THINK OF YOUR FACE. Now think of a prune. Think of a grape. Which would you rather look like?

Pick the grape. It’s fuller, rounder, more colorful, full of fl uid and antioxidants. That’s what you want — a bright, healthy look without the wrinkles.

Bad habits — smoking, alcohol consumption, lack of exercise and poor nutrition — won’t get you there.

If you don’t care what bad habits do to undermine your health, think what they are doing to your looks.

A recent European study said these four bad habits age people as much as 12 years. Here’s how:

Smoking: Smoking breaks down the collagen, fi brous protein found in tissue and bone cartilage. With the collagen breakdown, repeated facial expressions cause fine lines and wrinkles to develop early. Smokers also tend to develop a yellow tint to their skin. Microscopic studies can detect the beginnings of aging in smokers as early as their 20s. Not a pretty sight. Don’t smoke.

Alchohol: Heavy drinking, especially in women, often leads to low body weight, malnutrition, infertility and osteoporosis (loss of calcium). This makes women look fragile and old.

For men, excessive alcohol consumption results in the beer belly. Drinkers also often have red skin or a yellowish, jaundiced look, reflecting the impact of alcohol on internal organs such as the liver. Alcohol also dehydrates the skin and deteriorates brain cells. You’ll look confused and act it. It is high in calories, low in nutrition. Malnutrition does nothing to minimize the natural aging process affecting the skin and loss of collagen.

Eating junk: People who don’t eat the right foods will have aging issues, such as obesity. It’s common sense. It’s not an intellectual issue. It’s a behavioral one. If you don’t eat right, you might not see or feel changes overnight, but over 20 years or more, you will. You need a minimum of five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. What’s that? A half cup of orange juice, a half cup of peaches, a small apple and a cup of broccoli. Not much, but that’s the minimum. Strive for nine servings daily. Fruits and vegetables give you the fl uids, fiber and antioxidants, substances that slow down deterioration of the body.

Lack of exercise: We were made to move. You don’t have time not to exercise. People might like to look good, but have a realistic body image of yourself. Only 5 percent of women have big breasts and small hips. If you have big breasts, you’re most likely to have big hips, too.

Also, just because you are young and look good, don’t think not exercising won’t catch up with you when you age. It’s the things you don’t see that will kill you — high blood pressure and cholesterol, heart disease.

What to do? Take 10,000 steps a day. It doesn’t matter how you get there — walk, run, swim, play basketball.

NOTE: I’ve dedicated my life to Educating Consumers on Natural, Organic, Supplements, Vitamins, Healthy Living, Natural Healing, Non-Genetically Modified, Non-Chemical Enhanced foods or anything we consume made from Un-Natural Sources. I’m asking anyone who reads my articles to post articles like it, or post my articles on Great Blogs like this one to help spread the word and help make people healthier. You can take credit for the articles, you can also go to my Facebook Fan page and get articles and information from there if you’d like. You can visit my store by clicking on my name above for more information. I don’t mind if you use articles from any of my websites. The more we work together, the more we spread the word, the bigger the demand will be for big business to grow more Natural and Organic Foods. We can’t beat big business and force them to stop producing products which cause a vast majority of America’s Health problems unless we work together. That’s because they’re only after quantity and profits from mass production. Until they see the market shift and start losing money, big business will not change. That’s up to us and it’s time we demand better, safer, healthier supplements, vitamins, and food. It’s the same as the gas and oil subject. If everyone bought electric cars or hybrids, the profits shift from the 100% gas powered market to the hybrid market. That helps to drives down prices and big business goes where the money is. We can show them, we the consumer’s are the ones in control. That all starts with education and helping educate people who have not yet learned about these subjects. My Facebook Fan page is located at http:/www.Facebook.com/TreeHuggersOnline

Thanks and I’ll post new articles like this once or twice per week so stay tuned!

carol stanleys last blog post..Travelingl4Health

Even though the FDA has done testing on the sweeteners, I would do some additional research on some known side effects of the sweeteners just to be sure.

I am sure I will be back to read more of your articles.