There’s a new malady in America, a lack of self-esteem based on a less-than-ideal body image, and it’s spreading like a plague. The only treatment its victims consider is expensive cosmetic surgery, risky botox injections, even riskier intense pulsed light (IPL) treatments, and other assaults on what, just a generation ago, were considered normal and perfectly acceptable skin conditions. Formerly of interest only to those more or less obviously getting on in years, concerns about anti-aging skin care have spread to tens of thousands of young people in their twenties and thirties, kids who don’t know the meaning of a wrinkle, and have no concept of what aging is all about.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with anti-aging skin care in itself — it’s been a part of life since the first woman (well it was probably a woman) discovered how nice some oily substance from a plant or animal made her skin feel. But since then, as we added harsh chemicals to our air, water and foods and filled our lives with continual stress, the effects of aging on our skin have become much more pronounced.

Let’s look for a moment at the amazing Hunzakuts of the Hunza Valley, renowned for their health and longevity. The Hunzakuts say that pure foods, lack of stress and clean air allows them to live long healthy lives, many into their hundreds.

Located in the far northeast of Pakistan, the Hunza Valley nestles at 8,500 feet, enclosed by 25,000-foot mountain peaks, and is lush with fruit trees and fertile land. Studies of elderly Hunzakuts showed no illness and no degenerative disease, and revealed remarkably youthful skin.

Before the coming of roads, electricity and other modern influences, the Hunzakuts lived in a pollution-free environment. Locally-grown food was rich in vitamins and minerals, grown organically with no chemical sprays or additives. The mineral-rich water, flowing from mountain glaciers, provided a perfect balance of hydration and nutrition. A diet largely made up of fruit, vegetables and grains, with much less animal meat and fat than we consume, and much of it consumed raw or with little heavy cooking, meant the Hunzakuts thrived on the kind of anti-aging diet that many of us here in America are striving to achieve. It’s difficult for us to live a Hunzakut lifestyle, but not impossible. Anything we can do in that direction should be our first step in anti-aging skin care, since diet has such a huge impact on the condition of our skin as well as overall health.

We need to avoid pre-cooked, over-processed, over-cooked, fast and frozen foods that make up the usual American diet, and switch to organic fresh fruit, vegetables, and legumes. We should eat lots of antioxidant-rich apricots, cherries, blueberries and good anti-aging supplements that provide antioxidant support. Our meat should come from animals and fowls that havent been given hormones or antibiotics. Unprocessed dairy products should always include yogurt, kefir, raw cheese, and even colostrum. Sprouted grain bread and pastry products are more digestible, more nutritious and less allergenic than their refined counterparts. Of course, raw foods are always better than cooked, to preserve their natural enzymes. And our water should be reverse-osmosis filtered, or from a pure spring or well.

Doctors who examined Hunzakuts in their nineties and older found no evidence of infectious or degenerative disease, heart or blood pressure problems, cancer, asthma, high cholesterol, obesity or diabetes. Menopause was unknown, and eyesight was perfect. They looked and acted decades younger than their years. A real anti-aging skin care diet, as clean and natural as the Hunzakuts, could completely replace risky and expensive trips to the surgeon.

And maybe we should take a step back from all the billboards and magazine covers of perfectly plastic young people and remind ourselves that we are the same vital human beings who once looked like that, but now we’re even better because we’ve been down the road and know a thing or two about life. Sure, we want to look our best, but there’s nothing more attractive than looking, feeling and acting really vibrant and alive. With the right diet and anti-aging supplements, we can achieve that, naturally.