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Book Review: The Beauty Detox Foods share

Recently one of my cooking class students gifted me a The Beauty Detox Foods: Discover the Top 50 Beauty Foods that will transform your body and Reveal a more Beautiful You book by Kimberly Snyder. My student said she loved the book, and thought that I would love it as well. But it's taken me a long time to write a review of this book, because even though I think it's interesting, there is something about the book that I just cannot buy into.

To start, let me make it clear that I think Synder has written a great book, full of helpful information about the natural healing power of foods. According to The Beauty Detox Foods, the basis of truly beautiful health is a focus on fresh, organic, raw fruits and vegetables. She recommends an unprocessed, gluten-free, dairy-free, and meat-free lifestyle that improves digestion, eliminates inflammation and helps us flush toxins from our body in a natural way. She especially encourages green drinks, like her signature Glowing Green Smoothie and including digestive enzymes and fermented foods everyday. Eating a diet like this, rich in plant foods, enzymes and high fiber content, helps us feel better and literally cleans out our systems each day. This glowing internal health manifests as glowing skin, healthy hair and a radiant beauty.

Each chapter is filled with information about foods that nourish our body from the inside out. She has chapters devoted to healthy skin, hair, eyes and 'inner glow,' and it's all great information. Did you know that one of the best solutions for dark under-eye circles is celery, with its balanced sodium-potassium ratio? And that bee pollen, sunflower seeds and sprouts, and microgreens like chlorella and spirulina can help bring out your brightest inner glow by bringing trace minerals and enzymes throughout your body? The nutrition information about each fruit, vegetable and supplement is rounded out with sidebar information from reputable sources, and it's clear that ample research grounds this book. There is also a whole chapter of recipes, featuring a host of delicious snacks and meals like green wraps, healhty versions of Sheppard's Pie and pasta, and desserts sweetened with coconut nectar and stevia. You can get four of her most popular recipes here (but you do have to sign up for her newsletter).

But here's the critique: there is something too perfect about Snyder that I just can't get my head around. In between the name-dropping of her celebrity client-friends like Drew Barrymore and Channing Tatum, there are dozens of pictures of Snyder, in full make up costume and looking like a pin-up version of a chef and yogi. There are no candid shots in the whole book, and it makes everything seem just too contrived. Her website and even her Instagram feed are similar- almost all the photos are over-the-top gorgeous. This reminds me a lot of Chef Chloe Coscarelli, who not only looks shockingly similar to Snyder, but whose cookbooks and websites feature so much over-the-top gorgeousness and perfectly photographed food that it seems totally fake.

It's hard to write a review like this and not seem just, well, bitchy. Both Snyder and Chef Chloe are incredibly gorgeous, and obviously they are smart business woman. And who can blame them for making the most of their fantastically proportioned attributes to further their career? But both are published authors and have made multiple appearances on television and have active websites and Facebook accounts. Snyder even has her own line of supplements available and is currently in Africa doing volunteer work, sharing gardens and green smoothies with Rwandan orphans. And upon further research it seems that Snyder's health plan is really real: here's her article about her personal transformation into her glowing self, which is amazing indeed. Though Snyder and her recipes may seem too-good-to-be-real, my guess is that with this honesty behind her story, the success of her health transformation and that of her friends, and her honest approach to eating, she's going to remain successful for a very long time. I look forward to seeing the next book!

Posted: | Categories: book review, Books, eating healthy, Food+Drink, health food, plant-based diet

Aug

Five Easy Ways to Build a Cleaner, Greener Diet Now share

As a chef and educator, I work with people to find solutions to some of their most difficult food issues. For many people it seems that the solution (or at least the beginning of the solution) is to make some quick fixes. Sometimes it's the smallest things that can damage our diets in the worst ways. And amazingly, the things that are the worst for our bodies are also terrible for the planet and your budget too!

Check out the list below for five ways to build a cleaner diet for your body and a greener diet for the planet!

1. Skip the whites!

The so-called white foods have been linked with many of the lifestyle diseases we face as a society. Our Standard American Diet is loaded with white flour, white rice, white potatoes, and white sugar. While some of these are naturally white (the potatoes), the others are all heavily processed and bleached before they make it into our foods. Alternatives are whole-grain breads, brown rice, and unrefined sugars like coconut sugar, dates and honey.

2. Ditch the soda!

Soda is just straight up bad. Regular soda is bad, diet soda is bad, even 'natural' sodas and sweetened beverages are bad. And they are all bad for the same reasons. Firstly, our body is not designed to digest the excessive amount of sugar in soda or drinks– but we're not designed to digest all the chemicals in diet soda either. There are many studies linking consumption of sugary beverages to weight gain and other lifestyle diseases. In addition, all those plastic bottles end up in the landfill (only a small percentage are actually recycled). Plastic can also leach chemicals into our bodies. And it costs so much money to buy all those beverages! Healthier options include homemade water kefir, soda water with some stevia (they even make soda pop flavored stevia!), or just water with lemon. Kombucha and iced teas are also good choices, but watch for added sugars in all of these products.

3. Buy everything UNSWEETENED

One of the big problems with the processed food industry is that the are hidden ingredients in everything. Most often, those hidden and necessary ingredients include salt, fats and SUGAR. Sugar can be found in pasta sauces, ketchup, almost all bottled beverages, and even health foods like whole-grain breads, granola bars and non-dairy milks. I was furious when I learned that my favorite 'original flavor' almond milk and soy milk contain sugar as the third ingredient! Learn to read the labels and try to choose products without any added sweetener. Your tastebuds will learn to appreciate the the natural, subtle sweetness found in foods.

4. Buy in bulk

The bulk section is my favorite place in my health food store! You can buy grains, beans, pasta, herbs and so much more in their most pristine form. No chemicals, no fillers, no BPA-lined cans! Yes, buying in bulk means you are cooking whole grains and beans at home, but I promise the results are worth it. You save money, save packaging, and save yourself all the crap that's found in pre-cooked and processed foods.

5. Skip the Starbucks!

I was a barista for many years, and so I have seen first-hand the crazy that coffee inspires! But, it's also super expensive, mega wasteful (hello, Starbucks recycling programs?!), and it's really not that good for you. All those caramel macchiatos and Chocolate Chunk Frappuccinos are loaded with conventional dairy products and loads of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. Couple that with the acidic coffee and you have a very unhealthy beverage, my friend. I'm not going to suggest you give up your morning brew, but it would be good for you and our planet if you made your own coffee at home. Using a regular coffee maker or a French press (here's a great how-to for the French press method) you can make customizable brews at home for a fraction of the cost. Add honey, coconut sugar and organic dairy or coconut milk to further healthify your cup of joe. You can also make cold-brew coffee, which is super easy and not so energy intensive.