The Beauty Detox Solution: Eat Your Way to Radiant Skin, Renewed Energy and the Body You’ve Always Wanted

147 of 168 people found the following review helpful:

Not possible for the average person…, May 12, 2011

First the good…the info about when to eat different types of foods, the enzymes your stomach uses to digest different kinds of food…that made sense. Before this book, I ate oatmeal with fruit and nuts every morning. Now I eat an apple first, then the oatmeal, and I bring a handful of almonds in to snack on later in the morning.

That said…per this book, that breakfast is still ‘bad.’ The book says that I should drink a blended spinach smoothie for breakfast, be okay with being hungry, and not eat again until afternoon. (Shocking that people lose weight on this…) The book directs that if I DO have my ‘regular’ breakfast I should do the following: eat an organic apple first, then some organic spinach, then organic oat groats (oatmeal is bad) that have soaked in water overnight, then, three hours later, organic raw almonds that have soaked in water overnight. I just don’t have the time or money (oat groats cost twice as much as my regular thick cut organic oatmeal and organic almonds are outrageous) for all that. And really, that’s one of your few choices for a ‘regular’ breakfast. Cereal is out, eggs aren’t allowed, yogurt (dairy and soy) is bad, etc.

The book promotes being a vegan, which is fine. While I’m not a vegetarian, I like to have a couple vegetarian days each week. But the book also says not to eat any beans, tofu, soymilk (or any soy product), peanuts, etc. It also says I should ferment cabbage and water in my pantry for several weeks and drink the foamy, bubbly, enzyme-full water. Not something I’m ever going to do.

Granted, the book is titled ‘Detox’ so I guess anyone could follow the diet (minus the fermented cabbage cocktail, sorry) for a week or two. And, since you’ll probably be eating less than 1000 calories a day, you’ll definitely lose weight. But I was hoping for a new, practical approach to eating healthy. And, like I said, the food combination ideas were helpful and there were other helpful pointers but, 70% of the proposed diet was simply not practical for everyday use.

If you’re already a vegan, you might be able to follow this. Though being a vegan and not eating soymilk, tofu, any soy product, beans, or nuts is still seriously restrictive. If you’re an omnivore, this may work for a week or two and you will definitely lose weight…but when the detox is over and you return to a chicken breast sandwich on whole wheat, there’s a good chance the weight will come right back.

Bottom line, I think there are some interesting digestive/food combo ideas but, overall, the diet is entirely too restrictive for the average person who has a job and/or family.

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

Lost 5 pounds by the end of this book, June 12, 2011

So why not give this book 5 stars? Because the diet is on the extreme side and leaves me with more questions than answers. For example, where do I find nutritional yeast? First of all, Kimberly Snyder did a wonderful job explaining how our stomach breaks down each type of food and why she recommends eating foods in a particular order to make it easier for our bodies to digest and then absorb nutrients. Her theory is that if it’s easier for our bodies to digest, absorb, and eliminate, our bodies have more time to heal itself (this is where the beauty part comes in) rather than just focusing on digestion 24/7. Second, it makes sense if we cut out animal protein, dairy, alcohol, and anything else that makes our bodies acidic, from our diets and replace them with produce so that we’ll be healthier and maintain our weight. It’s just hard to swallow that information and put it into practice on a daily basis. This book gives you so much knowledge and then you end up feeling bad that you aren’t putting everything into practice.
As you can tell, Kimberly Snyder pushes vegetarian and vegan diets as the healthiest route but she does say you don’t have to give up meat all together. She recommends no more than three dinners a week with meat, preferably not land animals. She also highly suggests eating raw since none of the nutrients are lost to cooking. Again, it makes sense but dang it I like to steam my veggies! The one thing Miss Snyder recommended that I had never heard about was eating fruits by themselves and nothing afterwards for at least 20 minutes since our bodies absorb them so fast (when eaten by themselves) and make are intestines very acidic. She says that having fruit with anything else will make everything inside our intestines putrefy and take a really long time to be eliminated.
I like the green smoothie recipe and can definitely do it 5 mornings a week but not too excited about her oat groat recipe. Miss Snyder has three different phases for the detox so really everyone could manage one of those phases depending on your conviction. If you are hard core, you’ll give up meat, eat mostly raw foods, go organic, and be popping tons of pills (probiotic supplements, digestive enzymes, and magnesium-oxygen supplements) each day. If you’re like me, you’ll be drinking the green smoothie, increase the days you’re vegetarian, and just overall watch what you eat and in what order. The book is a wealth of knowledge and I can imagine most people will think it’s not realistic. But, take your new found knowledge and at least try several changes and see what difference it will make.

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