Customer Reviews

The Perricone Prescription: A Physician's 28-Day Program for Total Body and Face Rejuvenation

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This book is pretty much about eating clean, low glycemic carbs and healthy fats. Too many of the wrong foods (bad carbs, salt, sugar) cause inflammation (insulin spike) and cause tissues to become irritated (hold water, puffiness). After following the Three-Day Nutritional Face Lift Menu(without the supplements) my face isn't puffy when I wake, my eyes aren't bloodshot and my skin is J.Lo luminious.

LOTS of supplements are prescribed which to "make it easy for you..." he sells overpriced supplements on his website at the hefty price tag of $195 for 45 days.

This is a good diet to follow if you are do Body-for-LIFE, South Beach or Atkins. I can't argue that its a bad plan. The recipes are very simple, clean and delicious. Can get expensive, but if you live near a Trader Joe's you shouldn't have too much of a problem.

The program can easily be summed up below -- he posts this on his website. Or try the eDiets.com version which is very simple to follow.

The Three-Day Menu
You will be eating close to the same thing each day. Remember to always eat your protein first. Though this diet has some variety, a restricted diet is often easier to handle since you are not confronted by too many choices.

Wake Up
8 to 12 ounces spring water

Breakfast
3 egg whites and 1 whole egg and/or a 4- to 6-ounce piece of broiled salmon
½ cup cooked oatmeal not instant)
4 oz cantaloupe + 1/4 cup fresh berries
8 to 12 ounces spring water minimum, more if desired)

Lunch
4 to 6 ounces grilled salmon or tuna packed in spring water
2 cups romaine lettuce
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste
4 oz cantaloupe + 1/4 cup fresh berries
8 to 12 ounces spring water minimum, more if desired)

Mid-afternoon snack
2 ounces low-salt, sliced chicken breast
4 raw, unsalted hazelnuts
½ green apple
8 to 12 ounces spring water minimum, more if desired)

Dinner
4 to 6 ounces grilled salmon
2 cups romaine lettuce
1 tablespoon olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste
1 cup steamed asparagus, broccoli, or spinach dressed with a little olive oil
4 oz cantaloupe + 1/4 cup fresh berries
8 to 12 ounces spring water minimum, more if desired)

Before-bedtime snack
2 ounces low-fat low-salt turkey or chicken breast
1/2 pear or green apple
3 or 4 almonds or olives
8 to 12 ounces of spring water

... One late night I saw Perricone on PBS. I was definitely skeptical, but what he said made sense at least; it didn't come across as a mind-numbing infomercial. Inflammation, insulin reaction, antioxidants, importance of protein vis-a-vis carbs, it was a nice and clean model with enough detail and did not come across as a fad of the month. It was based on off-the-shelf products some of which I was already familiar with. And I was getting desperate physically, mentally, and emotionally and was getting burnt out at work.

... I started small and incrementally took what he recommended.

It all started with DHA, more water and no caffeine - Costco sells a product called Senior Moments which has that and "cerebral phospholipids". I felt so poorly that despite the fact that I was once a religious caffeinator, I went off caffeine almost cold turkey within a couple of weeks. The results were astounding and dramatic all within a few days of doing so (the caffeine started to give me an unwanted buzz as I took the supplement, which just got me off caffeine faster). I began to think very clearly again, memory and focus was incredible, and I was multitasking like never before. Plus mood and emotional stability returned ...

Another star is alpha lapoic acid (ALA). Talk about skin rejuvenation. My girlfriend took it and within a few days her severe acne problem cleared up entirely without having to use ... expensive skin lotions, lathers, soaps to manage it. Now, she has ...natural products that work much better at 1/10th the cost. With that and a CoQ10 facial cleanser, my skin has turned out great as well.

I take most of the supplements Perricone lists (which *is* a laborious process that takes 5 minutes in the morning and another 5 in the afternoon, but combination supplements like Calcium-Magnesium-Zinc and Centrum help a lot... I also eat a bulk of foods as proteins and save carbs for last. Now, I am super energetic, mental clarity (thought process, memory, plain ol' solid thinking) has been astounding, and physical fitness (endurance, strength) has been super-incredible. And, the more I work out and sleep, the better I feel.

Plus, the mood swings have gone away, I feel no stress ... I credit most of that to GLA (gamma linoleic acid); the more I have taken, from initially 150mg a day from primrose oil, to now 600mg from borage oil, the more I have been rendered stress free - entirely gone are the back and chest pains, headaches, and emotional up-and-down rollercoaster ride throughout the day.

... his book presents in a succinct and necessary way (though the segue between chapters is a little choppy so I could take a star off for that; it takes at least 2-3 reads to understand the big picture more fully) the why's and how's of good health and consequently great skin. You have to have patience to read through a rather dry topic that most people have been made to be rather skeptical of.

In any event, I'd imagine the drug companies and fast food companies ...- wouldn't be all that happy if everyone discovered the basics again, and that's what the "prescription" is. It goes back to basics, and leverages supplements (most of which are already produced by our own bodies, albeit in limited amounts) and ol' fashion good eating habits to reinforce the machinery in our own bodies to work optimally. I make sure to eat proteins first, drink my tea and water too. If only the prescription could be simplified to a one-sentence tagline so more people would jump aboard like me. ... I strongly suggest for those of you with a lot of stress ...), with stress symptoms physical or otherwise, feel lethargic, overwhelmed and have been going through a brain-drain, to go out and get the book. If you're not the book reading type, see about making a pledge to your local PBS station and get the VHS tape. That's a more expensive option but well-worth it - help PBS and getting the info someway, somehow.

...There's actually a lot of pills, which are relatively cheap if you buy at vitamin shops ... and buy bulk quantity bottles. You also have to work out on a regular basis though workout quantity is not super important. ... Also, be aware the supplements work together and I would suggest an incremental approach. If you get into it, don't get into the fallacy of DHA is for smarts and GLA is for stress. They are, but in reality they overlap. ... There are "side-effects". You get thirsty more often from a higher metabolism rate (and you eat healtier, lose weight, and muscle builds up more quickly at the expense of fat). First few days of taking a particular supplement, like DHA or GLA, you can feel whoozy or sleepy. You might feel a bit of a "sensory overload" at first too, in particular with DHA and DMAE. That all went away for me after a couple of days... get the book or tape to find out.

Best of luck...

While the focus of The Perricone Prescription is anti-aging, I derived a fringe benefit from it...weight loss! I tend to believe that this result was produced not only by the physiological regimen, but by a psychological effect. Most "weight loss" books place all their emphasis on the desired goal, i.e., weight loss. We try too hard and are at times discouraged when we don't achieve the desired results. With The Perricone Prescription, the focus is shifted to improving your skin, so the pressure to lose weight is not there. Not only has my skin improved, I've lost weight and have kept it off.

Not only does this book deliver sound nutritional advice, it is effective on many levels. I have had a lifelong battle with weight and nothing has worked. This book was an epiphany for me because it details the science of how our bodies (skin included) react to foods and supplements. I must admit that the advice was easy for me to follow since I love fish, particularly salmon, and since I have a Mediterranean heritage, my diet has always included olives, olive oil, and seafood. Getting rid of the high glycemic foods, though, permitted me to turn the corner. NO ONE ever guesses my correct age...everyone thinks I'm at least 10 years younger than I am.

I highly recommend this book...sound medical advice from a renowned dermatologist. How can you go wrong?

I saw Dr. Perricone on the Today Show and I tend to be a very skeptical person. However, I bought his book (since I just turned 41) ready to prevent wrinkling and perhaps shed a few pounds. After reading the book front to back, I not only FEEL fantastic, I've lost 8 pounds and my skin also looks great. I wasn't too impressed with the "before and after" photos in his book. But I'm thankful that I didn't let that persuade me out of buying it. It's all about balance and eating smart. I swim every morning for 30 - 40 min. and eat limited amounts of carbs. I now eat certain fruits which I never did before and many more vegetables. I also eat salmon once a day, use olive oil in my cooking, and only drink a half glass of wine a few times a week. I also gave up drinking coffe and replaced it with green tea. As we've all heard, another key is to drink lots of water throughout the day. I basically took every suggestion Dr. Perricone made and because of that decision, I feel and look so much better. I am now finding my size 6 too big and am ready to jump back into my size 4 clothes. I also bought his vitamin supplements, taking them twice a day. His daily suggestions for meals and snacks are easy to follow. His skincare products are also worth looking into although they're NOT cheap! You won't regret buying this book if you're ready to make a positive change in your life! You take away an understanding of how certain types of food react inside your body, which causes you to think twice before putting just any food in your mouth.

Having read some unfavourable reviews of this book which is not yet available in Australia and having been on the diet for 10 days, I am so pleased with the results that I felt compelled to put pen to paper and give it a support vote.
What interested me most about what Dr Perricone promised were the promises of body rejuvenation and, importantly for me, steady insulin levels resulting in more energy.After 2 days I was so surprised to have continuous energy all day. Like everyone, my job is demanding and full on for an average 10 hrs each day.
Now after 10 days I have dropped 4 kg, my secretary asked me what have I been doing to my skin as it and my eyes looked brighter and the younger lawyers ( females) in my firm have decided to try the diet based on what they see has happened to me.
Notwithstanding that I always loathed salmon and cantelope, I am fast changing my view.
Having had two clashes with breast cancer in four years ( I won -touch wood !)steady insulin levels are very NB to me and people like me.Having read the papers of a Canadian oncologist linking steady insulin levels to longer survival rates, I obviously was motivated to find a diet that did just that. I have tried all the popular diets around and this is the first eating regime that is easy to live with and enjoy indefinitely which is critical for long term maintenance of any weight loss.
Now, if in the process of being on it , it prevents me from looking like a Bassett Hound in 20 years time then that is a bonus.
I would highly recommend this diet and the book and I am so very pleased it looked sufficiently interesting on the Amazoncom menu that I was persuaded to order it, especially given the scary rate of exchange of Australian dollars. The book is the most important purchase that I have made in recent times.
Anyone who is run down, time poor, overweight and wanting to improve yourself should buy this book, get organised and try the diet. Just think, psychologists tell us that it takes but 21 days to change a habit, good or bad. So how hard is that.
I am grateful to Dr. Perricone as his work has made a positive improvement to my life.
Finally, for completeness I will confess to being a lawyer which makes me as cynical and sceptical as they come when grandiose claims are made. However, I am convinced.

This is the first of Dr. Perricone's books I purchased. I liked it so well, I purchased the rest of them thinking there'd be updated recipes, & maybe some updated information. They are basically all the very same book, sometimes word for word, just different titles. I would recommend this book to anyone having complexion problems, or anyone just wanting to feel better. If you buy one of his books, there's really no need to purchase any of the others, unless you plan to share them with friends & family.

I can't recommend this highly enough. I read the reviews around here and started the 3-day diet without even reading the book. It works! The morning after I started it, as in after the the very first day, my dark circles, which I thought were here to stay disappeared almost completely. I have been following recommendations but not religiously. I did give up caffiene. Once I gave it up for the 3-day diet, I just didn't work it back in. I have had no sugar, either. Those are the areas I don't stray from.

For me, a busy mother of 3, I do not have the opportunity to follow the recipes in the book, so I have resorted to following its guidelines. It is great, has been about 2 weeks and I have dropped 7 pounds. As an aside, our grocery bills have dropped, too.

The main thing is, after I eat, instead of feeling sleepy or full, I feel energized. On a busy day, I eat eggs for breakfast, canned tuna, bagged salad and berries. Oh, and I almost always "cheat" at night with large glops of natural peanut butter. My husband has definately not been faithful, but has been eating much of what I have and he has lost 6 pounds. Suprisingly, our son, a bona-fide junk-food junkie has been eating some of this with us. At 13, he's had some bad acne and his skin has cleared up dramatically.

Now, I really don't like fish. So, I only eat it when it's broiled with just olive oil and topped with some fresh key-lime juice. Salmon has always been my least favorite. Yuck. Turns out the "wild" salmon does taste much better. I buy my fish at (egads!) Walmart. They have the frozen wild salmon for $4.94 a pound and talapia for $2.97 a pound, as well as orange roughy and more. Several times I bought fresh at our local Central Market and none of the fish I tried tasted better. The fresh salmon was not as good. I think it is because the stuff at Walmart is frozen immediately before transport.

Another food note- Olive Oil has replaced butter and other stuff and adds much flavor to things. A great olive oil is essential. I'll recommend several here- Lucini is the BEST. I have found it in all of our local grocery stores, though it is expensive, but the flavor is so delicate and fruity, it is unbelievable. Goya is harder to find for me (Central Market is our only local store) but is much cheaper and has the same full fruity flavor, though it is not as delicate. Another alternative is oils made from Kalamata olives. Believe me, if your food is tasting bland, you are not eating the right kind of olive oil. And key-limes are another flavor-booster.

As for the supplements, my approach, again, has been to simplify. I bought Oil of Olay for skin and hair and it has ALA and CQ-10, as well as most of his other recommended general multi-vitamins. I bought it at Walgreens, but saw it tonight at Walmart for about $12.00. I added some extra Vitamin C-ester, some fish oil combo (I got at Costco for $15.00 or so), some ALA and Acetly-LCarnitine, which I got at Walgreens 2 for the price of one. I do not follow his recommendations exactly- again, only what I can work in. Still, my nails are growing like crazy and my hair is super shiny and soft.

Lastly, I checked out some of his other books at the library and I think it's in the Wrinkle Cure that he shows you the results of DMAE. I bought some and mixed it in my face cream. My skin feels so much softer and just seems really glowy.

In summary, doing this was so easy and I feel so much beter now that I do not intend to leave this eating plan. I also do not mind the supplements and have simplified things down so that they work within my lifestyle. For example, I like to get outside. So, I started by walking each day- even for 20 minutes and am now running. Once I told myself to get out for the sake of my face, I just seemed to be more motivated than worrying about my waistline.

Good luck if you read all this! I hope that I have not upset the apple-cart too much by laying out my approach. I suspect, though, that some might be discouraged or intimidated and I say DON'T BE! It works, you deserve it and you will look FABULOUS!!!!

...which I happen to be. Most people aren't willing to change the way they eat and drink -- at least not for more than a few days.

However, if you have something of the maniac about you, and are willing to swallow a couple of fistfuls of pills each day (and are good about keeping track of replacing them as you use them up, and shopping around to find the best buys because some of them, like tocotrienol, are wicked expensive) then you should give this Perricone method a whirl.

I happen to love salmon (I almost capitalized it just now: What does THAT tell you?) -- left to my own devices (i.e., if I weren't married) I'd eat it 4 or 5 times a week for dinner. The hard part is remembering to drink enough water. No big deal, really, just another thing to remember to do.

I saw a noticeable improvement in my skin after about a week. Is it the fish? (I indulge more often now -- doctor's orders, right?) Is it the water? The vitamins? Beats me. I've been doing this for a year, and don't want to stop any of it, just in case.

The Perricone method is a good match for people who are on Atkins (I am). You're taking protein, water, and lots of vitamins either way.

Get this book in paperback, in case all this obsessing is more than you can take. (I'm giving the book 4 stars. He lost one for the infomercial -- relentlessly pushing his own exorbitantly-priced potions. I wouldn't have minded that, had he told us how to mix up our own.)

-- Janis Jaquith, Public-Radio Commentator and author of BIRDSEED COOKIES: A FRACTURED MEMOIR

It is fiddly, it takes some time, it means a change to your basic shopping and lifestyle - it will attract attention in restaurants when everyone else is tearing the bread apart and sipping their wine while you have the big glass of water. I started doing it but didn't really expect anything too dramatic and I'm lazy so I often don't follow it to the letter. I still drink a bit of coffee and sometimes skip breakfast, I use the creams (not all of them) and can't afford the supplements so I make do with some supplements and a few from the supermarket. I still have a weakness for little snacks which involve crackers and crisps too. However, this water, salmon, berries, melon thing and the creams have got something going for them. Recently a stranger said "your skin is incredible". I caught sight of myself in a window and I was suprised at my high cheekbones and the way my skin looks stronger and plumper and yet more defined. My face looks quite different actually. Hmmm interesting. My body is changing in a similar way and while this is all early days yet and I'm yet to beat some of my lazy habits I intend to keep dropping more of those carbs out of my diet and powering up on all the good stuff. I'd really rather do this than have injections, face lifts and the like at some stage and prevention is better than cure. When I think about how much money I would spend in my younger days on alcohol, cigarettes (when I smoked) and junk food - not to mention all the fashion buys that didn't work out due to body size I think that if you deducted all that from the "costs" of Perricone products etc it's not quite as bad as you think - add in the benefits of feeling amazing and energetic then really you have to be ahead on this one.

I saw Dr. Perricone on PBS and was intrigued by his discussion of inflamation. Since I have ugly spider veins on my face, I figured I'd give the diet a try before I forked over thousands and thousands of dollars to some laser surgeon. In talking to my sister, she wanted to try the diet, too. My friend jumped on board, and we all began the diet on January 13 (just less than two months ago). Results? My sister, 42, has lost 38 lbs (87 to go), has never cheated on the diet, loves it, and has no trouble with prep time though she's a paralegal by day and a full-time law student by night. My friend, 35, has lost 26 lbs (34 to go), cheats weekly, drinks wine daily, and has developed a passion for salmon. I, 43, have lost 17 lbs (33 to go), cheated once, but have a lot of trouble eating as often and as much as Perricone dictates. I find that I stall when I reduce the food or skip snacks.

Skin? Each of us has had a dramatic improvement in our skin. My sister's stubborn adult acne has disappeared, my friend's sallow complexion and dark circles have disappeared, and my beet-red face and road map of veins is diminishing.

Though the book has discrepancies (he needed a much better proof reader - and I've taken a star off because of it), it managed to motivate me and mine and produced the promised results. That says a lot!