Eating my way to longer hair

I am a firm believer that you are what you eat, or at least since this year I have been converted into that way of thinking. After battling adult, late onset acne for almost 8 years, I was finally able to regain control of my skin through diet. If you are interested in seeing how I ate my way to clear skin, then check out my Beautiful Skin Bloghere.

Today I went to a health food store to purchase shea butter for my Mom and came across Organic Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa). I have been hearing how good it is and since it fits into my dietary restrictions I decided to purchase a packet. I have now been doing some research on this seed and I discovered that quinoa is a pretty good source of the non-essential amino acid cysteine.

Cysteine is non-essential as your body can do without it, but if you are on a hair journey then it becomes very essential. Cysteine is the magic amino acid for hair. Hair is basically made up of cysteine and some other amino acids, but cysteine is the major one. It is also known to increase the rate at which hair grows. I have read that it can even double hair growth!!!! I'll take that one with a pinch of salt, but even if I get just a wee bit of an increase in my growth rate I would be thrilled.

I am definitely excited to make some. I have been googling recipes and will make something soon and include photos.

This is the brand of Quinoa that I purchased. According to the pack quinoa was a staple of the ancient Incas and means "the mother grain."

UPDATE: I can no longer eat quinoa as it broke me out. I suffer from skin which is so prone to breakouts and so frustrating at times. I did a post on my skincare blog talking about my experience. http://thebeautifulskinblog.blog.com/2011/10/08/setback-did-quinoa-break-me-out/