1. Your name, title, and age? What do you do (or did you do) for a living?

Rebecca Booth, MD. Age 54, I am a gynecologist, author, and co-founder of VENeffect Anti-Aging Skin Care.

2. Who was the person that inspired you as a child to eat healthy and stay fit? What was their relationship to you?

My mother. Around fourth grade I became aware of my appearance, and remember overhearing the phrase “pleasantly plump”, which did not seem pleasant at all! With my mother’s help, I started researching a healthy diet and have never stopped. She loved to cook and helped me make substitutions for the foods I was craving, and that is a model I still use in counseling patients…don’t starve; make better choices.

3. What did they do to inspire you?

My mother inspired me by encouraging an education – that ultimately led me to medical school. Her strength and encouragement helped me to feel I could have a career and a family. After finishing my medical training and helping start a busy OB/Gyn practice I continued to seek healthy balance in my life and found my next role model. In 1995 my husband, also a physician, lost weight after reading the book Sugarbusters! He shared the book with me and it was another key turning point in my life. My husband’s incredible discipline with physical exercise and nutrition set the tone for our household. I was skeptical when he first made changes to a more low carb life-style, but after researching the implications for hormonal wellness I was convinced! Now with that understanding, combating hormonal aging and its implications for metabolism, mood, and skin is a passion for me.

4. How did their lesson change your life?

With the understanding of the impact of a healthy diet and lifestyle on hormonal balance, I began to focus my medical practice on sharing that knowledge and wisdom with my patients. Not only did the information enlighten me as a physician, it answered questions that were not even addressed in my medical education and residency. With my mother’s lessons about the importance of education and my husband’s shared discipline on healthy eating, I have not only changed my own life but have a mission to share this wisdom and understanding with others. The message was so well received and needed, that I was encouraged to write a book sharing the “inside scoop” on how to optimize our health and balance throughout the month and as we age. My book, The Venus Week: Discover the Powerful Secret of Your Cycle…at Any Age was published in 2008, focused on how a healthy lifestyle can support overall vitality, especially for women who have a unique “dance” of hormonal changes throughout their lifetime. This, in turn, led to the creation of a diet and lifestyle plan I share daily in my practice, as well as a skin care line, VENeffect, I developed with my sister who is an expert in that field.

5. Do you convey their message to kids in your life presently?


My children used to moan at the lack of junk food in our home, but now as college students they actually call and ask my advice about food, recipes and supplements on a regular basis. It is a great relief to see that all of that work early on pays off, despite the whining their father and I endured. Now we know that the example we set actually had a lasting impact. With the temptations of college eating habits and late night studying, it is gratifying that they know how to have a healthy diet and, more importantly, want to have a healthy diet. One thing that trumps food temptation is the desire to look good – and that is best achieved by a healthy lifestyle.

6. What would be your main message to children today to lead healthy lifestyles?

One of the biggest issues I see in my young patients – and often those not so young as well – is sugar or carb addiction. This often comes from their childhood years with sugary juices and sodas as the top culprit, followed closely by overly processed carbohydrates. Simple carbs, many of them I call “white foods” such as white flour, white bread, white pasta and white rice are processed to the point of readily hitting the bloodstream with sugar. Just as I did in my youth, and later reformed by my husband’s discovery of Sugarbusters, my main message today is get the sugar out of the diet, substitute delicious healthy alternatives, add protein – especially at breakfast, and keep the body moving!

7. Do you have a web site you would like to promote….web address only?

veneffect.com