The Good Skin Diet

This week I tried out a three day diet by Dr Perricone, the dermatologist and anti-aging expert. I have been reading his book "The Perricone Prescription" and find it quite interesting. The core idea is that aging of the skin and also the body and organs is caused by inflammation in the cells. Dr Perricone believes that inflammation is the major cause of most skin problems including signs of aging such as wrinkles, discolouration and sagginess.


The diet

The diet consists of three meals a day and two snacks and I found it very easy to follow. Each meal and snack consists of one piece of high protein food (usually salmon), vegetables and a small serve of low GI, high anti-oxidant fruit, such as blueberries and canteloupe. For example, a dinner could be a piece of salmon, 2 cups of lettuce, 1 cup of asparagus, 1/4 cup blueberries and 3 inches of canteloupe. Although there are basically no carbs in this diet apart from rolled oats during breakfast, I never felt hungry. The only problem with the diet is boredom - if you're not a fan of salmon, the three days might feel difficult. That said, it is only three days, so it is very bearable.

Dr Perricone and his favourite fish :p

The results

The physical results were very promising. My skin is generally very good, but I have problems with redness and inflammation and am prone to eczema around my lips. After following the three day diet, there was noticeably less redness in my cheeks and my lips were less dry and irritated. My eye circles were also less noticeable and the pores around my nose appear a little smaller. I did take before and after pictures but they're not on this computer so I'll save that for another post.

The best thing that came out of this diet is that it has taught me a few basic rules about eating. I realised how much excess I had been consuming before. The meals and snacks in the diet have very strict proportions and I've been able to use the portion sizes as a guide to how much I should be eating in one sitting which has been very useful.

Perricone Products

I also recently switched to using Dr Perricone's skincare (from the RX2 line). In Melbourne they are available at Mecca Cosmetica, but it is much cheaper to buy them through the Perricone website, if you can afford to wait a bit. I started using them a few days before doing the three day diet.

Here are the products I'm using and what I think about them so far. I have only used them for at most, a couple of weeks so these are just initial impressions.

Advanced Face Firming Activator

This product has a nice light texture and is supposed to minimize appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, refine skin texture and minimize pores. The active ingredients are Alpha Lipoic Acid and DMAE (if you read Perricone's books, these are two of the most effective ingredients in combating aging). I have noticed my skin texture has improved and become more supple.

The worst thing about this product is the smell. The product smells faintly fishy when you first apply it. I find that pretty bizarre and not very pleasant. The smell does go away after a minute or so and it is a very faint smell, but enough to make me notice it.

Advanced Eye Area Therapy

This product also contains ALAs and DMAE and is aimed to minimize wrinkles, discolouration and puffiness. I have very bad dark eye circles and I have noticed some improvement, particularly after doing the three day diet. I was looking at the before and after photos and noticed that I did have a line under both my eyes starting at my inner eye corner, which has disappeared. The eye cream has a nice light texture, almost like a gel, and seems to be easily absorbed. (I was previously using La Prairie which has a much thicker and 'harder' consistency, so this is a nice change.)

Face Finishing Moisturiser

This is my favourite product of what I've tried so far. It has a really lovely scent and smells like roses. The consistency is also very smooth and light and absorbs nicely. It comes with a little spatula so you don't have to go dipping your fingers in the jar. I have naturally dry skin and this product has kept it well hydrated.

I'm sure I'll post again about Perricone. I am now moving from the three day diet to a twenty-eight day plan and am excited to see the results.