence follows the previous, which is 饮食养生 or, “Nourishing one’s health through food.”

And lastly is the principle of balance. According to traditional Chinese medicine, foods are classified into “Yin” and “Yang.” Foods that are Yang tend to be spicy, sweet, or pungent. They also tend to be in warm colours such as red or orange. They are often dry and come from the soil. Some examples include cinnamon, ginger, chili, alcohol, lamb, and papaya. Yin foods, on the other hand, are bitter, sour, or salty, and tend to be green or cool-toned in colour. They generally have a higher moisture content. Foods that are grown in water tend to be considered Yin foods. Examples include cucumber, cabbage, tofu, lotus root, and soy sauce. Different cooking methods are associated with Yin and Yang associations. For example, roasting or frying is considered Yang, whereas steaming or boiling is considered Yin.

In Japan, the tenets of Japanese cooking follow a philosophy called Washoku.9 As writer and chef Elizabeth Andoh10 describes, “Selecting ingredients at their peak of seasonal flavour, choosing locally available foods from both the land and the sea, appealing to and engaging all the senses, using a collage of colours, employing a variety of food preparations and assembling an assortment of flavours, this is the washoku approach…it is the rhythm and flow in the kitchen.”

The tenets include Goshiki, which incorporates the five colours of red, yellow, green, black, and white in every meal. By following this visual guideline, it is believed that nutrition will come naturally into balance. Next is Gomi, which is to create a harmonious balance between the five tastes: salty, sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy. These are used to stimulate, but not to overwhelm. The third tenet is Goho, where the chef should incorporate different cooking methods such as grilling, simmering, steaming, frying, or broiling, using raw foods in the same meal. The fourth tenet is Gokan, where the chef needs to be mindful of the five senses in the meal: taste, sight, sound, smell, and touch.

If we were to summarise the takeaway from these two food philosophies, it would be:

1. Food is medicine. Reframe your perception of food, it is not just keeping you alive, it can heal you as well. On the flip side, there are foods which can poison you, too.

2. Eat mindfully. Going back to our mission of conscious living, it’s important to eat purposefully, with greater awareness so that you make every meal count. Knowing the benefits of certain foods and how it is best prepared empowers you to make better eating decisions. When you next do your grocery shopping, ask yourself: What do I want to achieve through this meal? Weight management? Better skin? Having more energy? Sleeping better?

3. Eat a variety. As they say, eat the rainbow! Open your palate to a variety of foods and cuisines, and you will benefit from a wider nutritional spectrum. As art is a creative avenue of expression, so can food. Falafel scotch eggs? Marsala lentil meatballs? Thai chicken enchiladas? You can even do your own bento box, with a little bit of everything!

4. Adopt a more plant-based diet. As the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans have traditionally eaten, adopt a meal that is mostly plant-based, reducing red meat, dairy, and alcohol. Focus on eating what is in season as it tends to be more nutritious and delicious, too.11

5. Balance is beautiful. Food can be an indulgence, and we need to have a healthy and fun relationship with our foods. Complement your fried dishes with a bright slaw with added kimchi and a sprinkle of shredded perilla leaves.

We hope this glimpse into the rich food cultures and traditions of the Chinese and Japanese will inspire you to look at your food differently.

The Asian Palate

Rice and noodles are the staple foods of many countries in Asia. Not to mention the ubiquitous bean, soy. The use of soy sauce and fermented soy products originated in China during the Zhou dynasty of 1046-256 BC12. The soy sauce product that we know today started as a fermented paste of fish, grain, or meat. Slowly, these ingredients were replaced with more affordable soybeans, thus creating soy sauce by the Song dynasty 960-1279. It was through Buddhist monks that the production techniques were disseminated to Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Who knew?!

Asian diets have been known to help people lose weight. Generally speaking, the Asian diet is healthier. For example, we have tea over soft drinks during a meal, our food portions are smaller, there is a variety of vegetables, beans, and legumes, and we have a lower consumption of red meat. Furthermore, we also incorporate soups and a variety of fermented foods. Soups are a great way to stay hydrated, absorb nutrients easily, and keep you full without consuming tons of calories. Fermented foods, on the other hand, are a great way to introduce healthy probiotics to strengthen our gut health by maintaining a good gut flora.

One particularly unique aspect of the Asian diet is the diverse flavours. There are countless spices and herbs used in making Asian dishes. Over the course of history, many woody shrubs and vines, aromatic lichens, trees, flowers, seeds, and fruits of herbaceous plants have been used as ingredients for Asian diets.

The use of herbs and spices is very popular throughout Asian diets. Historically, most of these ingredients were celebrated for their medicinal properties, well before culinary use. Today, modern science has proven that many of these ingredients do indeed carry tremendous benefits for our immunity, sleep, digestion, skin, fertility, etc. In Asia, there is no need to go on a hunt for exotic spices; most of the best spices in the world can be found in local Asian markets. There are several Asian herbs and spices that we would consider very healthy, including turmeric, holy basil, ginger, garlic, lemongrass, ginseng, cordyceps, and snow fungus.

Food - An Expression Of Love

Ask any Asian child and they’ll tell you “love” is a word barely heard in the home. At least not as an adult. Living in Singapore and being brought up around a fairly traditional ethic Chinese culture, it’s often hard to really see our culture for what it is. Living and breathing it every day makes us take things for granted. In the Chinese culture that we’ve been brought up in, our parents seldom asked how we were. In Chinese, the greeting has always been, “Have you eaten?” It wasn’t until we were older that we realised, in our culture, food was a key language of love.

Physical contact was almost non-existent. The messages of love often came across covertly, concealed as chicken drumsticks unexpectedly or favourite snacks such as traditional confectionery called “kuehs.”

For us, our mothers (and even grandmothers) have been both a dominant force not only behind our education (which Asian mom isn’t?), but also our diets. Expressions of love are practically translated into the food they put on the table - whether it was something nourishing to give us more energy for our exams, or simply a dish we relished. We can only thank them for our awareness of healthy and balanced food, and, of course, this unspoken affection of love.

Asian Beauty Figures

Asia has, and continues to produce, big icons in the beauty industry. Such icons have helped the industry grow and become highly successful globally. Some of these important, inspiring figures are incredible in their own way, but they all have one thing in common - they look amazing at their age and adopt a healthy, holistic lifestyle incorporating nutritious food.

Gemma Chan

A British film, television, and theatre actress, Gemma was also a former fashion model. With a laundry list of movies and shows to her credit, she possesses a “personal embodiment of timeless style and grace.”13 She mentioned in her interview with Vogue, “Beauty for me is about self-care, and having some time for yourself during the day.”14

In her interview with PEOPLE, she said, “We all love to look great, but the inner and the outer go hand-in-hand for me."15

Masako Mizutani

Known as the “Lady of Eternal Youth” in Japan, Masako is a Japanese model who looks almost half her age. Her secret to her flawless skin, she reports, is through regular exercise of not just the body, but also of the mind. She is a firm believer of the “you are what you eat” mantra and keeps religiously to a vegetarian diet.

Priyanka Chopra

This is one of the biggest movie stars in all India who first earned a name for herself when she became Miss World in 2000. Priyanka Chopra has also made a big name for herself in the cosmetics industry. She is known for being vocal against nepotism in the beauty industry of India. She was quoted as saying, “There is nothing wrong in wanting to take care of family and friends. However, I have always believed that there should not be a wall, and we need to ensure that the table is bigger — more opportunities must be created.”16

Chuando Tan

Man of the moment! Former model turned photographer from Singapore, Chuando can now add movie star to his name. Looking not a day past 30, this super-fit man also subscribes to the philosophy of “you are what you eat.” He shared that 70% of the food we eat affects one’s physique, while exercise only makes up 30%. He also pairs this with going to sleep early and maintaining a regular exercise routine.

The Kumuya Philosophy

If you are unfamiliar with Nutrition-Powered Beauty, this is a good time to talk about it. That is the value that we stand for in the beauty business we built at Kumuya.

Kumuya is based on our foundational understanding that beauty comes from a combination of what you eat, what you put on your skin, and how you think and feel. It is the quintessential wellness approach which realizes that mental well-being and wellness are not mutually exclusive. This is uniquely embodied in our clean beauty approach – from our clean skincare collection to our nutrition program and coaching.

Kumuya is a nutritive, multipath approach to healthier skin. It is a belief in natural, simple, and nutritive beauty. It has a simple philosophy of detox, nourish, protect, and love oneself.

It advocates a sustainable lifestyle that can become habitual, with the main goal of transforming eating for good skin into an unconscious decision every time one has a meal, whether at home or at a restaurant. When you are equipped with knowledge of nutrition, you’ll realise the wonders behind various foods you could incorporate in your diet. And hopefully we will also inspire you to have a different perspective of beauty so that you can practice more self-love.

We believe the essence and philosophy of Kumuya is within reach of everyone. It is the art of embracing beauty at all ages.

A Reflection Of Health

Your skin is an amazing organ that plays many different roles. It acts as a barrier to the body against the environment, a temperature regulator, an immune organ that detects infections, a vapor control mechanism, a sensory organ to detect temperature, touch, and pain, and a visible signal for social and sexual communication.17

Your skin also reflects your emotional state, hormonal balance, and general well-being. For example, if you have acne, it is either your body attempting to remove excess toxins, a hormonal imbalance, or is a sign that you might need to improve your gut health.

Slow-healing cuts could suggest a lack of the essential nutrients needed to rebuild healthy skin cells, such as vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and amino acids.

If you have dry and inelastic skin, it indicates that you might not be drinking enough water, not consuming enough healthy fats, or simply have an imbalance in your thyroid function.

The first signs of ageing such as fine lines, dark spots, or sagging skin, are the result of oxidative damage, photodamage from too much sun exposure, or inflammation within. Premature ageing could also be caused by overeating, nutritional deficiencies, inadequate rest and recovery, chronic health conditions, or just being too stressed.

Look out for these signs, and instead of fixing the symptoms, be curious and find out the underlying causes so you can address the root problem. These could be due to your emotions and thoughts, which we will cover in Chapter One: Creating An Attractive State, or related to your diet, which will cover in Chapter Three: Nutritive Skincare is Whole Body Care.

The Nutritive System

As we move through the book, we will share the nutritive science of beauty we developed, called the Kumuya Nutritive System – consisting of the Nutritive Mind, Nutritive Skin, and Nutritive Food.

Part One: Nutritive Mind

We will provide you with an introduction into a clean, healthy mind and explore the mind-skin connection to give you some understanding of how our mental health can affect our skin. After all, emotions play such a big role in our daily lives that we can’t leave that out of our beauty equation.

Part Two: Nutritive Skincare

We will cover aspects of various skin conditions, active ingredients, and micronutrients you need for healthy skin, and what to look out for in your skincare products.

Part Three: Nutritive Food

Finally, we will move through some very detailed features of foods, what they do for the body, and how you can use them to achieve the desired skin or wellness results that you seek. You will find numerous Asian ingredients that have been studied to do wonders for your skin. Some you probably never heard before.

Shall we begin?

PART ONE: NUTRITIVE MIND

Chapter ONE

Creating An Attractive State

We cannot deny the reality that beauty is essential. Why?

Appearance is a major psychological indicator of mental well-being. Therefore, you need to understand that beauty cannot be achieved without a positive state of mind. To reach mental and emotional stability, one's thought process must be positive. While the effects of emotions on skin isn’t as direct as what we can perceive, we felt the need to bring into awareness this aspect of beauty. Science has shown that negative emotions can cause increase in sebum production, inflammations and blemishes, and inhibit collagen production to cause fine lines and wrinkles to appear.

Research exploring the mind-skin connection is increasingly stacking up and drawing a clear conclusion of how our state of mind and emotions, will in turn affect our skin condition.

“If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” ~ Roald Dahl

The state of our skin is a mirror of our emotions inside of us, and it’s important that we address any emotions we have bottled inside – to be honest with our feelings, to be kind to ourselves. Philosophers Beauchamp & Childress define self-care as “providing adequate attention to one’s own physical and psychological wellness.”18 This means prioritising ourselves and our mental health needs. Prioritising doesn’t mean being self-centred, rather it is a positive approach of “self-kindness” to ensure you are at your physical or psychological best. Self-care could come in the form of getting enough sleep or simply spending the day doing something you love, even if it means doing nothing. The best part of this? It doesn’t cost anything.

A Beautiful Mind

“I still see things that are not here. I just choose not to acknowledge them. Like a diet of the mind, I choose not to indulge certain appetites.” ~ Dr. John Nash, Nobel Prize Winner

To love oneself requires a beautiful mind, which starts with what we call a Nutritive Mind - a mind that is nourished and enabled with positive thoughts. And similar to our bodies when nourished, a mind that is nutritive is able to withstand challenges and steer the course to calmer waters. Think of it as our “response-ability.” Events, good or bad, happen every day, but it’s how we choose to respond that makes a difference. A Nutritive Mind will choose to respond to negative events, such as losing a job, by reframing it positively. Is it a sign that it’s time to pursue that passion in baking? Do I have the necessary experience to apply for a more senior position somewhere else?

A Nutritive Mind is more than simply dealing with difficult or negative situations. It means processing the negative experience in a way in which it does not incapacitate your own function, such as wallowing in self-pity, self-denial, or self-deprecation. Having a Nutritive Mind is not denying the negative experience or emotions like sadness, anxiety, or distress. It is about acceptance, being comfortable in the uncomfortable.

The other thing about a Nutritive Mind is also the capacity to learn and grow from these experiences, developing healthy coping mechanisms. It is a mental resilience to process and move on, learning from mistakes or negative experiences to improve.

What does it take to have a Nutritive Mind? G.R.A.S.P this.

1. Gratitude

Why gratitude? Research shows that when we practice gratitude, we rewire our brains to be more positive.19 Practising gratitude can help you manage difficult situations with joy, and it reminds us that if we were to just take a second to reflect, we will see that there are positive things around us happening every day. Gratitude shifts our focus from toxic emotions such as self-pity, resentment, and anger to abundance, appreciation, and contentment.

2. Reframe

A Nutritive Mind looks at unfavourable events rationally, without blaming or obsessing over what can no longer be changed. Instead of perceiving adversity as overwhelming, a Nutritive Mind reframes its thoughts to look at the issue from a different perspective.

The reality is that negative or unfavourable events will happen in our life. However, the meaning or reason of these events is open to our interpretation, and how we interpret these events changes the way in which we choose to experience them.

Let’s say you’ve lost your job because of a pandemic, for example. By asking yourself, “How could this scenario be useful for me?” you might realise that this is an opportunity to pursue that home-baking business you’ve been thinking about for years. What you’ve done now is shifted your focus from something negative - a loss, a deficit – to more positive outcomes of gains, possibilities, and hope.

3. Awareness

Self-awareness is important for three reasons. The first is that with self-awareness, you will be able to know what events trigger you or make you happy. The second is that self-awareness produces self-knowledge, or having a clearer understanding of one’s skills, frustrations, shortcomings, and, most importantly, values. The third is that with more self-awareness, you will be able to observe how you react to these events - what’s the extent of your reaction or emotions, and even how long it lasts.

Remember, events that happen in your life don’t create the emotions we feel - it is your own beliefs that do so. Are your beliefs and values serving your goals? Hence being aware forms the basis of knowing yourself better, so that you can be more prepared to cope in the future.

4. Self-Purpose

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “He who has a why can endure any how.”

In many ways, research20 has affirmed this wisdom, that having purpose is part of what gives us our motivation daily. If we have a compelling reason to wake up every morning because we like what we do and believe that our job is meaningful, we’ll most likely take better care of ourselves, and do our work to the best of our ability. From our experience, and contradictory to what you might find on Google, purpose can be singular and can be multi-faceted. If you are unsure or feel lost about your purpose, we need to do some work to try to uncover our purpose. You could try counselling, life coaching, or simply talking to friends and family.

Of all the traits, this is probably the hardest to find. However, we encourage you to soldier on in your quest because sometimes, you don’t find purpose, it finds you.

5. Positivity

When we are faced with fear, criticism, rejection, and other negative encounters, our bodies produce the stress hormone cortisol. And this hormone activates reactions related to the fight-or-flight mentality, which is more reactive, sensitive, and less logical than our original state. On the other hand, when we have positive thoughts, there is a release of oxytocin (also known as the love hormone), which lends us to want to communicate more and build trust. When we are more positive, we are more motivated to take constructive action as we see the silver lining. Positivity is magnetic, and when we adopt this outlook, we attract people and can build trust and friendships that become our social support pillars.

Gaining a better understanding of your thoughts and emotions, should be paired with making a conscious effort to reframe stressors. When you do so, you’ll be able to better recognise your emotions, reactions, and have healthier ways to cope with negative events when they arise.

A person with a Nutritive Mind has the following characteristics: