Book Review: Skinny Bitch

"No one cares about being healthy. No one cares that obesity and diabetes and heart disease are more rampant than ever before. People care about being thin. That's it." - Rory Freedman (co-author)

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I work at a book store, so when something becomes a Phenom in the book world, I'm usually curious to figure out why. It wasn't too hard in this case--Posh Spice was seen buying it.

What surprised me, however, was when I realized (perhaps when Googling?) that it's a vegan diet. So I gave it old speed-read.

Bottom Line: There are better nutrition books, and better vegan books.
Sub-bottom line: If it gets people to think about a few new things, or make that final step to vegging, or eat less meat/dairy... I guess that's okay. It will definitely reach an audience that would never have picked up a Stepaniak book. I give them kudos for that but...

I'm not big on crap information, even if it's "on the side of the angels."

* First, these chicks have no qualifications, except some what-ev-er holistic degree.

* They throw out the usual 8 glasses of water a day thingy, which is one of my litmi tests to see how up to date someone's info is. (You should judge by the colour of your pee.)

* They've got some Fit For Life (Harvey and Marilyn Diamond) going on, and while those two aren't toooo bad, they also espouse some info about how food digests that just hasn't been proven.

* Most of their info comes from pop health books, and web sites. Hey, most of MY knowledge comes from pop health books... which is why I don't feel qualified to write a nutrition book. I think that if you're going to put out some original work, that claims to help people lose weight, you should read well hey one or two scientific studies.

* They use a lot of scare tactics, which I just don't like. I can understand a graphic chapter on animal cruelty, since I feel that people who eat meat should at least be able to face where their meat comes from. Hey, I went vegan so I could have the luxury of no longer reading these horrible stories. This is one case where exaggeration is probably doubtful. I know how we treat books in the book industry--no reason to think animals get treated any better. Once you turn a being into a commodity, then you'll treat it like a thing.
But... I don't like the "milk is the devil's drink!" "sugar is the devil's food!" approach they otherwise take. Most types of food, in moderation, are just fine, unless you're allergic. Yes, adults are not really *meant* to take in dairy, but if you can digest it... why wouldn't you? As my friend says, human beings are opportunistic, our brains are trained to look for extra calories wherever we can get them.

* So on that note, I also find it disingenuous when someone goes on and on about how gross meat is, and how unhealthy--and then push people to eat processed vegan foods. Vegan fake meats and ice creams etc., which these authors are HUGE on, have tons of ingredients, tons of processing; yes they're usually lower in fat, maybe in calories, but not necessarily in sodium and other additives that might be pushing you over the edge in terms of proper intake. In fact, our over-intake of sodium is probably exclusively caused by processed foods. So I find it sketchy to say these foods are healthier than plain old straight from the carcass meat.

* They have some weird ideas, like don't eat too much when you first wake up because your body is still eating up fat or something. Where do they get this info? Some web site called thejuiceguy.com. Okay I'm not even going to look that one up. Bob Greene, who I find much more balanced and knowledgeable, believes quite the opposite, as do a number of other health peeps--you should eat a lot when you wake up, because your metabolism slows down at night and needs food to rev up again. A revved up metabolism burns more calories.

* They roll out the old "too much protein leeches calcium from your bones" argument that vegans love. It's a very debatable point.

* When people write books like this, they love to talk about how ill people who eat "western diets" feel, or get. But they don't talk about all the people who, I'm sure, tried to be vegan and got sick. I know of a couple people who tried to go vegetarian but didn't know that they had iron problems in their families, and became sicko very quickly. (In one case, famous amongst my friends, a guy fainted and hit his head, and couldn't smell for a year.) You can't all be *lucky* and have hemochromatosis like me.

* They don't spend enough time on important issues like B-12, which frankly make being a vegan challenging. Being vegetarian is fairly easy and "naturalish." Veganism takes planning, dude.

Worrisome: They're coming out with a cookbook, which is fine; but also with a book for pregnant mothers. Eep! I don't care what other vegans would say, if I were pregnant I'd eat a few free range eggs. I just wouldn't take risks with someone else's life--that fetal thingy isn't old enough to decide if it wants to be vegan!