The clear skin diet

There are many diet books designed to help with various problems. This book by dietitian Alan C. Logan and Dr. Valori Treloar is designed to help you achieve clear skin through diet and nutrition.

The book contains a lot of details on various studies about acne and nutrition. It successfully confirms that acne and nutrition are linked, though this aspect of the book does drag. The authors do an exhaustive presentation of all the recent studies. Our skin is a reflection of our overall health and diet. It only makes sense to improve our diet to improve our skin. I think the average reader would also like a checklist of what to eat or not. Since I read this book a few months ago I can only remember the highlights. Generally one should avoid dairy. Other than that a person should eat as healthy as possible - lots of vegetables, good proteins, and fruits in moderation and no processed convenience foods. The overall diet advice is fairly common sense.

The link between nutrition and acne is something I've always thought was true despite various doctors saying there is no link between eating pizza, chocolate, etc., and acne. While the literature and study review was interesting, it did drag. I appreciate the authors trying to explain how more studies need to be done about this link despite little money being available to fund further research. The end of the book contained recipes to support the diet. Nice effort but I didn't even look at them. First of all, there are no pictures to support the recipes (a big fail) and second it wasn't really necessary. The diet advice fits with many other popular, healthy diets that it seemed like an add-on. I would have liked to see the authors present the information in a more interesting and accessible way instead.

Book Rating: 3 1/2 stars - interesting, but a bit boring.

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

My story by Elizabeth Smart

It's hard to write a review on a book with such a difficult subject. I can remember much about the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart because I lived in Utah when it happened. Now, 10 years later Elizabeth Smart has told her story from her point of view. There have been other books written about what happened and none of them compare to this.*

Elizabeth tells her story from that fateful night until her rescue, which had to be difficult to relive. She gives just enough detail that you understand what happens to her but not so much to turn you away. The authors voice clearly reflects one who is looking back. Elizabeth at times comments on the possible motivations of Brian David Mitchell and experiences with the maturity of one who has survived. Elizabeth gives some light to an otherwise heavy retelling by describing some of the miraculous events that helped her survive particular moments. The miracle of her rescue is perhaps the most amazing part of her story and clearly could not have happened without divine intervention.

Book Rating: 5 stars

*There was one terrible account written by a true crime writer who lived with excommunicated Mormons in order to gain perspective on why Brian David Mitchell did what he did. The book was full of inaccuracies about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. None of the people directly involved with the family or investigation cooperated with the author. I tried to find this book again and couldn't. Perhaps its been long forgotten.

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.