By Dr. Alina Vasilescu

Are you ready for summer? Looking forward to being outdoors and having fun in the sun? Keep your skin healthy and toned with Dermal Collagen Peptides. It comes in powder or liquid. Perfect addition to your tea, smoothies, shakes, yogurt or just about anything!

The hype about collagen – is it true that it has skin benefits?
Yes, there are studies* that confirm the benefits of collagen peptides in skin, hair, nails regeneration, as well as joint cartilage, based on the type of collagen. Collagen peptides are a key factor in skin elasticity, firmness, and hydration. Here are a few benefits:

• Skin benefits: renew and repair – improved tone and elasticity, minimizing scarring and speeding up wound healing (think acne damage), minimize fine lines
• Improved hair follicle health and the structural proteins in the hair
• Stronger, faster growing nails increase the amino acids needed to produce keratin 
• Protective effect on joints and cartilage regeneration, alleviate joint pain and stiffness.

Keep your skin soft, smooth & firm this summer by being proactive and taking collagen every day! Do you want more for your skin? Book in a Facial Rejuvenation treatment to give your skin a healthy boost. And we can keep the conversation going by talking about Collagen boosters like vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, aloe vera gel, ginseng, antioxidants, retinol. 

Pssst, do you want to know a secret? Applying collagen topically on the skin does not work! Stop buying expensive collagen-based creams, lotions and serums, these products simply do not have the power to build collagen from the outside. From a physiological point, it needs to be produced inside the body from key building blocks in order for you to see results. 
One of our favourite Collagen Products at Yaletown Integrative is Dermal Collagen Peptides buy CytoMatrix.  1-2 scoops a day in water or juice can create a real shift in the overall look and feel of your skin. 
Check out the research here.

By Dr Heidi Lescanac

This is an addictive savoury spread that my friend Stephanie Kaplan, a fellow Portland ND created on a visit to my place. We had last cooked together in Tuscany the summer before and when she whipped up this spread in my Vancouver kitchen it brought back some of the rich flavours of Italy and tasty memories! This features a satisfying combination of tangy sundried tomatoes, garlic, earthy walnuts, parmesan cheese and a hint of thyme. Simply divine spread on crusty bread, or hearty crackers. 

Walnuts have the highest amount of omega 3 fats of any nut. Their anti-inflammatory fats are essential for making healthy cell membranes and keeping skin moisturized. Tomatoes are a great source of vitamin C, another powerful anti-oxidant which assists in the production of collagen, key for skin’s elasticity and healing.  Tomatoes also happen to contain all the carotenoids and a good dose of lycopene providing protection against sun damage and wrinkling. 

2 cups walnuts
2 clove garlic
4 tablespoons sundried tomatoes 
2-3 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup parmesan cheese, grated fine *can substitute with nutritional yeast to make vegan
1-2 tablespoons fresh thyme- pulled off stems 
¼ teaspoon sea salt and black pepper to taste


Toast walnuts in a dry heavy skillet for 1-2 minutes or oven at 375 F for 5-10 minutes.
In a food processor, first puree garlic, then add walnuts and process for a few seconds until just crumb-like.
Next add the remaining ingredients and process until uniformly mixed but do not puree—it is best if you process just to the point of chunky, spreadable texture and adding more olive oil if it is too dry. 

The “perfect” quantity of oil will depend on the moisture in the sundried tomatoes and what you are using it for. Remember you can always add more.

Let us know if you made it and send us a picture to info@yaletownintegrative.com