Way Beyond Nutrition: or Why Kimberly Snyder’s New Book Rocks

When Kimberly Snyder wrote her first book, The Beauty Detox Solution, in 2011, she was a big believer in the power of whole foods to completely transform your health—and your skin.

The passionate certified nutritionist (and former med student) had just moved to Los Angeles from New York City and was quickly snapped up by celebrities like Drew Barrymore, Channing Tatum, and Kerry Washington. And seeing clients go from a too-many-late-nights lackluster to ray-of-sun glowing when giving them beauty foods and her signature Glowing Green Smoothies made her a walking wellness brand.

Now, Snyder has a Melrose Avenue juice bar, a supplements line with “soil-grown” probiotics, and a third book out today, The Beauty Detox Power: Nourish Your Mind and Body for Weight Loss and Discover True Joy.

But the new resource, while still addressing the topics of food, weight, wellness, and client “detox transformations,” takes a whole new, surprising stance on keeping yourself healthy: food is just the beginning.

“The foods on your plate can be really healing and supportive—but they are the starting point,” says Snyder, as she sips a green juice at Nourish Table + Kitchen in Manhattan. “There’s more to the holistic picture of your life.”

That includes gut health and digestion, she says, name-dropping MDs like Michael Gershon, (author of The Second Brain), who have researched the importance of the gut-mind link.

As well as self-talk. "What you say to yourself about your body is just as influential as what you put into it,” she adds.

In fact, Snyder has dug up lots of studies on the mind-body connection, including one at Harvard that found that when cleaning women were told their work met the daily requirement for physical activity, they lost weight compared to a group doing the same work but not given that message.

Snyder has become a nutritionist for whom nutrition is a small piece of a massive, multi-faceted health puzzle. "To become truly healthy, you have to align the emotional, mental, spiritual and physical aspects of your being, and address all parts," she says. "Your thoughts, beliefs and words are nourishment for your being as much as food... And do affect your body. Your food choices can be great, but if you’re beating yourself up…where are you?" she asks, leaving no confusion about the answer.

Snyder's focus on your inner self also shines through in the book's spiritual advice, which centers around the power of giving back. She personally was moved by her experience with a Rwandan boy named Cedric, whom she helped nourish back to health this past year on a trip with Gardens for Health International, as well as her friendship with Deepak Chopra (he provides an endorsement on the cover of her book). She also has chakra-focused dietary advice, which probably warrants its own article...

Snyder's experience training as a yoga teacher in Rishikesh, India, and with Dharma Mitra in New York, has lead her to value the importance of mantras to reinforce love for your body (like “My arms always look toned"—she swears it worked for her) and help you even become happier.

So while her new book is definitely full of brass-tacks insights and advice on cravings for carbs, sweet things, or crunchy snacks (which offer an “anger release,” she explains—like the equivalent of blowing off steam at the gym), she also drills into the emotional layer to every hankering. For all of its progressive thinking, it’s also relatable, and a special hybrid of health books—it gives you a plan for eating well without silly "flat-abs-overnight" come-ons, as well as advice on what to detox, while reminding you that flushing out your toxins isn't the only solution.

How will this kind of book be received? It’s already topping the Amazon charts—and interestingly, it’s leading the meditation section. —Melisse Gelula

For more information, visit KimberlySnyder.com or check out The Beauty Detox Power