Testimonials
Lydia Silvestry’s Beauty Secrets is a fascinating personal account of how a baby boomer discovered what the medical world often overlooks; that one can enjoy prolonged physical well-being and a younger appearance through natural methods of health practices, fitness and diet.
- A. Farshchian, MD, Medical Director, The Center for Regenerative Medicine
What Lydia Silvestry so eloquently points out are secrets to more optimal health. She addresses the issues so often missed: lifestyle, diet, supplementation and detoxification. This book is a MUST READ for those interested in making the most of their health and their natural beauty.
- Peter R. Holyk, MD, CNS, Medical Director
Contemporary Health Innovations Inc. I am impressed by this thorough discussion of the why’s and how to’s for reducing one’s chemical exposure! This is much more than a beauty book; it is a map designed to help people discover a real treasure—lifelong vibrant health!
- Janice O’Han, CHT, President, Positive Change Health Center
Lydia Silvestry’s Beauty Secrets is a valuable tool for one’s health and well-being. The information in this book can help anyone create more balance of mind, body and spirit.
- Sylwia Steyer, Master of Science in Dietetics and Nutrition, Certified Fitness Trainer
Book Review by Willi Miller
At first glance, Lydia Silvestry's pixie-cut hair seems to be prematurely gray. A closer look at her smooth, firm skin confirms it. This youthful woman obviously is in her 40s, certainly no more than 50. And then she tells you that her sixtieth birthday has come and gone, and she has never had a facelift or a single botox injection.
Silvestry, once crowned Puerto Rico's Beauty Queen, has been writing down the secrets to her youthful appearance for more than a decade and is now sharing them in "Lydia Silvestry's Beauty Secrets." Written in a warm, conversational style, her words guide readers through the unlikely process of eliminating chemically produced products from their lives and replacing them with Mother Nature's answers to their health and beauty questions, starting at the top. From the borax she uses as a shampoo to the lemon juice rinse to her simple Avocado Morning Glory and sesame and olive oil conditioners, Silvestry lays out in detail how to find the Fountain of Youth in your local supermarket, with a side trip to the health-food store.
For both inner and outer beauty, Silvestry believes natural is better, and she lives her beliefs. Noticing that the Retin-A her doctor prescribed for skin blemishes years ago smoothed the fine lines on her face, she devised a natural mixture of egg white, honey, eggshell powder (she recycles, too) and vitamin C powder she calls her Sweet Wrinkle Treatment.
Silvestry doesn't write from a pulpit. She has made her share of mistakes along the way, succumbing to peer pressure and the hype of the advertising industry. She admits to getting breast implants when she was 40, but then explains that health problems she attributed to the implants convinced her to have them removed, one of the best health decisions she ever made, she says. A regimen of exercises to strengthen the muscles that support and lift the breasts gradually returned the natural softness.
There will be many readers who won't take the time to bake their own crackers, but even they can enjoy the sweet and tangy taste of
Silvestry's coriander pate, served on store-bought Wasa rye Crispbread. The author serves it to guests in a porcelain bowl surrounded by smaller dishes of some of the pate's ingredients.
An extremely busy businesswoman as well as a wife and mother, Silvestry easily could have given in to the temptation to stock her pantry and freezer with prepared, processed food, but instead has developed her own "processing" system. She sets aside time for a creative cooking day, when ingredients for salad dressings, soups and other staples are "mixed and matched" for use throughout the following week, with extra portions frozen. "Home prepared food is the only prepared frozen food I like," Silvestry says.
Not everyone will embrace the full extent of Silvestry's teachings but her book is easy enough to navigate for any level of commitment.