Book #8: The Beauty Detox Solution by Kimberly Snyder, C.N.

Hey everybody!

So, I’ll admit- I’ve known about Kimberly Snyder for a couple of years now, but I wasn’t initially attracted to her, since she is a “celebrity nutritionist.”  Her clients are actors like Drew Barrymore and Vince Vaughan, and I just wasn’t really getting on board with that whole vibe.  Knowing that she works in Hollywood and seeing the word “detox” associated with all of her efforts, I’ll admit to stereotyping her program as some kind of fad or deprivation diet.  Anyway, after seeing snippets of what she had to say, I joined her newsletter about a year ago, and I had to eat my hat

just 'cuz it's pink 'n' sparkly doesn't mean it's tasty.

Snyder, a certified nutritionist, definitely knows what she’s talking about, and as it turns out, our nutrition philosophies are really quite similar!  So, I recently got her book and just finished it the other day which means…blog post for all of you!  Yay!

The angle from which Kimberly approaches everything is beauty.  Her diet and teachings all come from the perspective of finding your true inner beauty (mainly through diet), and how that is reflected in your outer appearance.  She even renames food attributes throughout the book as “beauty fats”, “beauty minerals”, etc.  She is mostly a raw foodist, and her overarching philosophy is that (properly paired) whole, raw foods, combined with continual detoxification and supporting healthy gut flora in our bodies, is the ultimate way to “become truly beautiful.”  And I have to say, after reading her book, I agree!

She starts off by taking a look at how the human body is designed, and then inferring what we are supposed to eat, based on that design.  I’ve heard lots of perspectives on this type of argument before- that our eyes are set in the front of our head like a predator’s, which means we are supposed to eat meat…that most of our teeth are flat, which means we are supposed to grind plants with them, etc.  But Kimberly points out some more interesting biological characteristics of humans, which lead her to infer that we are designed to eat a diet comprised mostly of plants.  These characteristics are:

• our livers are designed to tolerate low levels of uric acid, which is a byproduct of digesting animal flesh
• our intestines are extremely long, which provides a long transit time for our bodies to extract nutrients from plant matter, yet animal flesh rots and turns putrid during this long transit time (by comparison, she notes that tigers and other carnivorous animals have much, much shorter intestines)
• our stomachs contain a relatively low amount of acid (compared to carnivores in the wild), which is sufficient for digesting plant matter, but not for digesting animal protein
  

  although we may feel like this on a bad day, we really don't have much in common with these fellas. animalspot.net

Kimberly’s philosophy is based on eating a mostly raw, plant-based diet, and continually detoxing, to bring out our true beauty.  She stresses that the toxic environment we live in, coupled with the processed, acidic foods that we eat, prompt the need for continual detoxification.  Optimal detoxing comes from a combination of avoiding toxins (not eating them or putting them on your body in the form of beauty or hygiene products), and eating an abundance of fruits and vegetables.  Sound familiar?!  It should.  This type of diet is the one I follow, and the one that comes up in my reading again and again, no matter what ailment the book is addressing.  Kimberly’s angle is beauty (and trust me, she’s definitely H-O-T!), but I’d advise a similar diet for people concerned with weight loss, skin problems, low energy levels- you name it!  In the interest of not getting repetitive, I’ll outline a few more of Kimberly’s insights below, and not just tell you, again, to eat your veggies

• Kimberly makes a useful analogy to defend her “light to heavy” theory on how we should eat throughout the day.  Overnight, our body cleanses and detoxifies as we sleep.  In reality, we are fasting while we sleep (hence, we “break the fast” with “breakfast” in the morning).  Kimberly argues that the longer we go with simple, light foods (fruits+veg) in the morning, the longer our body is detoxing and repairing itself.  Therefore, she encourages us to eat lightly for breakfast, advising a “Glowing Green Smoothie”  (see, I’m not crazy for having one every day!), or even just Glowing Green Juice.  Throughout the day, for lunch and dinner, we can add heavier foods (nuts, seeds, proteins) to our veggies.  The theory behind this is that the lighter foods have quicker transit times throughout our digestive tract, and the heavier ones are slower to move through our bodies.  Her analogy is this:  picture your digestive tract as a highway.  You have a Porsche (fruits+veggies), a Land Rover (non-vegetable starches), and a sixteen-wheeler (protein).  If you place (eat) them in the order: Porsche, Land Rover, 16-wheeler, they can all move along at their different speeds down the highway, no problemo!  But, if you place them in the order:  16-wheeler, Land Rover, Porsche…you’ve got a “traffic jam!”  The Land Rover and the Porsche will be all backed up behind the truck.  In our bodies, this equates to indigestion, poor absorption of nutrients, and weight gain, as heavier foods keep lighter ones stuck in our stomachs for too long.  A piece of fruit that has been delayed in our stomachs behind a hamburger will ferment, causing gas, and making the nutrients in the fruit much less available to us when it finally gets to our intestines.  Interesting thought, huh?  She advises never, ever having fruit for dessert!
  

  outta my way! royallopps.com

  !

• The other big point in The Beauty Detox Solution that I haven’t written about before is food combining.  Kimberly calls it “Beauty Food Pairing”, and stresses that pairing foods correctly for weight loss and proper nutrition is almost as important as the foods themselves!  In fact, she writes that sometimes when her clients are relunctant to drastically change their diet or give up their favorite foods, she’ll take a look at what they eat and simply change the order and combinations in which the client eats their food, and that alone is often enough to help her client start losing weight and feeling more energetic!  Here is a quick “cheat sheet” that she provides, which outlines the Beauty Food Pairing Rules:

Starches DO mix with veggies (y’all know that sweet potatoes and salad is my dinner about 5x a week!)

Proteins DO mix with veggies

Proteins and Starches DO NOT mix

Different Starches DO mix

Different Proteins DO NOT mix

Fats DO NOT mix well with protein; pair moderately

Fats DO NOT mix with starches

Fruits should be eaten on an empty stomach (they digest the fastest of all foods- they are the Porsche!)

Fruit DOES mix with raw greens (except melons)

There you go!  I have to say, I have always found food combining daunting.  I’ve read about it in many different sources, but kinda always skipped over it.  But since I’ve been eating impeccably well lately, I thought I’d give it a shot.  I’ve been trying my best to stick to it since I finished this book about a week ago, and I will say that I notice that my stomach is less bloated!  My stomach is my marker for anything that I do- it’s super sensitive to any dietary changes I make, so I’m sold!

Alright, hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed reading this book!

Peace, love, and BEAUTY!

Jac