Top Tips from Kimberly Snyder, Celebrity Nutritionist. And Would You Spend €780 on a Blender?

Shot of wheatgrass, anyone? With juice bars are popping up all over the place and juicing detox programmes gaining in popularity (you can read about Andrea's grumpy detox journey here), there isn't a carrot, apple or small child safe from being juiced.

Given this surge in popularity, we headed along to Brown Thomas recently to meet Kimberly Snyder, nutritionist to the stars and New York Times bestselling author, to hear all about her philosophy on building beauty from the inside out, and the latest piece of equipment available to help us in that mission.

Kimberly, it seems, has worked with most of Hollywood, including Drew Barrymore, Hilary Duff, Olivia Wilde, Leslie Mann, Channing Tatum, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Reese Witherspoon and Chris Hemsworth to name just a few.  She has also written two books to share her philosophy with the rest of the world, 'The Beauty Detox Solution' and 'The Beauty Detox Foods'.

Her energy and enthusiasm for the topic of health is infectious.  And if her glowing skin and vitality is anything to go by, then she does practice what she preaches. Kimberly believes that outer beauty is a true reflection of inner health, and while we here in Beaut.ie  adore our lotions and potions, we know that what we eat does affect our skin (as Laura is so fond of reminding us).   Kimberly recommends a whole food diet that is fully or largely plant based (in fact it was very reminiscent of the Happy Pear’s philosophy from our vegan challenge series).

Her top tips to us were, that if we were to only change two things about our diet, that we should start every day with a glass of warm water and lemon, and to take her Glowing Green smoothie each day. The full recipe is in her book but as a general guide it’s made up of 70% green vegetables and 30% fruit.  Her favourite summer superfoods are blueberries, avocado and watercress. She reckons that due to the large amount of vitamins and antioxidants that they provide, they are key to glowing skin.

Kimberly was in Ireland to promote the Vitamix Professional Series 750. Now she reckons this is the crème de la crème (though that might not be the best phrase) of blenders because ‘the power behind a Vitamix has the ability to rupture open the cell walls of the vegetables and fruits and release maximum nutrition from the whole foods.’ It's a nifty little machine with five pre-programmed settings for smoothies, frozen desserts, hot soups, purées and a cleaning cycle. You can even use it to create your own nut butters and nut milk, and it comes with a 7 year guarantee.

So far, so interesting. But then the madness kicks in. It's priced at €780. No, that isn't a typo. It'll set you back €780 (available in store at Brown Thomas and online www.brownthomas.com).Sure, it's an investment. But show me someone who has €780 lying around to be spent on a juicer and I'll show you a wormhole to 2006.

What do you think of the juicing phenomena? Is the Vitamix Professional worth the investment? To the comments!