![]() She always told me, “think of all of the dirt and residue that is sitting on your skin after a day in this polluted city. Never forget to seh-su (a literal definition is “washing of the face”).Īgain, my grandmother didn’t ever push the 10-step Korean skincare regimen at me or any of my siblings while we were growing up but what she did strictly enforce was the seh-su. This is because our bodies will not be able to excrete a lot of salt during the eight hours or so of sleep, and it encourages water retention which leads to puffiness. Try not to eat anything too salty after 8pm. Once in a while, Koreans eat bread, usually in the form of a small pastry, but it’s not a big part of our diet as it is in the West.Ħ. I had never tried a chocolate chip cookie or peanut butter jelly sandwich until I moved to California at the age of ten. ![]() Choose fruit over sugary desserts.Īt the end of every meal, Koreans tend to eat apples, tangerines, Korean pears, and watermelon for dessert. Kimchi is a fermented, pickled cabbage that’s iconic to our culture and it’s rich in minerals and vitamins A, B, and C, and most importantly it’s loaded with probiotics which have been shown to be beneficial for skin and gut health. One of her favorite things to push at me was kimchi. This term was probably uttered at every meal my grandmother made me. Which is why we should always ensure that we are eating a variety of differnt food at every meal. ![]() We all know that feeling when we feel too bloated from eating certain foods, and how the next day, our skin seems to take a hit, but those same problems could occur if we are not eating the right foods. Eat golgoru : don’t be picky with food and have as much kimchi, fish, and broth as possible. Herbal teas can help with hydration and aren’t too stimulating either. Koreans adhere to ancient medicine and often turn to botanicals such as roots, herbs and fruits, and often botanical-based teas, for healing. Use botanicals and other foods to help with hydration and healing. Our body releases growth hormones during this stage as well and these hormones are ssential for muscle development. During the restorative stage of sleep, our blood pressure drops, breathing slows down, blood flow moves to the muscles and our tissue is repaired. My grandmother always had a makeshift bed in her living room for me. When we are emotionally challenged, our skin will naturally reflect that exact state. Give yourself breaks from difficult, strenuous environments once in a while. ![]() Rest, relax and sleep as much as you can. Her ten ‘rules to live by’ are as follows.Ģ. Whether or not I realised it when I was a child, I am so grateful that I have unknowingly been practising this Korean skincare “diet” all these years. She inadvertently trained me to keep to this holistic, 360-degree lifestyle that all circles back to maintaining healthy, glowing skin. She taught me everything I know about food, its magic and how eating one thing can affect me positively, or negatively, for the rest of the day. I was lucky that she raised me (in Korea, grandparents often live with their eldest child and babysit the grandchildren), as she was my first gateway to understanding nutrition. She is a culinary genius to this day and knows everything there is to know about nearly every fruit and vegetable. the collagen ) is in the skin of the fish, it was quite the symbol of her love when she would give it away. In Korea, since everyone knows all of the “good stuff,” (a.k.a. It was one of her biggest signs of affection when, after taking the bones out of the fish, she would chopstick over a chunk of the grilled fish, skin on, onto my bowl of piping hot rice, instead of eating it herself. She also took the “overfeed your grandchildren” thing to a new level (though I’m not complaining, by any means). Nothing was ever thrown out (she used to tell me that people would even fight over who would eat the eyeballs of fish), so she had to get creative with using every formidable bit of an ingredient. My grandmother is an amazing chef - she escaped from North Korea and, to make ends meet and survive, she started her own restaurant in Seoul, where food was scarce and people had to turn to every part of the animal as well as obscure plants from both land and sea to satiate themselves. My skincare regime, both external and internal, all come from my Korean roots – more specifically, my grandmother.
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