Here are four so-called “healthy” foods that actually may be harmful to your health … and your wallet:

There’s no Emergen-C Jackie Keller the founding director of Los Angeles’ premier healthy food company, NutriFit, and author of the Amazon top-100 bestseller Body after Baby, says juice drinks like Emergen-C which are fortified with mega-levels of vitamin C (1,600% of a day’s worth), and Odwalla Blueberry B Monster smoothie, which boasts 360% of the daily value of four types of B vitamins, aren’t necessary. “Your body simply excretes what it cannot absorb or use, thus creating ‘expensive urine,’” says Keller.

In most cases, Keller says too much C isn’t life-threatening. But it can cause diarrhea, nausea and stomach pain. “Exceeding the daily requirement isn’t helpful, either,” she says. Some experts say too much vitamin B can cause nerve toxicity and lead to numbness in extremities.

Instead of downing your vitamins in fortified juice drinks, Keller suggests eating them. “Eat foods that contain vitamins, minerals and fiber, and you won’t risk eating excess amounts.”

Pooh poohing probiotics

Stella Metsovas B.S., CCN in Laguna Beach, CA, says yogurt pusher Jamie Lee Curtis has it all wrong. “The excessive sugar added to probiotic-infused yogurts negate any health claims,” she explains. Metsovas says before digging into a cup of Activia read the label. “Many popular brands list sugar as their second ingredient while leading consumers to believe they’re keeping their gut healthy. But first and foremost, people looking to help their gut are making a huge mistake by thinking these sugar-laden yogurts are good for the ‘good’ bacteria in their GI tract. In fact, sugar consumption has been linked to a host of chronic GI tract issues.”

Forgo flax
Doctors say one of the biggest ways consumers think they are getting a big health “bang for their buck” is with Omega 3 supplements “The cheapest and easiest form of omega-3s is in the form of flax, but this contains ALA. That is not the kind that delivers the brain, eye, and heart benefits people associate with omega-3s but instead has to be converted by the body into the more bioavailable omega-3 forms, DHA and EPA,” says Norman Salem, MD, director of the International Society for the Study of Fats and Lipids.

“Research shows that as little as 1% of the ALA we consume gets converted to the most usable form of omega-3, DHA,” says Dr. Salem. So a lot of people put flax in their smoothies, sprinkle it on their cereal and yogurt, and buy products touting “omega-3s” that really just have ALA in them.

“You have to get preformed long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in fish, fish oil, algal oil, or supplements and foods fortified with DHA and/or EPA to really get the full benefit. Flax just doesn’t do it,” says Dr. Salem.

Cereals
General Mills Total Cereal claims to have a day’s worth of many essential nutrients, including iron. But several studies have shown calcium interferes with your body’s ability to absorb iron. And since you’re likely to eat Total with milk, all you’re really doing is adding to your total grocery bill by buying any cereals fortified with iron.

If you really want to pump dietary iron, eat half a cup of fresh strawberries or half a pink grapefruit with a slice of whole-grain toast. Keller says the vitamin C in the fruit will help your body absorb the iron in the toast.

The bottom line: Stick to fresh fruits and veggies. It’ll be a lot cheaper and healthier.

Every three months, Pamela Bryant, 50, stops eating food for at least 10 days to clean the gunk out of her body. When she’s hungry, she drinks a concoction of lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup, laxative tea or saltwater.The popular liquid detox diet, known as the Master Cleanser, has few nutrients and is ridiculed by most nutrition experts. But Bryant swears it helps her lose weight and reduce cravings for sugar, caffeine and marijuana.When it’s over, “you feel incredible,” said Bryant, a Maui massage therapist. “You have way more energy, and all your vital organs are rested and detoxified.”

Detox or cleansing diets can involve water, potions, fruit and vegetable juice, raw food, herbal supplements, nutraceuticals or a combination of approaches. Proponents say they’re necessary because our bodies take a lot of abuse from modern life: overly processed food, alcohol, cigarette smoke, chemicals and environmental pollution.

But some cleansing rituals aren’t safe if used for extended periods, and there’s virtually no scientific evidence that they work. Conventional doctors, meanwhile, say the lungs, kidneys, liver and skin are perfectly capable of detoxifying on their own.

Tennessee internist J. David Forbes agrees that the body’s natural detoxification system is usually adequate. But “we’re constantly bombarding ourselves with toxic stuff, mostly in the form of foods we eat,” said Forbes, president of the American Holistic Medical Association. “We have to give the body a chance to catch up.”

At the very least, there may be an emotional benefit associated with starting over. Here’s how to try one safely:

Plan ahead. A week before you plan to detox, reduce caffeine and sugar (including excessive fruit juices) to avoid withdrawal symptoms, said nutrition and diet expert Ann Louise Gittleman, author of several best-selling books on detoxification. “Drink a cup or two a day of dandelion tea to shore up the liver.”

Don’t stop eating. Fiber moves waste through the body, and we get that through whole grains, beans and vegetables, said Kathy Freston, author of “The Quantum Wellness Cleanse” (Weinstein, $14.95). Fasting also slows down your metabolism.

Choose plans that involve nutrient-dense foods. Fresh, raw and organic fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds will be your best choices. The liver works harder when it’s dealing with heavy, greasy, refined foods.

Skip the laxatives. The seven-day detox programs based on fiber and laxative pills with little or no food “only tax the body’s systems,” said Delia Quigley, author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Detoxing Your Body” (Alpha, $18.95).

Time it right. Don’t detox if you’re overly stressed, said Laguna Beach, Calif., nutritionist Stella Metsovas. It adds more stress and can make you sick. Avoid liquid fasts if you have kidney or liver disorders, are pregnant, have an eating disorder or are on heavy-duty medications.

Take it easy. “You don’t have to stop working, but allow plenty of time for rest and relaxation,” said Gittleman. In the first four days, you might feel irritable, tired or have headaches, all signs that your body is detoxifying, she said.

Make it last. “Doing a 3- to 10-day detox diet and going back to smoking and eating McDonald’s does nothing,” said Dr. Melinda Ring, director of the Northwestern Center for Integrative Medicine and Wellness in Chicago. “It’s how you live your whole life.”

After Olympic hopeful Stella Metsovas was sidelined by severe anemia, she found a new focus for her incredible energy and passion: ending world hunger.

For eight years as a child, Metsovas trained six hours a day in swimming. At age 13, she achieved times so fast that she gained national standing and began competing in junior and senior meets, the precursors to Olympic trials in the United States.
Back in her family’s homeland of Greece, she already would have qualified for the Olympics. Her parents discussed the possibility of moving there so she could compete on a global level, but for Metsovas, Greece was not an option.
“When you are born an American, you die an American. That’s just how I feel about my country,” she says. “I would have felt like an impostor.”
That’s not to say Metsovas doesn’t value her Greek heritage – far from it. Her first language is Greek, and Metsovas grew up in a largely Greek community in Southern California, with her younger brother Nico. She ultimately married a land developer who is Greek American, as well.
Life wasn’t always this sweet for her family. Metsovas remembers listening to her stories from her grandfather, Constantinos Tsimahidis. “Three generations before, back in the 1800s, they actually had to leave Athens and migrate away due to conflict,” she says. Her grandfather’s parents  and five siblings traveled on foot hundreds of miles to Russia. Two of the children died because of hunger and bad weather conditions.

Trial by Water

At age 14, Metsovas also faced a threat to her life – not from a cross-country trek, but from inside her own body. “I was up at a meet in Santa Barbara…I was doing a 200- meter breast stroke, and my third length of the pool I turned, and I literally felt like I couldn’t move,” she says. “[I felt like] my heart was going to explode.” She was diagnosed as severely anemic with Ferritin (a protein that stores iron in the tissues) levels well below normal. After a year of unsuccessful medical evaluations and prescriptions for artificial hormones, her mother took her to a nutritionist, who recommended specific vitamins and minerals.
The culprit lay in the classic swimmer’s diet of that decade: pasta, and lots of it. As Metsovas explains, “I have a severe intolerance to wheat protein.” Within one month of her visit to the nutritionist, Metsovas recovered. But the intervening year had changed Metsovas’ life forever. Eventually, she decided to drop out of contention for the Olympics – but retained the self-discipline she had learned during training. “I couldn’t imagine anything that I’m doing now would have been what it is today without that,” she says.
Her health struggles also inspired Metsovas to become a nutritionist. “That was what really got me fascinated with human physiology,” she says. A successful personal health consultant, she has been voted “Best Nutritionist” by CitySearch and featured in Fox News, The New York Times, WebMD, eDiets, Univision and more. Most recently, her work with a client who also suffered from intolerance to wheat protein was featured in People Magazine’s largest selling issue of the year, “How I Lost Half My Size.” She also just signed a contract to publish a healthcare book.

Besting Hunger

Alongside Metsovas’ professional goal of helping Americans have good health is a quieter, more personal goal: alleviating hunger around the world. After she engaged in a few fasts for health reasons, the hunger pangs sparked Metsovas’ concern for others.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe people go hungry,” she says. “I can’t believe people die of hunger, and I cannot believe children, more specifically, die of hunger in this day and age.”
The same drive that had made her a world-class swimmer also made her give 100 percent to volunteering. She researched several organizations and was impressed with the responsiveness, effectiveness and high Charity Navigator rating of Friends of the World Food Program (Friends of WFP). “I went to the best,” she says. “In my opinion, the best is Friends of WFP.” In the summer of 2008, she became chair of the WFP Committee of Los Angeles, part of the WFP Committee program organized by Friends of WFP. In December 2008, the committee used primarily in-kind donations to celebrate its launch with a cocktail reception held at the private residence of philanthropist Ninon de Vere De Rosa. In a single evening, 60 guests from the business, film and music industries raised nearly $35,000 to support the operations of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). Given that WFP can provide a child with a meal in school for about 25 cents, it’s money that will go far. According to Metsovas, it also goes beyond solving hunger. She believes that an act as simple as providing food can have a domino effect on problems like human trafficking, terrorism and the recruitment of child soldiers. “You should not carry a machine gun at the age of seven in trade for some  crackers or whatever they’re giving the children,” she says.

Coming Home

In February 2009, Metsovas traveled with Friends of WFP staff and volunteers to Peru to learn firsthand about the potential impact of the WFP Committee program. She witnessed a WFP Food for Work/Food for Training program in part of the Andean highlands that had been deserted after warfare in the 1980s and is starting to make a comeback.
“I was shocked to find out that out of the 30,000 population that once existed before the violence occurred, 27,000 were killed,” she says. Metsovas thought of her own family’s journey to Russia. “To be able to see firsthand what my ancestors went through at a different time…It was just surreal,” she says.
As the Peruvians worked the land with hand tools, Metsovas marveled at their self-discipline, putting her old swimming regimen to shame. “My gosh, these people work hard,” she says. When she was honored with the role of presenting the deed to a couple’s new home, this disciplined, media-savvy athlete finally broke down. “I was bawling, crying….It was an experience I’ll never forget the rest of my life,” she says.
Metsovas returned to the United States with an ambitious dream for the WFP Committee of Los Angeles. She is careful to make a distinction between dreams and fantasies: “Dreams are attainable. Fantasies are not. My dream is – in the next three to five years – to raise $2 million.”
Though her health struggles and her trip to Peru helped to inspire her dream, Metsovas says it started much earlier, with a little boy and a heartbreaking journey from Greece to Russia. “The real deep-hearted passion of my commitment to this,” she says, “is my grandfather.”

By Vicki Salemi

In case you haven’t heard, Oprah is following a new nutritional plan. Apparently this one is different, better and, yes, spiritual. Following Kathy Freston’s Quantum Wellness, Oprah recently began her journey with a 21-day cleanse. Why? She says to achieve the highest level of health and contentment.

Oprah’s 21-day detox avoids caffeine, sugar, alcohol, gluten and dairy and animal products, says AOL Coach Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University and author of ‘What to Eat?’ So what’s left? Oprah’s vegan diet embraces whole grains and fiber, beans and legumes, steamed or sautéed vegetables, flax crackers, peanut butter, almonds, blueberries and more.
People adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet for a variety of reasons. Most believe it is healthier, more environmentally-friendly or a boon to animal rights. But there are differences. While all vegetarians don’t eat meat, some do eat fish or dairy.
Vegans distinguish themselves in a different way, says Nestle. All dairy, eggs, meat and fish are taboo. While Oprah blogs about feeling like she was baptized in “Vegan Land,” and never imagined that meatless meals can be so satisfying, it’s no surprise she feels so satiated. For example, one of Oprah’s “mmmmmm good” dinners included asparagus cream soup, Portobello mushrooms, white beans and spinach and sweet potato chips.
Oprah — being Oprah — has a personal chef to keep her on the right nutritional track.
But that’s not essential to success. What is key is eating enough variety and getting enough of the proper nutrients, says Carol Anne Wasserman, board certified holistic food counselor and nutritionist. “You need to be careful,” she warns. “You could be
setting yourself up for a huge binge once the fast is over.”
Instead of just being aware of what she’s eating, Oprah says she is also more conscious about where her food is coming from. In fact, she references spiritual integrity in a blog post. “How can people say they’re trying to spiritually evolve without thinking what
happens to the animals whose lives are sacrificed in the name of gluttony?”
“The spiritual aspect in consuming fresh food from the earth, vegetables in particular,
connects you with nature,” adds Stella Metsovas, a certified nutritionist and coach in
Laguna Beach, CA. “It looks like she’s eating about 70 to 80 percent fresh food.”
Conscious eating and exercising? Check. Visualization and spiritual practice? All there.
Having fun? Yes, ma’am. But will Oprah’s new diet actually work? “It’s a whole new way
to look at her dietary intake,” Metsovas explains. “She’s consuming more fiber,
phytochemicals and antioxidants and no processed foods or animal products. It’s a
win-win situation.”

April 22, 2007
SPENDING
Winning the Nutrition Game, With Help From a Coach
By EILENE ZIMMERMAN

MARIAM NOORZAI of Camarillo, Calif., struggled with obesity for 20 years and at one time weighed 279 pounds. She tried weight programs from Atkins to Weight Watchers, but it wasn’t until she hired a personal nutrition coach last fall that she finally lost the excess weight, dropping to 128 pounds.

Her coach, Brian Zehetner of Minneapolis, is also the nutritionist at JamCore Training, an online personal training program. Ms. Noorzai joined JamCore 14 months ago, thinking that she would lose weight by exercising, but she said that it was happening “at a snail’s pace.”
That’s when she decided to become one of Mr. Zehetner’s private coaching clients. Because the two live so far apart, her sessions are conducted over the phone, and follow-ups are done largely by e-mail.

After Ms. Noorzai filled out a detailed health questionnaire and kept a three-day food diary, Mr. Zehetner gave her a customized diet plan and the reasoning behind it. From there, she steadily reshaped her eating habits.

Mr. Zehetner charges $125 an hour, although his fee can be as high as $650 for a package that includes comprehensive body composition and metabolic testing, menu planning and two coaching sessions.
He said individualized attention is often what a person needs to lose weight and keep it off. “You can go to Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig and reach your weight goal, but then you gain it back plus 10 pounds,” he said. “I’ve seen it happen so many times, because maintenance is the toughest part.”
Certainly, programs like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers have helped many people lose weight, and often include one-on-one consultations. In an e-mail statement, Karen Miller-Kovach, chief scientific officer for Weight Watchers, said that her company’s program “does more than count
calories, fat and fiber; it also helps people change behaviors, learn how to eat healthier foods, and get more physical activity, all within a supportive environment.”
And Jenny Craig’s chief executive, Patti Larchet, said in an e-mail message that commercial weight-loss programs like hers have been validated as an effective method for losing weight.
But Ms. Noorzai is among a growing number of consumers who are going a step further — and paying more — by enlisting private, one-on-one coaches. Although many clients are motivated by a desire to lose weight, coaches say that others turn to them after learning that they have diabetes or high cholesterol levels — or because they wish to avoid chronic diseases later in life. Others want to deal with food allergies or to combat fatigue and sleep problems.
Nutrition coaches often rely on tests they conduct themselves, or those conducted by a physician, to determine problems related to blood sugar, hormone imbalances, cholesterol level, food allergies and even brain chemistry.
Stella Metsovas, a certified nutritionist and coach in Laguna Beach, Calif., said that many of her female clients complain of late-afternoon fatigue, which she addresses through dietary changes that keep blood-sugar levels stable. She also looks at possible food allergies and ways the body
responds to stress throughout the day.
Armed with physiological and psychological data from a client, coaches like Ms. Metsovas can design a diet tailored to individual health concerns.
Margaret Moore, founder and chief executive of Wellcoaches, which trains health and fitness professionals, says nutrition is a new and growing specialty in coaching. She said that her organization trained 1,000 coaches in its first four years of operation, from 2000 to 2004, and
that it now trains 1,000 a year.
Nutrition coaches usually have a background in health, nutrition or medicine and some form of certification or licensing, from organizations like Wellcoaches, the International Coach Federation and the American Dietetic Association. Mr. Zehetner, for example, is a registered dietitian and a certified strength and conditioning specialist.
Cheryl L. Rock, a professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California, San Diego, said research shows that the personal coaching approach is very effective. But she cautioned consumers to be leery of advice from unqualified coaches. “Anyone can give nutrition
advice, so it’s important to investigate their training and experience,” she said.
Services from nutrition coaches range from creating meal plans to shopping with clients, cooking for them and even stocking their cupboards. For executive clients who travel often, coaches give advice about what to order at restaurants.
Deborah Carabet, a licensed nutrition counselor, has offices in Los Angeles and New York. She is also a chef; she shops for groceries with clients and goes to their homes to demonstrate healthy cooking. Her coaching rate is $250 to $700 a session.
Nutrition coaches say baby boomers are the biggest consumers of their services. “Boomers want to prolong the middle of their lives,” said Mary Furlong, author of ”Turning Silver Into Gold: How to Profit in the New Boomer Marketplace” and chief executive of Mary Furlong & Associates, a
marketing firm. Boomers want an active, engaged life as they age, she said. “They want to work longer; they want to date,” she said. “How do you stay in the game if you aren’t healthy and energetic?”
Barbara Mohan, 55, a law-office administrator in Manhattan, hired a nutrition coach because a gluten intolerance made her feel bloated and lethargic, even though she had changed her diet. “I still felt something was wrong with me,” Ms. Mohan said.
Her nutrition coach, Brooke Kalanick, who is also a naturopathic physician (she attended a fouryear naturopathic medical school and took a board exam) determined that Ms. Mohan had toxins in her stomach and treated her with natural supplements and a detoxifying diet. “I feel 100
percent better, my energy level is up, and I dropped weight,” Ms. Mohan said.
Nutrition coaches say that about 65 percent of their clients are female. “Men tend to wait until something goes wrong before they see someone,” Ms. Kalanick said. An example is Richard Green, 48, a real estate agent in Newport Beach, Calif., who received a diagnosis of persistent acid
reflux. He was put on medication but still had symptoms, so he sought the services of Ms. Metsovas.
“We cut my fat intake and I learned what causes reflux,” he said. “Stella gave me recipes tailored to me. I’m single, have a demanding career and don’t want to spend an hour trying to put together a meal. Now I cook ahead of time on the weekends so I can just put meals in the oven
when I get home from work.”
A few months after he began working with her, Mr. Green stopped taking his medication, lost some weight and found that he had more energy.
Nutrition coaches generally charge $100 to $300 an hour, whether the session is in person or over the phone. Ms. Kalanick charges $250 for the first visit, which lasts about 90 minutes and includes the development of a nutrition plan. Follow-up coaching sessions are $100 for a halfhour.
Some of her clients require weekly sessions; others see her every few months. MS. NOORZAI finds coaching so crucial to her well-being that she has cut certain luxuries out of her life to afford the several hundred dollars a month for her weekly phone sessions with Mr. Zehetner. “I stopped going out at night, I don’t get manicures or pedicures, I don’t get my hair cut as often,” she said.
Thanks to the coaching, “I know now how to make food work for me,” she said. “I’ve introduced myself to new foods and learned where the hidden calories are,” she added. “I know how to better combine foods, like proteins and carbs. What Brian is teaching me is a lifetime skill, not a quick fix. It’s literally changed my life.”

Foods rich in carbohydrates are likely to have a high-glycemic load, but that doesn’t mean you should rule out bread altogether… you just have to be choosy. “Select whole, unprocessed foods, like breads with 100 percent whole grains,” says Stella Metsovas, a certified nutritionist in Laguna Beach, California, “and make sure you’re always getting in some protein and monounsaturated fats with every snack and meal.” Researchers came up with a formula to calculate the glycemic load for each food, but Metsovas says there’s no need to worry about the math.
“An optimal dietary intake shouldn’t rely on numbers when selecting what foods are best to consume,” she says. Instead, she says, steer clear of obvious culprits like white pasta and bread, and stock up on fruits and vegetables for long-term health.

Just Add EVOO.
Rachael Ray may be on to something. A new study published in BMC Cancer Journal found that compounds in extra virgin olive oil are known to kill certain types of breast cancer. In order to best utilize these cancer-fighting agents, don’t cook with EVOO, as heat can damage the active compounds. Instead, add it to recipes in room temperature form.

Jim Nesbitt cross-trained five days a week and was fairly trim at 174 lbs. Except, he says, “my belly stuck out.” Frustrated, the Tustin, Calif., computer network broker, 46, hired nutritionist Stella Metsovas, who noticed he ate a lot of floury foods. “I love my pizza, pasta and bread,” says the dad of 7-year-old twins.

He now embraces high-protein snacks like nuts and drinks less wine but still eats his favorites in moderation. “I’ll have pizza with my kids maybe twice a month.” The result? “For the first time in 30 years, I have a flat stomach.”
BEFORE 156 LBS.

Women have used honey to sweeten their beauty routines for centuries: Cleopatra bathed in milk and honey to augment her youthful allure, and Queen Anne of England layered her locks with honey and oil to keep them lustrous and thick. Discover how ingredients from the hive can work for you.

HONEY

One of nature’s most delicious natural sweeteners, honey is equally versatile as a healing agent. “Honey displays antimicrobial properties and helps to retain moisture, making it appealing for many skin types,” says Christopher Watt, a licensed esthetician and owner of Christopher Watt Esthetics in West Hollywood. For this reason, Watt recommends washing acne-prone skin with a honey-based cleanser twice weekly. Honey is particularly effective on dry skin and hair, according to Frederique Keller, LAc, MH, president of the American Apitherapy Society, a New York-based organization that promotes bee products for natural healing. “Honey is hydrophilic, meaning it’s a natural humectant that attracts and retains skin’s moisture,” says Keller. Plus, it’s a natural preservative. “It doesn’t spoil or require synthetic preservatives, which are skin irritants at best, carcinogens at worst,” says Keller.

ROYAL JELLY

Worker bees secrete fatty acid-rich royal jelly from hypopharyngeal glands and feed it to larvae. The jelly is creamier and more like a serum than thick honey, according to Keller. Besides adding a decadent texture to products, royal jelly promotes cellular rejuvenation, making skin brighter and firmer. A study published in the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology found that royal jelly contains soothing pantothenic acid. This B vitamin is vital for the body’s stressresponse system and overall adrenal gland function, which promote clear, healthy skin. Like honey, royal jelly also fights viruses, inflammation, and aging with its antibacterial, antiviral, antiinflammatory, and antioxidant properties, making it a great remedy for redness due to hives, psoriasis, and eczema.
Stella Metsovas, CN, a nutritionist in California, recommends royal jelly for keeping skin looking youthful. “It’s a nutrient powerhouse,” she says. Metsovas, who has studied foods’ chemical properties for 15 years, says royal jelly may also balance hormones. For menopausal women, it can enhance skin’s appearance. It can also reduce or eliminate breakouts.

B E E SWAX

Worker bees secrete wax that contains traces of honey and royal jelly from glands on the sides of their bodies. “Beeswax has the same antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral properties as honey and royal jelly, but to a lesser degree,” explains Keller. Bees use wax to safeguard and seal honey in the honeycomb. In beauty products, beeswax holds ingredients together and thickens them. As an emulsifier, it is a stellar stand-in for petrolatum, a potentially toxic and nonrenewable petroleum-based chemical used in cosmetics. “Beeswax is completely  nontoxic, and it’s the most sustainable of the hive products because bees constantly produce it,” says Keller. The Mayo Clinic ranks beeswax among the most effective ingredients in lip protection because it forms a protective barrier between your skin and the environment. It’s also a key ingredient in natural waterproof sun block because of its water-repellant hydrophobic properties.