Those Skinny Bitches make me bitch bitch bitch!

I can't read people's diet blogs and judge whether they sound unhealthy or not, because I've never had an eating disorder. My analysis tends to be more along the sophisticated lines of: That's stoopid. So it interests me when others can bring that sort of light to their critiques.

I was reading amazon reviews of Skinny Bitch the other day (because I wanted to revel in the low-star reviews, of which there were many), and one commenter said the entire book sounded like the diary of an anorexic. (See below.)

...Whereas when I read the book, all I could think was: What a bunch of unconscionable, unsupported BULLshit. Most of the negative reviews on amazon simply say: This is veganism, which is fine, but (a) they shouldn't disguise that fact, and (b) it's a shitty book about veganism. Which was my opinion too when I read it.

I work at a bookstore and whenever a customer buys it, I TELL them it's a vegan diet. "Really??" (And from the cashier next to me: Really??) And I make sure to stress our 14 day return policy.

The other day I had the absolute pleasure of dissuading a woman from even looking at Skinny Bun in the Oven, their Shitty Vegan Pregnancy Book. (Grrrrrrr!!!!!!!) When the woman learned it promoted a vegan diet, she was uninterested... as well she should be. I'm a vegan, but if I were pregnant I'd at least go vegetarian for the duration. I don't believe in risking another person's life for my political choice.

I then helped her pick out books on pregnancy nutrition, and recommended a Michael Pollan book.

*

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. [Gadgetchick on amazon.com]

Book of Negroes and Expectations

*I originally wrote this on my writing blog... but it's really themed more around romance and humour. Whereas this site is for the depressing topics. So I transplanted it here. ;-)

__

One of the best books I've read on writing fiction is actually a dense and difficult little volume called The Fiction Editor, the Novel and the Novelist by Thomas McCormack. I've read it twice, and will read it again, because his ideas require a certain amount of unpacking; but there are some good ideas that have stuck.

Among other things, he goes into great detail about setting up reader's expectations, and then fulfilling them. In a more sophisticated way than the classic Gun Introduced In Act One example. And I'm thinking about that right now, and about the expectations I have as a reader before I even open the book. Expectations set by the cover art, the reviews on the back, whether the book won awards, what genre it is, whether it's been recommended to me, etc.

If I start reading a book that's won literary praise or awards, that's the bell that sets off my Pavlovian panting for a rich reading experience. The characters can have every sort of horror happen to them, or all die by the end, but I expect (a) strong writing; and (b) to be moved, or have something deep to think about, or for the book to stay with me for awhile, etc.

I'm thinking about all this because I finished The Book of Negroes this week, and experienced a mild letdown. After seeing all the 5 star reviews, and its winning Canada Reads, and after having it recommended to me... I expected to be left with a stronger impression. Like... a heavy meal in my stomach, lots of digesting still to be done.

I suspect Oprah has this kind of sense, because the two Oprah picks I ever read were fantastic: Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible and Mistry's A Fine Balance. I recommend the latter all the time, because I just loved those characters so much, and really really cared about what happened to them.

But Book of Negroes has left me feeling mildly indifferent. The book starts off strong, and it was as page-turning as a thriller. Hill obviously researched the bejeezuz out of this material (the Atlantic slave trade, slavery in Southern Carolina, the lives of free blacks in Nova Scotia, and the colonization of Sierra Leone), and the wealth of detail is what makes the first half of the book so engrossing.

The last half or quarter, however... meh. I was really interested in the lives of freed slaves in Nova Scotia, since I'm Canadian and so is the author. I mean, we all sorta *know* how horrific slavery was in the American south, but I've never studied the early black communities in Canada. And I've never studied the colonization of Sierra Leone, or other Back to Africa movements. But it feels like, by the time he got to these sections, he was exhausted or overcome by the breadth of the novel. The Sierra Leone section is especially rushed.

And through all this rushing from one city to another, one decade of this woman's life to another, I lost touch with her. Not to mention she's--I hate to say it--what in Fantasy circles would be called a Mary Sue. I understand the desire to show a smart, educated black protagonist, suceeding despite her circumstances... but after awhile she became so exceptional, so universally loved, so accomplished, I sort of stopped worrying about her. "Aw whatevah, she'll be fine. But what happened to this woman? Let's follow her instead!" I missed many of the characters who dropped away because the heroine moved on, or the author randomly killed them off.

And when a book is this long (it's not long in terms of pages, but in terms of how much time is covered), I expect a heavy-deep ending to creeeep up on me. If anything, the theme of the book was too obvious to be interesting. The author used one of my fave Bible quotes at the beginning: I hate set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life," and the theme was present throughout. It was about surviving no matter what; about clinging to life even when death is so tempting. But I feel like the message could have been more delicately interwoven through the book; or the idea could have been challenged by other characters; or it could have been an idea the heroine really struggled with. And it's the same with the other themes--about having a recognized identity, and origin. I felt sort of bludgeoned over the head with them.

I've never read Toni Morrisson, but I watched the movie version Oprah made of Beloved, and which people didn't exactly flock to see because it's a long, dark, creepy and difficult story. And even though the book takes place sort of post-slavery--it's about a horrible act committed by a woman to keep her children from being enslaved, and the after effects of that--it left a much deeper impression on me than Book of Negroes. Ah well... maybe it's not fair to compare anyone to Morrisson.

Anyway. Just needed to think this out. ;-)

All the cool kids are doing it!

So this whole anti-industrial-food movement really revved up while I was in the last year of my MA. I noticed the "Grown in Quebec!" signs appearing over veggies at the grocery store. Provided you find a good author, I doubt you need to read more than a book or two, or maybe a few articles on the topic. I recommend Michael Pollan, but there's Mark Bittman and others who are saying the same things. (Local eating, the problems with industrializing food, how animals are poorly treated in the process, how worker safety is compromised, food safety is compromised, and nutrition is compromised.)

But it's really gathering steam. While the popularity of the topic must in part be because of fuel costs, the books would have been written, accepted, and put into publication before this topic hit. So it's interesting to see the sheer of number of books out there.

I just hope this isn't a passing fad, but some sort of substantive change that will work its way through our societies. I think it's far more likely for these sorts of ideas to spread than for vegetarianism to spread. And for good reason--this sort of thinking is more practical and realistic than, say, veganism, and it's just as compassionate; this approach includes eating much less meat, which is all I've ever wanted.

Book / Site recommend: For ecologikizing

Skimmed through the book Big Green Purse at work the other day, and as enviro books go, it was really good--lots of tips, interesting, easy to use format etc. But, better yet, she has a web site which is also attractive and well organized. Here is its purpose:

"We're unique in our focus on women because women spend $.85 of every dollar in the marketplace. That's a lot of power packed in a purse...but only if it's used in a way that can't be ignored. That's why Big Green Purse is encouraging A MILLION WOMEN to shift at least $1,000 of money they already spend for an initial $1 billion Big Green Purse impact. Want to join us? Here's how.

Added bonus:

Big Green Purse saves you time. We've strolled the shopping aisles and browsed the search engines so you don't have to. We've found products that are really green (not just "green washed") at prices you can afford. Where possible, we've pinpointed goods that are not only green but "fair trade," meaning people are paid a fair wage for their work and no child labor is involved."

I Have No Mind and I Must Eat

Besides reading my book on the Evils of the Military Industrial Corn Complex (I just finished the chapter on organic farming), I picked this up for free:

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansick

This is the guy who actually did the studies on how people eat unconsciously, with the refilling soup bowls, and the stale popcorn. (All the Good Diet Gurus are quoting his studies, like Bob Greene and Paul McKenna.)

It's just a fun book full of scientific studies, including some of the things that go wrong with them. (For example... subjects are bound to be suspicious when their chicken noodle soup is making gurgling and sucking noises.) Very entertaining.

Some of the studies are summarized here.

Write Diet Books for Fame and Fortune!

Peter Walsh, the throw-out-your-junk guy, has a book out on weight loss: Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? He says he wrote it because he noticed that after helping people de-clutter their homes, they often lost weight, and we wanted to explore the connection between the two.

Alright. Sensible enough. But I was in the Self Help section of the bookstore I work at, and I'm noticing a new trend... applying your Self Help Expertise to weight loss. The two books that struck me were:

The Four Day Win: End Your Diet War & Achieve Thinner Peace by Martha Beck
"Breaking down the weight-loss marathon into 4-day intervals, Dr. Beck provides effective strategies for changing the behaviors that make us fat."

The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size by Julia Cameron
"Cameron illuminates the relationship between creativity and eating to reveal a crucial equation: creativity can block overeating."

Martha Beck is a life organizer, and Julia Cameron has for years written books about freeing your creativity. Innnteresting. Are these 3 writers just trying to ride a trend--take the same basic advice from your other books, and give it a food twist? Will the Dog Whisperer write a diet book next? Money managers? Anyway, I'll try to follow up with some book reviews.

Side Note: Every time there's a new bestselling self help book, just watch out for the deluge of related books that follows. My favourite one these days is David Bach, who takes his advice from The Automatic Millionaire and applies it to every conceivable situation:

The Automatic Millionaire Workbook
The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner
Smart Women Finish Rich
Smart Couples Finish Rich
Start Late, Finish Rich
Finish Rich Workbook
--and his latest?-- Go Green, Live Rich

I'm still expecting: Live Rich, Die Thin, Smart Pets Finish Rich, and The Automatic Millionaire Cookbook.

High Fructose Corn Syrup: The Devil's Baby?

I'm reading Michael Pollan's previous book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. I borrowed it from work, but I'm going to have to buy it because it is blowing my little pea sized brain.

I have so many thoughts about this... I don't know where to start. Aiiiieeee. I'll try to post short thought-updates on my Practically Moral page, where I like to blab about politics and food. If you don't read them... well... you'll just have to suffer through me speechifying you every time we meet. ...I'll have to carry a script around with me, so I don't forget all my speechify points.

But here's one.

1. The US government (under the influence of food production industries) encourages farmers to grow as MUCH corn as physically possible.

2. Farmers grow corn like mozefozes.

3. There is so much corn on the market, that its value is low.

4. It costs farmers more to produce corn than the price it sells at, which is why the government has to subsidize them; this is also why farmers need to produce tons and tons of corn, to make back enough money to stay afloat.

5. The beneficiaries of cheap corn are the food producers--those who take corn and turn it into corny weirdo products; and then those food companies that buy the corny weirdo products to make new breakfast cereals.

7. SO: If you're an American, your taxes (about a quarter, I think he said) to subsidize farmers aren't really subsidizing farmers (at least re. corn and soy beans, the biggest sector of the industry) -- you are really subsidizing corporations.

8: And added to this, the glut of cheap corn means that every industry possible tries to use corn every which way they can, which is why beef cows are fed corn even though it makes them so sick, they also have to be fed antibiotics with their feed.

And presumably this is the same in Canada. And this type of economy is affecting the countries the US sells corny weirdo products to. They sell corn to MEXICO for God's sake, the home of corn! Because no small farmer can compete with this, growing corn the old way, or the old old way. (Old way=growing less corn, using chemical fertilizer. Old old way=using farm animals and bean crops to enrich the soil, on self-sufficient farms with multiple animals and crops.)

Dr Oz has been on Oprah a lot in the past couple years denouncing high fructose corn syrup, which is found in almost every processed food. I wasn't too freaked out because when you eat vegan you naturally gravitate away from processed food, so what little I consume probably isn't that bad for my health. The only change I made was to increase the amount of food I cook at home.

But now I see high fructose corn syrup as demon spawn! I'm not anti-corporation by default, but what the industrialization of food has done to animals, peoples, economies, and the environment is just immoral. I'm sure there are many, many lovely people who work in the food industry... but ah! ah! ah! Ahhhh!

Reference Book: STEPANIAK The Vegan Sourcebook

Joanne Stepaniak is the best source of vegan info, and this is one of her good books. It has a small recipe section, with my fave chocolate cake.

Michael Pollan: In Defence of Food

The skinny: Good book, or try some of his articles. This is probably the best nutrition/diet book you could buy (even though it is purposely neither.) Basically a confirmation that Ye Aulde hippie crunchy granola diet/way of living is, indeed, the healthiest you can choose... only Pollan is bringing in the latest science and information to prop up that fact.

***

I think I read a Pollan article last year, online, and found him too sort of *extreme* for my taste. The whole organicee-buy local-cook-all-from-scratch thing... it seems A-OK for those with money and education, but those aren't the people at the most risk health-wise. But I sped-red through his latest book, and I really liked it. --> And he does address the fact that not everyone can afford to live the way he talks about in the book, considering that crappy fast food is highly subsidized by the US government (foods based on corn and soy) and therefore cheap. And he does address the connection between poor health, poor eating and class.

There's nothing too radical in this book--it's the same crunchy granola information that hippies have been touting for decades (and when you're a vegan, you're massively exposed to Crunchy Granola-ism.) But he puts a spin on the topic that I liked.

The big mystery we hear about these days is why Americans have only become more unhealthy / obese over the decades, despite the big push for low-fat foods, diets, etc. Pollan criticizes the way nutrition scientists look for answers by isolating one nutrient component of food at a time, and trying to find the *magic bullet* that reduces cancer, heart disease, cholesterol, weight gain etc. He recognizes that their approach is understandable--it's the only way you can test things scientifically--but he suspects that by looking at one nutrient away from its food (omega-3 from the flax seed -- the flax seed away from the bagel), and a single food away from its buddy-foods (eg. the bagel away from its peanut butter), and food away from its culture (how people have cooked and eaten for 1000s of years) you're going to have trouble finding out The Secret to healthy eating.

His proposal is that you don't need to find out What Makes the Carrot Tick--why certain foods impart health benefits--in order to benefit. You just need to eat carrots. Preferably ones grown with love (in good soil, eaten fresh.) And you need to eat carrots along with other plants, and in the ways people have eaten them for generations.

He cites some forgotten researcher type dentist guy from the 30s, who stopped dentistry and ran around the world instead, studying people's teeth. Because of the period in which he did his research, there were still many cultures relatively untouched by western foods, and he found that they ALL had better teeth than Americans. And this was across a variety of cultures, from the blood-and-milk drinking Masai, to the fish-and-few-greens Inuit... they just had very few signs of wear and decay.

Pollan goes on to describe the scientific search for The Mystery behind the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet, or the French diet, or the Okinawan diet (he says if you search those terms in PubMed you gets 100s of hits)--and Pollan's point is that there's little point in isolating the Secret Formula in those diets, and then building it into white bread... you should instead just adopt a similar diet, in all its complexity, and including the way of life that goes with it. (I think you should also be adopting a diet etc. that matches your genes, however. If little ole celtic me started eating an Inuit diet, I'm pretty sure I'd die.)

So. This is where the information is Nothing New. Eat less meat, eat less of these corn and soy derivatives, stay away from Yea Aulde High Fructose Corn Syrup, eat lots of plants, a variety of them, preferably fresh, cook your meals, set aside a lot of time for cooking a cleaning up, sit down to eat, eat in company with others, eat less, enjoy your food. (He doesn't address exercise at all, but I would assume that all kinds of Walking and Biking go along with the Okinawa and French and Greek diet.) And he's in for gardening.

Like I said, nothing radical. He brings in the latest research, but I've already read most of it on CSPI. But what I like is his perspective... which is basically that almost every regional diet in the world is good for you, except our recent Western diet--which emerged from the industrialization of food.

Which leads us to... tum tee tum... our entire way of life in North America?

One of my profs, who I otherwise quite like, is one of these "ohhh you think grad school is busy, wait until you're in the real world" or whatever. This irritates me on many levels, but one of the interesting things is this built in Protestant Work Ethic that our culture is built on. That if you're not busy all the time, there's something wrong. I mean, I understand why we do this--it's surely part and parcel of being (for Americans) one of the strongest economies in the world. But personally I think you've got to be aware of the trade-offs you're making when you choose that 50 hour a week job.

I want to work enough to live on, enough to be able to retire one day, but I also want time to live pretty much as Pollan describes. I want time to cook (and recycle, and read, and write etc bla bla bla.) And I don't want to live the kind of life where I'm always Counting Calories and calculating fat grams and feeling guilty for eating something nice. (Pollan cites a study where Americans associated a photo of chocolate cake with the word "guilty" while the French associated it with "celebration.") So basically Pollan just confirmed me in a new Way de Vivre that I'm already starting to live.

From all I've read, and from all my following of the nutrition since the 80s, I suspect that Pollan's got the right end of the stick. Stop looking for the miracle nutrient (conventiently baked into your pasta and cereal and bread) and eat like a hippie cookbook. I'll continue baking cookies instead of buying them (and then ENJOYING them), I'll continue trying out vegan cookbooks, I'm going to sign up for one of those vegetable delivery programs (but er maybe when school is done) and once this school foolishness is over, I'm going to make an effort to be Less Involved in the future, have Less projects, be Less the Super Employee, and jealously guard as much spare/fun/personal time as possible. And this is probably the best *diet* I could be on.

And since my ancestors survived on potatoes, I will no longer apologize for my starch addiction! ;-)

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)

*

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!