Book Review: The Beauty Detox Solution

OK, so the items I just purchased might sound a little peculiar: nutritional yeast flakes, hemp protein, Himalayan salt and digestive enzymes.

But if you’re going “eat your way to radiant skin, renewed energy and the body you’ve always wanted” as The Beauty Detox Solution promises then, according to author Kimberly Snyder, C.N., these are some of the things you ought to have on your shopping list.

From what I’ve seen, the typical American diet is high in grains, corn, processed foods, refined sugar, saturated fat and sodium. Eating like this over the long term can lead to all sorts of problems, including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Also, it can mess up your skin, hair and nails and cause premature aging.

Snyder promises to show you how to fix these issues with The Beauty Detox Solution, a nutrition book that puts a fresh perspective on the old expression, “You are what you eat.”   

Snyder says that eating a diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables will restore health and beauty by improving the body’s ability to efficiently digest vital nutrients. This, she says, will help cleanse years of toxic buildup – which she calls “sludge” – out of your system.

She explains which foods to eat, when to eat them, how to eat them and how to pair them for the most benefits.

Some of the suggestions are simple, like eat fruit first in a meal. Others are more extreme, like eat an avocado if you’re still hungry after having a green smoothie for breakfast. Even the smoothie may sound over-the-top – the recipe calls for a whole head of lettuce, three-quarters of a bunch of spinach, four stalks of celery, an apple, a pear, a banana, juice of half of a lemon, and if you’re feeling spunky you can add a third of a bunch of cilantro or parsley.

Some of her philosophies sounded outrageous, even for me. I’ve eaten clean for years, and a lot of people consider my approach extreme in its own right. But reading that a turkey sandwich was an “improper Beauty Food Pairing” was alarming.

My immediate thought was, “No way.” Imagine my disappointment – that was a staple of my everyday diet.

Still, I was intrigued. The information in this book promises to advance my understanding of nutrition and its affect on the body.

Reading about the advantages of low glycemic index foods and principles behind sports nutrition have helped shape my approach, and I’m eager to see whether Snyder’s nutritional philosophy can add to it.

My key tenets – which include avoiding simple carbs, processed meals and fried foods -- have worked great for me and my clients. But there’s always more to learn, and I’m always looking to expand my knowledge base.

So, though my approach has been successful by most measures, there’s room for improvement.

For example, I don’t always have a lot of energy. Some meals – even clean meals – leave me feeling weighed down, heavy. So that leaves me curious to know more about her philosophies.

Plus, I’m familiar with some of the principles Snyder advocates – the benefits of eating more raw vegetables and fruit, why animal protein should be avoided and the digestive issues that come from consuming dairy.

Snyder highlights some of the advantages of raw eating and veganism , though she never explicitly labels herself with either approach.

Neither method is new. For years, Jack LaLanne talked about “the power of juice” and said, “If man made it, don’t eat it.” Dr. Don Colburn in the 2001 book “Toxic Relief” made a lot of the same points as Snyder. And the 2010 documentary “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” follows people on a juicing fast and shows dramatic improvements in health and weight loss.

But Snyder, who says she based her approach in part on her extensive world travels, puts her own spin on these concepts by focusing as much on beauty as health.

Among her more memorable suggestions is avoiding peanuts, which she calls “nature’s oops.” Snyder says peanuts are by themselves a bad food pairing, since they contain both protein and starch. Also, she says all other nuts should be consumed raw and soaked because the roasting process destroys nutrients.

  

Snyder explains why certain foods – like gluten, dairy and soy – should be avoided. And she breaks her program into three tiers, Blossoming Beauty, Radiant Beauty, True Beauty. And she advises against making too many changes too quickly.

I recommend the book for anyone interested in health and fitness. Snyder presents the information in a way that is easy to understand and accessible, even if implementation would prove to be daunting for many.

As for me, I’m about a week into the “Radiant Beauty” phase. I want to give her approach a 30-day trial run to see what happens and what parts of her approach I can incorporate into my own.

I have a pantry full of probiotic enzyme salad, a container full of soaked garbanzo beans, some nutritional yeast and an open mind. Follow this blog to see how it goes.