Beautiful Skin Inside & Out-Avocado Papaya Salad/Avocado Kiwi Skin Scrub

Richard E. Collins, MD
THE COOKING CARDIOLOGIST©
The following recipes use the “magic” of the avocado. If your skin looks like the outside of an avocado, then help is on the way. Adding avocados to food recipes and topical applications could result in converting a leathered, dry skin to the smooth avocado “cream” like the inside of the fruit.
Please enjoy the avocado papaya salad recipe – it’s not only delicious, but your skin will like it too. Also be sure to use the avocado skin scrub when you face is dry and flaky. These two recipes where also recently shared during one of our nutrition lectures called the Good Skin Diet.

Avocado Papaya Salad

The avocado (Persea Americana) may be the oldest fruit on record in North and South America. It originated in south-central Mexico between 7,000 to 5,000 BC. Avocados were a favorite fruit of the Aztecs and were considered an aphrodisiac. The avocado in the Aztec language was ahuacatl, which meant testicle. In the 16^th Century, Spaniards renamed the fruit aguacate, but was forbidden by Catholics for the unfounded arousing properties. Judge Ord of Santa Barbara who transplanted trees from Mexico introduced avocados to the United States in 1871. In 1920, Postman Rudolph Hass planted an avocado grove in La Habra Heights, California. One tree especially began to bare an abundant amount of fruit. The mutated tree had dark, pebbled skin fruit with a rich buttery consistency inside the fruit pod. This Hass variety accounts for 90% of all avocados grown domestically.
The avocado is rich in monounsaturated fat, helps to absorb fat-soluble vitamins, low in saturated fat, rich in fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, lutein, folic acid and magnesium. Once considered off limits to low-fat diets for heart patients, the avocado is back on the list as heart beneficial with the good fats, essential vitamins and minerals.
This Avocado Papaya salad is great for spring and summer. It has good fat, fiber and flavor.

• 1 medium ripe papaya, coarsely diced
• 1 avocado, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 jicama, diced
• ½ cup toasted walnuts
• 1/4 cup raspberry vinegar
• 1 T Agave Nectar or honey
• 2 t Walnut oil

In a medium glass bowl, combine the papaya, avocado and jicama. Toast the walnuts in a dry sauté pan, lightly roasting the walnuts. Let cool. Whisk together the raspberry vinegar, nectar and walnut oil. Add to the diced papaya, avocado and jicama. Add the walnuts. Serve chilled.
Serves 4. Serving size: ¼ of prepared salad.
Nutritional analysis: Calories 280, Total Fat: 18 g, Saturated Fat: 2 g, Trans Fat: 0 g, Cholesterol: 0 mg, Sodium: 15 mg, Carbohydrate: 29 g, Fiber: 13 g, Sugars: 10 g, Protein: 4 g
Diabetic Exchanges: 1 ½ Fruit, 3 Fat

Avocado Kiwi Skin Scrub

Skin cleansers usually have an abrasive compound to polish the skin surface removing some of the dry cornified layers that must be massaged to reap the full benefits of applying the scrub. This scrub uses a salt base with avocado oil and muddled kiwi fruit. It is as natural as any skin rub can be. To enhance the power of this scrub, read here to learn about the eye massager benefits that will be useful as it reduces the eye’s stress effectively.

• 2T Himalayan Pink finely ground sea salt, available at Sprouts
• 1T avocado oil
• 1 kiwi fruit

Slice the kiwi fruit in half. Using a melon baller, remove the core. Scoop out the flesh and place in a small bowl. Muddle the fruit, crushing the fruit into a liquid. In a separate bowl, add the avocado oil and salt. Stir to combine. Next add the muddled fruit, but do not combine well as the salt will dissolve in the fruit. It is best to use as soon as it is made. It may be stored in an air tight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. You may need to add some more salt as the fruit will slightly dissolve some of the salt granules. Apply to the skin and massage onto the skin surface. Rinse with water.

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South Denver Cardiology

Randy Cupps Graduated from Western Colorado University in Gunnison, Colorado, in 1983 with a degree in Physical Education with an emphasis in Exercise Physiology. Randy started his medical career in 1980 as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) working on an ambulance and in an emergency room. He then joined South Denver Cardiology in 1986 when it was South Denver Cardiac Rehabilitation as an Exercise Physiologist conducting a wide variety of Graded Exercise Testing on a diverse patient population. Randy continues to keep his EMT current, and he is certified by the American College of Sports Medicine as a Clinical Exercise Physiologist. In 2012 Randy acquired the role of business development, marketing, and physician relations manager at SDCA.

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