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Skinny Bitch: A No-Nonsense, Tough-Love Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap and Start Looking Fabulous!
by Rory Freedman, Kim Barnouin
I liked the spirit of this book. Paying attention to food labels, eating only when you're really hungry, and bulking up on fruits and vegetables are all great ideas, echoed by many nutritionists. The authors think that you should be vegan. I wanted to love this book, but I couldn't, because I found the following things wrong with it:
-Shoddy science. They compare the raw numbers of people who have osteoporosis between America and Africa, for example. They say that humans didn't actually evolve to be omnivores. Stuff like this makes me lack faith in anything else they say.
-Trying to get people to be vegan by using detailed descriptions of slaughterhouses just doesn't work. We all read The Jungle in high school and were vegetarians for a week, then went back to our evil ways. What's more, if there WERE a humane way to slaughter animals, would the authors suddenly eat meat? I doubt it. Use scientific evidence instead - which they also try to do, but I'm not sure I can believe (see above).
-Speaking of meat, there's no talk of fish. Are fish caught in inhumane nets? Maybe in the next book.
-A chapter on fiber where you throw in every graphic term for poop you can think of, doesn't actually teach readers a damn thing about fiber.
-Saying that dairy and processed foods don't make you feel good in any way is ridiculous. Maybe I need to make them a plate of my brownies.
-The section on fasting is relatively responsbile but saying, "the more fasting the better," definitely not responsbile.
-There is no mention of cooking. They say not to eat processed foods and yet, of the foods they recommend, many of them are just vegan forms of frozen bugers or patties. If they care about nutrition, they could at least mention that it's good to cook for yourself.
-There is no mention of exercise or fitness in this entire book. All the skinny bitches I know work really, really hard at it. Maybe giving up your processed food and cheese fix will drop you a few pounds, but if you want to be healthy you have to combine that new lease on eating with some moving around. If this were just a diet book I'd forgive it, but it reads like a lifestyle book, and the omission of exercise is just inexcusable. Look at these girls. You think they look like that just from substituting soy cheese? Hardly.
Overall I like it; we need to get fired up about nutrition. They expose a lot about the food industry that citizens should know. It has me changing a few habits and I appreciate that. I just wish it were a little less sloppy. The sassy tone and cursing only gets you so far - it doesn't hide your content mistakes.
-Shoddy science. They compare the raw numbers of people who have osteoporosis between America and Africa, for example. They say that humans didn't actually evolve to be omnivores. Stuff like this makes me lack faith in anything else they say.
-Trying to get people to be vegan by using detailed descriptions of slaughterhouses just doesn't work. We all read The Jungle in high school and were vegetarians for a week, then went back to our evil ways. What's more, if there WERE a humane way to slaughter animals, would the authors suddenly eat meat? I doubt it. Use scientific evidence instead - which they also try to do, but I'm not sure I can believe (see above).
-Speaking of meat, there's no talk of fish. Are fish caught in inhumane nets? Maybe in the next book.
-A chapter on fiber where you throw in every graphic term for poop you can think of, doesn't actually teach readers a damn thing about fiber.
-Saying that dairy and processed foods don't make you feel good in any way is ridiculous. Maybe I need to make them a plate of my brownies.
-The section on fasting is relatively responsbile but saying, "the more fasting the better," definitely not responsbile.
-There is no mention of cooking. They say not to eat processed foods and yet, of the foods they recommend, many of them are just vegan forms of frozen bugers or patties. If they care about nutrition, they could at least mention that it's good to cook for yourself.
-There is no mention of exercise or fitness in this entire book. All the skinny bitches I know work really, really hard at it. Maybe giving up your processed food and cheese fix will drop you a few pounds, but if you want to be healthy you have to combine that new lease on eating with some moving around. If this were just a diet book I'd forgive it, but it reads like a lifestyle book, and the omission of exercise is just inexcusable. Look at these girls. You think they look like that just from substituting soy cheese? Hardly.
Overall I like it; we need to get fired up about nutrition. They expose a lot about the food industry that citizens should know. It has me changing a few habits and I appreciate that. I just wish it were a little less sloppy. The sassy tone and cursing only gets you so far - it doesn't hide your content mistakes.