Over the years your bodies become walking autobiographies telling friends and strangers alike of the minor and major stresses of your lives. Did you know that our skin is our body’s largest organ? Weighing up to 9 pounds or more, it serves as the first protective barrier from everything our body comes into contact with. When the body is free of toxins (unhealthy substances that can accumulate just about anywhere in our body), our skin has a nice healthy glow, a soft, smooth texture, and is neither too oily nor too dry. But when the body is out of balance, lookout for a number of telltale signs.

Eczema and Psoriasis: two inflammatory conditions that often result from a fat deficiency – specifically the omega-3 fats.

Acne: overactive oil glands, this condition can be caused by hormone imbalance, clogged pores, and possibly vitamin A and zinc deficiencies.

Excessive dryness: often due to either a thyroid deficiency or low levels of omega-3 fats.

Sun damage: anti-oxidant deficiency and hormone imbalance both can make us more prone to the formation of moles, wrinkles, and various skin discolorations after we’ve been in the sun.

Age spots: dark blotchiness or patchiness is often due to hormone deficiency (as seen during or after pregnancy or after taking birth control pills).

Rosacea: redness around the nose and cheeks, it’s often caused by sun damage, excess alcohol intake, and may be associated disorders like Lupus or MS.

Smoking: smokers have a darker, hazier complexion than non-smokers.

Most of us don’t drink enough water and end up dehydrated. This is, by far, the most common reason our skin ages quickly. Most of us are quite conscious of our appearance, as evidenced by the multi-billion dollar beauty industry. But think of all the money and effort we could save by starting from the inside out. No substitute exists for a healthy lifestyle, including proper nutrition, exercise, recreation, and relaxation. It’s your journey. Where will you take it?

According to a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) report, available calories from all forms of added sugars increased 17 percent from 1970 to 2006.

The dramatic rise in obesity is the principle concern about sugar consumption among health professionals, but sugar’s impact on developmental diabetes, dental cavities and other health problems is also an issue. But can sugar itself, even the much-maligned overuse of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), take all the blame?

The rise in sugar consumption in the U.S. in the past three decades includes the use of table sugar, cane and beet sugar, honey, molasses and other syrups, as well as high HFCS and other corn sweeteners like glucose and dextrose. Many point to the introduction of low-cost HFCS in the 1960s (created by converting some of the glucose in corn to much sweeter fructose molecules) as the beginning of the American sugar rush.

While an increase in sugar seems to correspond to the rise in obesity, that’s not the whole story: total calories from all food sources also increased by 520 calories a day from 1970 to 2006. Although the increase in sugar, HFCS and other sweeteners played a role, added calories from fat and grain products actually account for even larger portions of our increased calories.

But if we need to cut back on added sugars, is there a difference between table sugar and HFCS? No. In fact, when the American Medical Association (AMA) issued a statement that encouraged limited consumption of all calorie-containing sweeteners, it did not support specific warnings on HFCS.

Much of the debate surrounding HFCS focuses on differences in the metabolic effects of glucose and fructose, two simple sugars that combine to make the product.

Both table sugar (sucrose) and HFCS are composed of nearly equal amounts of fructose and glucose. Because sucrose is easily broken down in the digestive track to the two simple sugars, both HFCS and table sugar seem to result in absorption of similar amounts of fructose and glucose.

Current guidelines from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) suggest that added sugars can supply up to 25 percent of our daily calories. But this allows for up to 125 grams of added sugar on a 2,000-calorie diet, equivalent to 500 calories and almost two-thirds cup of sugar.

Many nutrition experts contest this figure and recommend that no more than 10 percent of daily calories come from refined sugars. In fact, USDA dietary patterns show that after we meet our nutritional needs, most people have room for only 150 to 350 total “discretionary calories.”

Even the lower figure cited by the USDA would allow for up to 2 teaspoons of added sugar if all discretionary calories were spent on sugar-sweetened soft drinks (the largest source of added sugars in the U.S. diet) and other sweets. While that may sound like a lot, check the nutrition facts panel on food labels to see how quickly it adds up. You’ll often find one or two teaspoons of added sugar (four to eight grams) in each serving of pasta sauce, white bread, hamburger rolls, ketchup and soup, with larger amounts in cereal, yogurt and, of course, desserts.