The Clear Skin Diet: How to Defeat Acne and Enjoy Healthy Skin Hardcover – January 1, 2007

Since I discovered this book in my mid-20's, my biggest complaint is that Logan and Treloar didn't publish a decade earlier. The money they could have saved me on dermatologist visits and Proactiv Solution Renewing Cleanser! Not to mention the social anxiety and lingering scars of breakouts I could have prevented.Tell me if my routine sounds familiar to you: I would feel a breakout coming on, get out an arsenal of irritating topical products, dry my skin out so much I couldn't help but touch it, shellac heavy concealers and moisturizers on, stress that I wasn't fooling anyone with the cover up, and hunker down with my favorite sugary comfort food to wait it out. Every well-intentioned step of the way, I was compounding the problem. This book will give you more constructive ways to channel that anxiety.The authors are serious when they describe this as a "lifestyle plan." They say it may take up to 90 days to see results and form healthy eating habits. Don't let this discourage you. Some of the studies they cite were able to show statistically significant results in under 6 weeks. I began incorporating their plan in the middle of an epic breakout and found the advice halved my healing time.The results of the lifestyle are not superficial. The steps you take to clear your skin will change your hormones, gut flora, and brain chemistry. Side effects of the program may include weight loss, lowered risk for diabetes and heart conditions, higher energy, more stable moods, relief of some symptoms of depression/anxiety, thicker hair on your head and ladies, finer hair on waxing zones. Of course, none of this is guaranteed, so you'll have to see how the results manifest for yourself. :)This book is structured to be a teaser. The first 6 chapters are a cross between Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (P.S.) and Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me (Don't Go to the Cosmetic Counter Without Me). The authors are offering you the biological mechanics which confirm your suspicions about the contribution of excessive dairy, sugar, etc. on your skin. This can be a long slog, but equips you to make educated decisions about which portions of the diet are easy to incorporate into your lifestyle and which you can skip for now. Chapter 7 read like The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, examining the health ramifications of a western diet on the cultures that adopt it. Chapter 8 is what you came for, the diet itself. If you've read the preceding chapters, or any of Dr. Weil's books like 8 Weeks to Optimum Health: A Proven Program for Taking Full Advantage of Your Body's Natural Healing Power, the takeaway points will look like familiar common sense: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants" (Pollan). However, it's great to have it pulled together coherently with the lit review. Finally, Chapter 9 gets Julia Child on you and moves into suggesting some simple recipes.I bought this book on Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation) for immediate gratification and so I could read it covertly in public places. Unfortunately, the Kindle is such a curiosity to by-passers, it's blowing my cover! If you have any suggestions for an "intellectual beard" I can download for my Kindle bookshelf, let me know! If you're waiting for a physical copy to ship, definitely go to the author's website ([...])and download the diary to get you on your way to establishing a baseline.

Although this review won't be exceedingly long, or maybe it won't be long at all, it may give you something to think about.I am way too old to have acne. I have been impacted by it since I was 22 years old. It is kind of funny that I had perfect skin as a teenager; women oftentimes would remark about its perfection--I had a job as a waitress so I saw many people every day.And then that all changed. I developed the kind of acne that made me go to the dermatologist. The good doctor prescribed antibiotics that I put on my face, antibiotics that went in my body, Retin-A that made my sensitive skin peel and become greasier, and asked me if I wanted to try Accutane (I did not).After 20 some years of drugs, I asked the doctor if acne can be cured. She replied, "No." I then asked if I could have another prescription for antibiotics because it was the only thing that worked. She again replied, "No." She said that when I "really needed" those antibiotics in my later life, they wouldn't work. I understood and waited to see how soon before my face was a wreck again.Unfortunately, I did not have to wait long. I became depressed and a hermit which is something in my line of work that doesn't work--I hid in my blue room, content to type on my computer. I am in sales, though, and sales require a lot of face-to-face interaction. I began to fail miserably because I couldn't go out and show the world how my face was betraying me.Searching on the Internet for any kind of information about acne should have been done by me years ago but I think I was under the spell of the antibiotics and wouldn't have tried many of the treatments I found anyway. Let's be honest -- I would have been too scared to go off the antibiotics because they were working. When I was forced to try anything, that's when the cure for me came.You want to know the cure for me? Zinc picolinate. I take a total of 60 mg. per day. I have also been taking megadoses of Vitamin B5. Between the two plus what I learned in "The Clear Skin Diet," I now have clear skin. The Clear Skin Diet explained why the supplements work, and because of this book, I take other supplements the authors recommend plus drink Yakult every single day (it's really good!). Needless to say, I am not a doctor so you will have to do your own investigation into the use of zinc and B5.My face improved within a week, and after 3 weeks, I only had a pimple or two -- nothing like what I had before.No more antibiotics. No more painfully dry skin. No more acne.