Top 5 Foods for Beautiful Skin

5. Seafood
Active components: Omega-3 fatty acids, zinc

Benefits: Smooth, clear and glowing skin

Most of us have heard that fish can be really good for your overall health -- it's a primary component in what's known as the "Mediterranean diet." Many types of fish and shellfish can also work wonders for the skin, especially oysters and fatty fish like salmon.

The primary nutrients that make fish so good for your complexion are zinc and, especially, omega-3 fatty acids. Increasing omega-3 intake can reduce dryness and inflammation. Inflammation can cause skin to age faster, and research shows that getting too little omega-3 may contribute to inflammatory disorders like eczema and psoriasis [source: UMMC]. Omega-3 fatty acids can also help keep the heart's arteries clear and so improve circulation. Good circulation is crucial to skin health.

Zinc can help fight acne because it's involved in metabolizing testosterone, which affects the production of an oily substance caused sebum, a primary cause of acne. Zinc also assists in new-cell production and the sloughing off of dead skin, which gives the skin a nice glow [source: Self]. You'll also find these benefits in flaxseed oil and walnuts.

4. Citrus Fruits

Active component: Vitamin C

Benefits: Smooth and taut skin

Vitamin C is a prime skin-care ingredient in tons of beauty creams. This vitamin aids in the body's production of collagen, a protein that forms the basic structure of your skin [source: Discovery Health]. Collagen breakdown, which starts speeding up significantly around the age of 35, can leave your skin saggy [source: RealAge]. Consuming extra vitamin C in foods like oranges, grapefruits, Acerola cherries (a single Acerola has 100 percent of your vitamin C for the day) and tomatoes can help tighten the skin and prevent wrinkles.

Vitamin C also may fight inflammation, and its antioxidant properties can neutralize the free radicals (highly reactive oxygen molecules) that damage cells and can prematurely age your face.

In case you get tired of eating all that fruit, hot peppers, bell peppers and sprouts also have good amounts of vitamin C.

3. Red and Green Vegetables
Active components: Vitamin A, beta-carotene

Benefits: Bright and smooth skin

Skin is the body's largest organ. It makes sense, then, that what's good for your whole body is also good for your skin -- and as far as food goes, it doesn't get much better than vegetables. You'll especially want to look for red-orange and green vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes and spinach.

Orange-red vegetables are full of beta-carotene. Our bodies convert beta-carotene into vitamin A, which acts as an antioxidant, preventing cell damage and premature aging. In the case of vitamin A, you also get anti-acne benefits -- vitamin A has been used in acne medications (think Retin-A) for many years.

Spinach and other green, leafy foods provide tons of vitamin A, too, which helps your skin produce more fresh new cells and get rid of the old ones, reducing dryness and keeping your face looking bright and young.

Mangoes are also a great source of vitamin A. It's best to get this vitamin from food and not from supplements, though, since too much vitamin A can cause health problems [source: iV].

2. Nuts

Active component: Vitamin E

Benefits: Young and soft skin

As with many of the skin-healthy foods on our list, the good stuff in nuts -- especially almonds -- has to do with antioxidant activity. Vitamin E combats skin-aging free radicals, especially protecting skin from sun damage due to UV-sunlight-generated free radicals [source: Self]. Vitamin E also tends to help skin hold in moisture, relieving dryness and making skin look younger.

Pairing vitamin E with selenium can enhance its antioxidant abilities, so go ahead and throw some almonds into your cottage cheese (great source of selenium) for a skin-revitalizing snack [source: LifeScript].

Almonds, pistachios and walnuts also provide a nice supply of omega-3 fatty acids, another great skin nutrient.

1. Whole Grains
Active components: Rutin and B-vitamins

Benefits: Clear and moisturized skin

The "whole food" movement has whole-body advantages, not the least of which is great-looking skin.

Whole foods are basically unprocessed -- whole wheat bread instead of white bread, for instance. The whole grain buckwheat is a good source for the antioxidant rutin, which helps combat inflammation-related skin damage. Wheat germ provides the B-vitamin biotin, which assists cells in processing fats. If you don't have enough biotin in your body, your skin can become dry and scaly.

In general, whole grains instead of processed carbohydrates can improve your complexion. Processed (or refined) flours can cause an insulin spike, which in turn can encourage acne. Replacing your refined-flour pancakes with buckwheat pancakes is a good acne-reducing move. Incidentally, this would also help reduce your risk of developing diabetes [source: MedicineNet].

Not into buckwheat? Avocadoes and mushrooms can provide similar benefits.

Now, while oranges, buckwheat, oysters, spinach and almonds are great foods for your skin, achieving great-looking skin through dietary changes doesn't have to be so specific. A healthy body means healthy skin. Just feed your body good, healthy foods, get some exercise and keep your stress low, and your skin will reap the benefits.

source: Howstuffworks

Teddy Afro Ethiopian Singer is free today

Ethiopian famous singer, Teddy Afro (Tewodros Kassahun), released from jail (today) on Thursday, Aug 13, 2009 after serving 18 months of a two-year sentence for hit-and-run.

Teddy Afro pleaded guilty in BMW hit-and-run accident caused a death of an 18-year-old homeless man in Addis abeba, Ethiopia in 2007.

Ethiopia Television (ETV) News stated he was freed early because of good behavior are taken into consideration.

When Teddy walked out of jail, he smiled and said how happy he is to be free, and he added he has met a lot of good people and learned a lot from the experience.

Abesha Care Team.

Supermodel Liya Kebede

This is Raee, the beautiful 2-year-old daughter of the beautiful Liya Kebede.

Turns out that Liya has decided that she is not busy enough as a mother, model and activist. She has designed a line of children's clothing called Lemlem ("to bloom" in Amharic) and the clothes are handmade in Ethiopia.



Liya Kebede is a supermodel with a mission. Born in 1980 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Liya was discovered while in school (Lycee Guebre Mariam school) and introduced her to a French modeling agent. When she finished school, Liya moved to France where her career took off.

Kebede's big break came when Tom Ford asked her for an exclusive contract for his Gucci Fall/Winter 2000 fashion show. Liya has been on the covers of Italian, Japanese, French and Spanish Vogue. She's also been featured in ads for Gap, Yves Saint-Laurent, Emanuel Ungaro and Dolce & Gabbana. She's also walked the runway for Marc Jacobs, Balenciaga, Gucci, Anna Sui and Zac Posen. In 2003, she is the first black model to become the face of Estee Lauder in the company's 59-year history. In 2007, Liya was the eleventh highest paid top model of the World's 15 Top-Earning Supermodels, according to Forbes.

In 2005, Liya was appointed as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. She also has her own foundation dedicated to reducing maternal newborn and child mortality and improving the health of mothers and children around the globe.
Andandy ysew leg eta fantaw yet endemiyadersew aytawekem aydel? :)

more Liya Kebede's hot fashion pictures.

Scientists Decode Entire HIV Genome

[Medical News]A team of US scientists has for the first time unravelled the entire genetic code of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, paving the way for a better understanding of how these types of viruses infect humans and hopefully speeding up the discovery and development of new drugs.

The work was done by Dr Kevin Weeks, a chemistry professor of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, and colleagues, and features as the cover story of the 6 August issue of Nature.

Before this work, researchers had only modelled small regions of the HIV genome, which is very large and made of two strands of nearly 10,000 building blocks or nucleotides each.

Viruses like HIV, whose genetic code is carried on RNA (rather than DNA) are harder to unravel because unlike DNA where the code is carried almost entirely in sequential building blocks or nucleotides, RNA folds into complex and intricate three-dimensional patterns that are harder to unravel. Other RNA-based viruses include the flu viruses, hepatitis C, the common cold, some cancer precursors, polio, and many others.

The replication of RNA-based viruses is controlled at many levels, including conserved "structures" of RNA genome, many of which have not been studied in much detail.

The way the HIV encodes proteins is not straightforward either: while there is a correspondence between RNA and a primary sequencing of proteins, there is another level of coding between these "structures" and "inter-domain" loops that connect different parts of HIV proteins.

For the study, the researchers used a high-throughput RNA analyser called SHAPE to examine the architecture of HIV genomes isolated from infectious cultures containing trillions of viral particles.

What they found suggests that the complex RNA structures (which they referred to as "motifs") influenced several steps in the HIV infectivity cycle, in other words they modulated "ribosome elongation to promote native protein folding".

They also found that: "Some simple genome elements previously shown to be important, including the ribosomal gag-pol frameshift stem-loop, are components of larger RNA motifs."

Weeks said in a media statement that:

"There is so much structure in the HIV RNA genome that it almost certainly plays a previously unappreciated role in the expression of the genetic code."

The study could be the key to unlocking the secrets of other RNA genomes in other viruses.

"One approach is to change the RNA sequence and see if the virus notices," said co-author Ronald Swanstrom, from UNC's Linenberger Cancer Center.

"If it doesn't grow as well when you disrupt the virus with mutations, then you know you've mutated or affected something that was important to the virus," he added.

And another important insight that Weeks pointed out was:

"We are also beginning to understand tricks the genome uses to help the virus escape detection by the human host."

"Architecture and secondary structure of an entire HIV-1 RNA genome."
Joseph M. Watts, Kristen K. Dang, Robert J. Gorelick, Christopher W. Leonard, Julian W. Bess Jr, Ronald Swanstrom, Christina L. Burch and & Kevin M. Weeks.
Nature 460, 711 -716 (6 August 2009).
DOI: 10.1038/nature08237

Source: University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

Scientists Discover New Strain Of HIV Closely Related To Simian Virus

[Medical News] Scientists have discovered a new strain of HIV in a 62-year-old woman from Cameroon that "differs from the three known strains … and appears to be closely related to a form of simian virus recently discovered in wild gorillas" according to a study in today's edition of the journal Nature Medicine, AP/Washington Times reports. The study was funded by the NIH and the Tietze Foundation (8/3). "The discovery of this novel HIV-1 lineage highlights the continuing need to watch closely for the emergence of new HIV variants, particularly in western central Africa, the origin of all existing HIV-1 groups," researchers note in the study (Reuters, 8/3). According to the AP/San Francisco Chronicle, the woman had no contact with gorillas or meat from wild animals and "currently shows no signs of AIDS and remains untreated, though she still carries the virus, the researchers said." The article adds, "How widespread this strain is remains to be determined. Researchers said it could be circulating unnoticed in Cameroon or elsewhere."

A separate paper also in today's edition of Nature Medicine, "reports that people with genital herpes remain at increased risk of HIV infection even after the herpes sores have healed and the skin appears normal," according to the AP/Chronicle (Schmid, 8/3).

This information was reprinted from dailyreports.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily U.S. HIV/AIDS Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at dailyreports.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.