Customer Reviews

Barbi Twins - Dying To Be Healthy: Millennium Dieting and Nutrition

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book...is so tremendous that my life had been altered. Beauty is so sought after and so strived for that our bodies become the testing ground for unhealthy and unrealistic goals. The Barbie Twins, Shana and Sia, look to most the definion of beauty; blond, thin, big busted, and famous. How many of us would "die" for what they appeared to have-too many. Vomiting, over-dosing on laxtives, and extreme exertion seemd like a perfectly good and healthy way to keep that sense of beauty strong and vital; they invented "tricks" to defy their addiction-when in truth they really were "dying" to be perfect. This book is just amazing. It offers an incredibly candid and thoughtful take on addiction-not just to food but to other areas of addiction as well. It totally opened my eyes to what some go through to obtain an inner sense of perfection that never is insaitable. Food is an addiction and this book is an avenue to recovery.

The Barbi twins went through a lot struggling with their eating disorders. I could relate to their pain yet I couldn't see where the pictures were helpful. People actively struggling with an eating disorder will not benefit from this book. The pictures seem to be detrimental for one who has a distorted body image already. Truthfully, I took this book and showed it to my therapist and we threw it in the trash together.

This book would get five stars if it would elminate two parts: the photos of the twins and most of the scary diet stories. Sia should instead have concentrated on more personal issues of why they were so deep into eating disorders and how they got help. The nutrition advice was very helpful and I learned a great deal. However, Sia tried to cover too many bases with this one. Just the disorder alone could fill one book sufficiently.

...I think the book was written well. They told the truth about all the fad diets out there and what they basically do. I liked their honesty about how they struggled with their weight and what damage they did to themselves to let girls know the imperfections behind the perfections. However, I would have liked to see more depth in Sia's writing. I wanted to know how this disorder happened. Was it learned by watching their mother? Or maybe genetic? They mentioned trying to be perfect and this infatuation with food since they were little, but what happened in their lives that caused those feelings? I would have like to have known what their childhood was like, how their parents acted, and the emotional recovery of their addiction. The scary diet stories were good, but they just sounded crazy after a while. Instead of writing what they did, I would like to have known what was going on in their head. How were they feeling that made them want to do this instead of just for work. What were the emotional and physical recovery of this addiction like...I would liked to have seen photos that showed them looking bloated or how they look in their everyday life or none at all. I like the picture on the front cover, that definitley catches the eye, but the photos inside seemed to encourage vomiting and laxative use.

Sia's account of bulimia was too vague on many levels, though I applaud her and Shane's courage for revealing at all, an otherwise private and personal condition.

I have to admit that I was sickened and offended by the pornographic type photos included inside their book! These photos are from their younger "porn calendar days" and show them at their thinnest and sickest, yet with the wonders of air brushing and good lighting, we the reader, have the impression that they are these perfect, flawless beauties who've never had one care in the world, much less a potentally fatal "disease"! Their airbrushed photos don't reflect reality at all and might as well be a painting!

They should have been more REALISTIC about this disorder by including photos of how they looked a day AFTER a binge, with NO MAKEUP or airbrushing!! They should have let us see the REAL FACE of bulimia a day AFTER a binge--ie. dark circles, puffy bloated faces, swollen bellies, legs and feet and super baaad breath (from vomiting)and gas. It ain't glamourous folks!

Instead, we see airbrushed photos from their porn/calendar days. This was a major blunder on their part. It's just too phony and doesn't portray the REALITY of this disorder at all. In fact, it gives us the mistaken idea that bulimia is even glamorous! Had they been courageous enough to have themselves photographed a day AFTER a binge, now THAT I WOULD admire because that would take REAL GUTS!!!

They didn't mention the horrible stench that bulimia causes: the horrendous gas, diarrhea and/or vomit. It's a very stinky problem indeed and no humour intended! I don't mean that they needed to gross people out by including vivid details but I do think that the "stink factor" should have received an honourable mention somewhere and yet it was left out, like it didn't exist.

The recipe and nutritional information was helpful but a little too long winded at times and I felt Sia took up too much of the book with it, as I was more interested in their battle with bulimia and how they overcame it (or did they?).

Sia seemed to shy away from including too many personal details, which left the me reader (and a recovering bulimic myself) feeling somewhat cheated. I wouldn't say this book was a terrible read but it was too vague.

I give the twins credit for going public with a very private and antisocial disorder (when your bloated, gassy and swollen from head to toe, you AVOID people like the plague until your "clean" again) but wish they'd quit the calendar business altogther and find another career because it cheapens their credibility !! What they call "calendar photos" is really glamourized porn in my oh so humble opinion.

They have degrees in nutrition, so I wish they'd do something with that (obviously it doesn't pay as well and is harder work than just posing for airbrushed photos, which any airhead with a nice body could do), instead of playing into the blonde, bimbo, Barbie doll image.

In my opinion, the twins have cheapened their testimony as recovered bumimics, by remaining in the calendar/porn business, since it's a phony, shallow, plastic industry built entirely on physical appearance, airbrusing and good lighting. It also caters to the base instinct in men (with low IQ's), which degrades ALL women in the process.

Until they leave the calendar/porn industry completely, they will never be taken seriously by most people, including BULIMICS !! The general public will think it's a publicity stunt to boost their sagging careers.

I admire Sia (or is is Shane) for having the guts to write this book and tell about all the insanity that bulima/anorexia can do. However, I have to agree with the other review that mentioned that how the airbrushed to perfection photos can only ADD to a readers mental condition who already has a distorted body image as is. While they should keep the photos, they should have also added some REAL life UNairbrushed photos to show the reality of the disease.
It would have been better if she would have told HOW she got recovered, (IF they ever did). Plus, I was vainly curious as to what they did to keep their waists sooooo small even when at their heaviest.

Im going to try their diets in the book, and see if they work. Now that she is a certified nutritionist, Im going to assume she knows her stuff on this one.

The book was not what I expected. I thought it would be more like a novel, although it did have useful information on nutrition.