Customer Reviews

Skinny Bitch

5 star:		(459)
4 star:		(175)
3 star:		(115)
2 star:		(129)
1 star:		(400)

 

 

As a person who has a biology degree with a focus on nutrition, an advanced biology teacher, vegetarian, and a marathoner/triathlete, I was interested to read a book that may give me strategies to use myself and to interest my students in eating better. This book started well and then changed courses quickly. The scientific evidence in this book is just WRONG. It is riddled with inconsistencies and hypocrisies including that you shouldn't eat meat because it is rotting flesh and vegetables are living when you eat them. Unless you are eating them off of the plant, vegetables are also dead and decaying (look what happens to fruits and vegetables when they are not eaten in a timely fashion). They also say that you shouldn't eat processed foods, which I totally agree with, but then go on to advocate for veggie/vegan products that taste like meat which are incredibly processed but according to them are still good because they are vegan. With a statement of " A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous!" you would have thought it would be all about good things to eat and how to exercise to lose weight. Not so, this is just a manifesto on how bad the meat industry is and how bad the government is. This book actually made me angry because I didn't buy this book to be inundated with these two women's opinions about the government and their dislike of all meat products. This book is not worth the money or time unless you want to read two women's rants about how everyone should be vegan.

It's sad that anyone would take their advice.

I have no issue with veganism. Veganism is fine. I was a vegetarian for several years and didn't eat red meat for several more after that. I couldn't do the vegan thing, but I appreciate that some people do want to eat that way, and I think there are some good reasons to limit or eliminate meat and dairy consumption. What I have a problem with is the language that the authors use in the book to try to convince people to eat vegan - and I'm not talking about the profanity. You see, in addition to being an ex-vegetarian, I am also in recovery from an eating disorder. And so much of the language in this book is exactly the kind of thing I would say to myself to convince myself not to eat, when I was at the worst point in my illness and trying to eat less than 600 calories a day, while at the same time exercising 3-4 hours a day.

It's a lot easier not to eat when you convince yourself that what's on your plate is disgusting - that it is rotting, filled with pus, decomposing, etc. Who would want to eat a horrible plate of rotting meat, right? If you can look at your plate and see filth rather than tasty food, it's easy not to eat it. It's easier to not eat when you constantly tell yourself that you're fat, lazy, worthless, stupid, etc. if you eat. Because if you can make the self-criticism stop by not eating - if you can feel virtuous and clean and okay by not eating, and have the relentlessly critical voices stop for a little while, and have some peace from your own anxiety and tension - then not eating becomes an easier and easier thing to do, over time. I didn't hear two angry vegans speaking in this book. I heard two women who have major food and body issues that they've never addressed. A lot of people have objections about the authors calling other people fat, stupid, etc. - you have to understand that is not the authors talking about other people. Those are the voices they hear inside their heads, every single day, telling them that THEY are stupid, THEY are worthless, THEY are bad if they stray from this very strict diet they have devised. That's exactly what happens when people have an eating disorder. Ultimately, it is NOT about food or losing weight, it is about control. By limiting what they eat to this very narrow selection of foods, they can maintain or take back control they don't feel they have normally. As an ex-anorexic friend of mine said, this book is awesome for people in the throes of the disease because it basically gives you permission to food-restrict and negatively self-talk all you want, two of the behaviors that therapists try to eliminate in eating-disorder patients.

I truly believe this book is not about veganism. This book is about how to practice a special brand of anorexia in which you view food as evil and avoid putting it into your body, but you still eat enough of certain things to avoid criticism from friends and family, under the guise of this pro-animal-rights philosophical viewpoint. The language they use is very similar to the language you see on pro-anorexia websites maintained by women whose goal is to trade tips for how not to eat and reinforce each other's philosophy and behavior. Those websites have the same "us against the world" and "other people think we're crazy but we're doing the right thing" tone. If you want to be vegan, that's great, but this is not the book to read. Because this is way more about the psychology of eating disorders than it is about good reasons to be vegan. This book is about how to be a vegan with a very twisted relationship with food. There are other books out there that can help you be a healthy vegan, who has a healthy relationship with food, and with your own body.

There's one other thing I want to say about the book. Vegan diets work great for some people in terms of weight loss. For other people, eating large quantities of fruit (high in sugar) and soy (high in phytoestrogens and endocrine disruptors) can cause big problems and would not result in weight loss. I have PCOS and the diet prescribed in this book is exactly what my nutritionist and physician have told me NOT to eat. If you have PCOS, or an existing thyroid condition, PLEASE talk to an endocrinologist before adopting the eating plan in this book. Did you know that soy ice cream has a higher glycemic index rating than pure glucose? If you have blood-sugar issues or hypothyroidism, soy products are very problematic. There's also evidence (that these authors don't discuss) linking soy to hormonal imbalances and cancer. Women with breast or thyroid cancer, or who are at high risk for those cancers, are usually counseled to avoid soy.

In any case - this is honestly not a diet book, or at least not one that people should be taking advice from. I have struggled with my weight my whole life (due in part to the fact that my PCOS went undiagnosed for years). I would love to lose weight but I also think part of the goal of living is to be a happy person. The kind of negative self-talk the authors encourage under the guise of "straight talk" does not lead to happiness, I can testify from experience. There is a huge problem with obesity in this country, but we aren't going to solve it by having people develop extremely negative relationships with food. This book gave me the chills because it reads so much like stories girls in my therapy group told about how they talked to themselves, to convince themselves to stop eating. It was disturbing to me, and it's even more disturbing to me that thousands of women out there are taking it as the gospel truth.

Okay, I guess I should start off by saying that I am a proud vegan. I love my diet for its health and environmental benefits and would recommend it to anyone.

That said, I kind of shudder to think that someone with no prior exposure to a vegan lifestyle is getting their introduction through this book. Yeah, I can handle the bad language, but they are so abusive to the reader. A few reviewers talk about the "girlfriend" tone. If any of my girlfriends talked like that to me, I'd be really upset!!

Yes, veganism is a way of losing weight - but it is not the only way of losing weight. I was a healthy weight as a carnivore, as a lacto-ovo vegetarian, and as a vegan. Going vegan has not caused me to lose a single pound. Portion control is almost the most important factor, and the menus near the end of the book don't include portions at all. They do include lists of suggested natural food products, including many prepared foods, like TV dinners. While I love some of the products listed, is over-reliance on these kinds of foods something that the authors want to encourage? Not all of them are really all that healthy. Vegan junk food is still junk food.

There is other factual information that just seems...wrong. The authors suggest donating blood as a way of helping others and losing weight. Losing weight? Excuse me? I call bull, just for the simple reason if that were true, I would have heard about it already and the American Blood Association would be using it as a way to get people to donate.

Also, the authors seem to endorse the philosophy that everything that ails you can be traced to diet. You shouldn't take aspirin for menstrual cramps because your cramps are just the result of your crappy diet. And they are also Nature's way of preparing you for the pain of childbirth. First, which one is it? (Result of crappy diet or natural process?) Second, this sounds dubious at best - ask any woman who's given birth if they thought it was easy because they had good "practice" from having had menstrual cramps. Third, some people have jobs, unlike the authors of this book, and actually need to be functional during their periods, instead of being in so much pain they can't even work. Not everyone who takes pain relievers is a "pill popper". Not everything natural is good for you. Not all your health problems are because of diet. Sometimes you really do need to see a doctor and take medicine.

I feel bad for really not liking this book, because it is getting a lot of attention, including from non-vegans. I just wish the authors of this book did a little more research and were a little less confrontational.

"Skinny Bitch" has been making the rounds in my book club, so I had to see for myself what all the fuss was about. I actually enjoyed the book and found it more valuable than I thought I would.

The first thing you need to know about this book is that it is laced with profanity. Personally, I find the language hilarious, but some people don't like that sort of thing and should be forewarned. (But seriously, what else do you expect from a book with the word "bitch" in the title?") The book gives readers a tough-love guide on how to become healthier and skinnier. Yes, a lot of the advice is very basic: stop shoving sweets into your mouth every 30 seconds, get up off your rump and exercise, etc. However, I did learn a lot about chemical additives from this book, and I'm being a lot more careful about the foods I choose to put into my mouth. I was also blown away by the graphic depictions of slaughterhouses in this country, and although I don't think I'll ever be able to give up meat completely, I haven't eaten any meat or animal products in almost a week, which is huge for me.

There are certain things about this book that I think the authors take a little too far. They're all about the vegan lifestyle and insist that it's the only way to be healthy and fit, which I don't think is true. In the slaughterhouse chapters, the authors make reference to all the anger and adrenaline that passes through animals before they are killed, and then they claim that meat-eaters digest all that rage and negative energy, which I think is B.S. Also, fasts are strongly advocated in this book, which I don't think are necessary or very healthy.

In spite of several flaws, "Skinny Bitch" is not without merit. Reading this book will force you to finally stop and think about what you are eating, which is a good thing.

And I have to say, this book is the biggest piece of hate-filled garbage ever to grace vegan and vegetarian literature. First of all, I work in the medical field, and most of their so-called health claims aren't even true. In fact, most of what they try to tell the young women they're targeting is incredibly dangerous -- the book basically encourages eating disorders and body hatred, and eventually gets around to, "Oh hey, by the way, animals get abused, too!" But by that time, you already hate your body and want to go to the back shed and shoot yourself in the head. I would not recommend this book to anyone; it's basically a do-it-yourself guide on how to hide an eating disorder and hate yourself, which is not, or should not be, what veganism is about.

(It's also worth mentioning that although the authors say "if you eat crap, you are crap," their cookbooks are filled with processed, disgusting food that can only be described as crap. But I guess in that way, Freedman and Barnouin are for once being honest with us about what they are.)

There are so many things wrong with this book I barely know where to begin. I thought the review below mine covered much of what I wanted to say.

Let's begin with this: the authors rant quite a bit against modern medicine, specifically over-the-counter pain medicines like Tylenol and Advil. They say that "Cramps suck" and then tell us "cramps are supposed to suck" and that the purpose of cramps is to ready our bodies for the pain of NATURAL CHILDBIRTH, and therefore, when we take pain killers to mask the pain of cramps, we are screwing ourselves over (only they don't use the word "screwing").

Seriously. Do you need any further reason to NOT read this book? What's next -- NATURAL dentistry?

When I first picked it up, I confess, I was delighted and amused. The authors drop the f-bomb within the first few paragraphs. They call diet soda a "chemical spill sh-tstorm". The book jacket and attitude of the authors made it seem easy to lose weight, as if the so-called "difficulty" of being "skinny" is all in our minds. Be skinny? No problem!

Then I got to the part where they started on the REAL message of the book. It's not a diet book, folks. It's not about losing weight or even being healthy.

This book is a Vegan Manifesto.

The whole purpose and reason for this book is for the authors to spout their own political views about food and food production. When I got to the page where they say we as humans are biologically not supposed to eat meat simply because we do not have the claws or teeth to hunt and kill like carnivores, my jaw dropped open. Because we as humans have to use tools (weapons) to hunt, this "proves" we are intended by nature to be herbivores. In two paragraphs the authors dismissed 150 years of research in evolutionary biology. Obviously the authors are NOT physical anthropologists. You don't need a degree in that subject to see for yourself how wrong they are -- all you need to do is look at your own teeth. Humans, like many primates, are OMNIVORES, not vegetarians. We have molars for chewing vegetation, yes, but we also have incisors for ripping into food and WE HAVE CANINE TEETH, specifically designed for eating meat.

The authors also dismiss the biological component of Homo sapiens that our species has used for thousands of years to hunt successfully -- OUR BRAIN. Perhaps it's because they've never used theirs.

Despite this, I kept reading. As the book went on, I just could not believe what I was reading. If the book is intended to be about "diet" then why are there 3 chapters about food production and animal slaughter?

I cannot even recommend this book to anyone considering veganism. This book is not simply about choosing to be a vegan -- this book is about HOW TO HAVE AN EATING DISORDER.

The authors are not skinny because they are vegan. They are thin because they have a couple of full blown eating disorders, and if you want to look like them, you need one too. Like those suffering from ED, the authors demonize whole food groups as "bad". If you ingest any of these foods, you are "fat" and "disgusting". If you eat meat, then you are fat and disgusting, and you have "dead carcass rotting" away in your guts.

Despite study after study demonstrating that people who eat breakfast lose more weight and keep it off, and that food in the morning is needed to charge the body's metabolism, the authors tell the reader to put off eating breakfast -- to enjoy the "clean" and "light" feeling one gets from starving oneself. The longer you can put off eating, the better. Only when the hunger pangs are too hard to bear, are you, the reader, to eat ONE piece of organic fruit. If you cannot stand the hunger, you are allowed one more piece and then, if you must, a third, but the goal is to reduce your food intake to one piece of fruit for breakfast. To these authors, food is bad, and if you are weak enough to be hungry, then YOU are bad too.

This whole book is disgusting. How can I blame the authors -- the lack of food has affected their brains. But the publishers should be strung up for printing and distributing it. I have always been again censorship, but if ever there was a reason for a book burning, this book is it. Don't read it and DON'T let your daughter read it.

If you are interested in food production and where our food comes from, I recommend What To Eat, by Marion Nestle, who teaches nutrition at Columbia University in New York. That's a reputable book by a reputable author, with actual research behind it. If you are interested in veganism, there are many good books out there, and I recommend the blog Vegan Lunch Box (google it). If you are interested in losing weight, I recommend almost anything else.

If you know anything about science (and obviously these two idiots don't), you know googling your sources is probably the worst way to gain credibility. Almost all of their sources are websites, self-help books, or some other nonsense, ill-backed source. If you flip to the back references, you will not find one single scientific, peer-reviewed journal. You might say, "So what?" I'll stress the phrase peer-reviewed which means other experts in the same field as the people who wrote the article will review the data and the trends drawn from it and come to a conclusion on its credibility. If they find the claims made by the article are misleading and poorly done, IT DOESN'T GET PUBLISHED. Also, it's a bad idea to use the same source over 20 times in a research piece.

These women have no idea about chemistry, and I don't think most of their sources do either. They make the hilarious claim that we can't digest meat but we can digest fruits and vegetables. What? Part of the reason why fiber is considered good for you is the fact that it cannot be fully digested by humans and therefore aids in great digestive tract cleaning. Cellulose is the component of plant cell walls and humans are not equipped to digest it. It comes out intact, end of story. If you don't believe me, eat corn and then check your bathroom later. You get the idea. Animals cells don't have cellulose. Meat gets broken down by the body.

I believe they, like many vegans who do not do actual, intelligent research, skipped over the thousands of articles and topics that disagree with them, found the few that do agree, and touted the lack of support as a cover-up. Sorry, girls, that's just bad science.

And furthermore, med school students spend a little more than just "three hours on nutrition." I'm sure these two have no idea what a medical school even looks like.

Note: I'd also like to add that I read this book out of sheer enjoyment (as a scientist, non-scientists pretending to be on the same level is REALLY funny) as I don't need to lose weight. I eat meats, cheeses, eggs, and drink milk. I lost 10 pounds not from becoming a vegan but simply but cutting soda. I think that's the only good thing the morons mentioned but everyone knew that already anyway.

I am a personal trainer and sports nutritionist. I have been a vegetarian, vegan and even raw foodist. However, this book totally annoyed me. Yes, all the scary stuff about meat is true. But, to insult, curse and demean others is as in-humane as the slaughterhouse.

I was expecting a funny-witty-chatty girlfriend sharing diet secrets kind of book and instead I get this veggie-Nazi tirade. This book is ugly. It reflects how low our society has become that we allow this filth to be passed off as journalism.

I'm all for free speech but, think about the pre-teen and teenage young women who will read this book and think using the F word is a way to get their point across. It is really sad that we have made this book a best-seller because they dared to use the B word on the cover.

Being overweight is often due to overeating and eating the wrong foods, but there can be underlying reasons for the behavior such as depression and emotional abuse. We need to reach out and offer education and understanding in a loving, positive manner. We don't curse out and belittle people with an illness--and being overweight is a medical problem.

I'm disappointed in myself that I bought this. Here are a few books that have wonderful insights on healthy eating:

Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousins -Benefits of living foods for your health Conscious Eating
Fast Food Nation - You will not want to eat a hamburger again Fast Food Nation
Diet For A New America - Raises thinking about our food sources Diet for a New America

There are many other excellent sources for diet and nutrition information available for vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Vote with your pocketbook do not support this foul-mouthed, negative diatribe by these two. Please let their 15 minutes of fame be up already.

These two ladies have really done a great job. Their assessment of the ways we treat our bodies with cigarettes, caffeine, sugars, meats, dairy etc. is just the most unconventional scrutiny we can ever undergo. Very sharp and funny at the same time. This is a book about healthy lifestyle not about any fad diet. It is written by sharp, intelligent women who are not afraid of challenging their readers. They demand respect for the nature and for our own bodies. It is an eye opening book making us realize what we really consume and why we became such an obese nation. I recommend this book for its funny and at the same time practical approach to healthy living. I took one star off for the language that some might find `inappropriate' to say the least. Another really great book about healthy lifestyle, longevity, and keeping your body in great shape is Can We Live 150. If you liked Skinny... you will love Can We Live... .

Ok, I want to start this with a few declarations as I have read all of the negative comments about this book.

First- I have had a problem with anorexia just like many who slam this book. They say the contents simply tell people how to be anorexic since it's about control thinking "food" is gross. Hold on- yes, you will need to possess some self-control in order to eat healthy- DUH! But nowhere in this book do the authors call FOOD gross- they call the chemical concoctions we have come to think of as food gross. Really people- to compare the control and restrictive attributes of anorexic behavior with a vegan diet is ridiculous!

Second- the science and studies quoted are very often put down as being "flawed". Ya know, I can find a study to say just about anything I want it to. Does that = bad science? Maybe, but it works on both sides of the table here. Everyone who wants to yell that the studies quoted in this book are flawed because they can show you a study that says opposite is in the same boat.

Now I would venture to say that anyone who put this book down based on the above reasons OR things like "obesity is a disease" and "I don't need to be belittled and sworn at" are the same people who will pick up a diet book like Atkins, Belly Fat Cure, South Beach or any other book that has the MAGIC FORMULA to let them eat and eat and lose weight. They simply do not want to be told STRAIGHT UP how it is and why they are the size they are. These are the people who fuel the billion-dollar diet industry and then complain because "nothing works". They are the people who watch "The Biggest Loser" and say "well if I was THERE I could do it but...[insert 53 excuses here]" People, the title of the book and the "synopsis" or "look inside" tell you the tone of the book- if you still chose to buy it and read it then you are simply making up excuses because you didn't like what you read (cut too close to home, perhaps???)

Also- for those of you that want to call this "political" and say that you don't want to hear the descriptions of what happens in slaughter houses- grow up! You're willing to put it in your body but not know how it got to your plate? Are you saying that when you see hidden camera footage of a waiter peeing into the coffee pot, you're perfectly fine being served that coffee as long as you don't KNOW that he peed in it? Are you not outraged watching someone drop something on the floor and then see it go out to the customer? Ok, I ask you- what is the difference? The ugly truth about how factory farms are managed and how animals are slaughtered have nothing to do with a political agenda or sensationalism. They are the hard, cold truth about what goes into your meal and how it gets there.

I became a vegetarian as an experiment. It began because I noticed that if we cut out meat, our budget would work much better (I have a family of 6 to feed- including 2 growing teen boys!) Well, my husband was having none of that so I just did it on my own. I committed to a month. WOW! I can't believe what a difference it made! At the end of the month I discovered I had never felt better so I just kept it up. Gradually I am working on eliminating all dairy from my diet as well. Now, the rest of my family still eat meat, but they only eat humanely raised and slaughtered organic animal products. How do I know, you may ask- well I'll tell you- because I buy local and can actually visit the farms and SEE with my own eyes what goes on there. I have cut back on everyone's animal product consumption in the home and no one has complained a bit. There are so many wonderful things that can be cooked economically and healthfully that it's a wonder anyone WOULDN'T eat this way! I feed us all this (non-GMO, organic, humane, local) on what most people spend on groceries in a week.

To conclude my review, I'd like to say that this book is EXACTLY the kind of thing people need. No dancing around, politically correct, nicey nicey crap- just straight talk about something everyone is talking about. It's up to the reader to act.