books 2008: Skinny Bitch, by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin

[supercheesegirl]

Lucia lent me this. The cover says, "A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous!" I feel kind of mixed up about this book. Yes, they are dispensing excellent advice, and doing so snarkily. I was actually a bit put off by the level of snark and obscenity when I first started reading. It's very conversational, maybe a bit too much so. If I were a genuinely obese person, reading this book would likely be similar to getting stripped down and screamed at by nasty sorority bitches in a horrible pledge ritual. I could see how their style would be helpful for someone who is motivated, fed up, and pissed off about being overweight, but this book is not for the sensitive or faint of heart.

Regarding the actual diet plan, I know that they're right. Basically, they say that the mammal homo sapiens was not designed to eat meat and dairy products. The mammal homo sapiens is designed to eat leafy things, and so meat and dairy products actively hurt our bodies. We don't realize this because the government bodies that regulate food have a vested interest in supporting the meat packing and dairy industries, so we learn from childhood on up that milk "does a body good", even when it doesn't.

The authors encourage an organic vegan lifestyle. They discuss in great detail the horrors of the meat packing and dairy industries in the US and the exploitation and poisoning of innocent animals, and point out, quite rightly, that when you think about what is actually happening to produce our meat and milk, you will not want to eat it anyway. I feel like their approach is a little too hardcore for me, though. I just don't think I can give up cheese. They say not to use the phrase "give up", by the way, because it's negative language that makes you a martyr instead of a strong choice-maker, but it's CHEESE, there's no way that discontinuing my eating of cheese would not be a sacrifice.

I also think that they vastly downplay their diet's lack of practicality. Yes, as the authors point out, we pay for magazines and manicures and lots of bullshit and so therefore should be able to suck it up and pay for organic foods, since our health should come first. But they include clothes, rent or mortgages, and car payments in their list of "bullshit" things we pay for. Excuse me, I'm sorry, but having a home is a little bit more important than buying fancy organic food. I know what they're getting at, but really.

They also do not address, at all, the issue of time. Preparing every meal from scratch from organic ingredients is much more time consuming than using prepackaged processed foods. At one point they suggest trying to do your cooking on Sunday for the week, but that's really not an option for a lot of people. I think busy working moms would have a huge problem making this diet work. The authors provide a sample menu for a month of meals, but I noticed that, while the breakfasts are mostly simple, most of the lunches seem to involve a lot of prep. There are salads and leftovers in the menu, yes, but there are also a ton of lunches that don't really sound packable. Again, not realistic for a working professional woman. I think this is a serious flaw in the book that is a result of the authors "having successfully counseled models, actors, athletes, and other professionals" in this method. The famous people they have successfully counseled are all in the beauty profession. It's their job to be thin and healthy. The regular woman reading this book is simply not going to have the kind of money or time to follow this diet the way a professional actress or model would.

That said. Over the coming months, I am going to make a serious effort to phase milk, at least, out of my diet. I can have rice dream or soy on my cereal, no problem. I am going to eat the meat that's currently in my freezer and then try to buy organic cruelty-free meat from now on, with the eventual goal of becoming vegetarian. I think that will be really do-able. I might not ever make it to vegan, but we'll see.

I think that changing my diet will be much easier to do when F and I live together. He has an entirely different cooking repertoire than I do, and he's a more adventurous cook just in general, I think. And he wants to eat healthier, too. And I think it will be easier to cook from scratch all the time when there are two of us to share the cooking duties. Shopping-wise, I will be able to buy more produce when there's two of us to eat it--right now, I can't afford to buy too much produce because it just goes bad before I get a chance to eat it. I buy spinach and asparagus every week, usually, and maybe half of it I eat and the rest I end up trashing. I bought a zucchini on Sunday and I haven't eaten it yet. I'm hoping it'll still be okay when I actually get to cook it on Saturday.

Overall, this was a good book, but it's not for a sensitive reader. It's an not overly practical guide, and the diet plan has some financial flaws to it, but it's a good read for someone who is really ready to change her life and make the investment of time and money to see it happen.

Comments

[grass-stained.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you read and reviewed this book. I'd seen it on the shelves and was always intrigued but never really enough to actually pick it up. And it does seem that while yes, they have a lot of good points, they also seem to live in a dream world.

As for buying organic, I will tell you one thing, it's typically a little higher in calories than non-organic, more processed foods. I've had to "sacrifice" daily eating points on my diet to eat organic things, but my argument is that if I'm putting so much work into making my body look healthier on the outside, why would I pollute it with all sorts of chemicals on the inside? That's my major gripe with WW--they advocate eating right and getting exercise and all that other stuff, but all of their food is so highly processed in order to make it low-point value. There's a much longer rant in there than I'm going to go into at the moment. :)

That said, I don't know if you have a farmer's market near you, but you should definitely look into that. Another alternative is a CSA, where the fruits and veggies typically come to you. Finally, there's a cookbook that I recently bought but haven't yet tried that I already like because most of the meal portions are for 1 person. Which means I don't have to figure out if I have to freeze anything, if I'll be able to eat it all before it all goes bad, it's absolutely marvelous in that regard. Her recipes do use a lot of processed foods, but I think most of them are easily swapped out (understanding that it will likely make the calories go up, but quality over quantity, I feel).

I'll stop hijacking your journal now. ;)

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I do want to join the local coop and maybe a farm share, but my main problem with produce (organic or otherwise) is that I just can't buy much of it, because I can't feasibly eat it all before it goes bad. I think this will improve once F moves here.

[grass-stained.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have the same problem. I have enough trouble eating all the stuff I get at the farmer's market, and I really try to buy only just enough. Too many yummy tasting foods, too little time. :)

[x-hj-x.livejournal.com]

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't proselytize about this sort of thing, but I will at least mention this: I grew up in Chicago with my favorite rib joint on Milwaukee Ave. and Bacino's deep dish pizza on North Lincoln and a lifetime of field research into whether the best hot dogs were at SuperDawg, Byron's, or Demon Dog. My wife grew up in Milwaukee on a steady and compulsory diet of bratwurst and a stunning variety of excellent cheeses. If we can be vegan, anybody can be vegan. ;-)

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I know you guys are awesome vegans, and I admire you for it. I think you will agree, though, that it's not the sort of change one makes in a hurry. :)

[x-hj-x.livejournal.com]

Not usually, no. :) While I went vegetarian overnight (Katie and I had our last burgers at Mr. Bartley's in Harvard Square—mmmmm), I think my vegan transition happened over the course of about three months. Although that was mostly just because it takes a while to remember what things have animal products in them and stop eating them by reflex, e.g. whoops, I ordered my sandwich with mayo on it, oh well.

Like I said, I don't proselytize, but I did so much research and legwork on this stuff ages ago, so if you have questions about anything I might be able to save you some time—feel free to email me. There is, undoubtedly, a lot of misinformation on both sides of the issue. I weeded through a lot of it and eventually came to what seem to me to be, in hindsight, some very obvious and elegant conclusions about the whole thing.

By the way, health issues have absolutely nothing to do with why I'm vegan, but people who insist that it's an unhealthy diet are reaching. Hell, Anya's been vegan all her life and I remember when her doctor called her "the healthiest four-year-old [she'd] ever seen."

[myras-girls.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a um.... interesting book. I don't think I'd enjoy that in your face style of advice.

I slowly phased myself into a lacto-ovo vegetarian. In 1993 I stopped eating beef and pork. In 1996 I stopped eating poultry & fish. I stopped drinking cow milk about 2 years ago but I do still eat cow dairy in the form of yogurt, ice cream and cheese. (I love cheese!) I don't think I could effectively manage a vegan diet.

Good luck with your diet adjustments!

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks for commenting!

[deadwinter.livejournal.com]

Basically, they say that the mammal homo sapiens was not designed to eat meat and dairy products. The mammal homo sapiens is designed to eat leafy things, and so meat and dairy products actively hurt our bodies

Really? As I understand it, most modern paleongenetics research indicates that where it not for animal protein, the modern Homo Sapiens brain would not have evolved the way it did.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

Really? As I understand it, most modern paleongenetics research indicates that where it not for animal protein, the modern Homo Sapiens brain would not have evolved the way it did.

Isn't there something about human tooth structure too? I feel like people have omnivore teeth.

I'm going to add a few things to this point.

It's really really hard to do a vegetarian diet healthily. Like, really really hard. Some people aren't able to go completely vegetarian, because of how their bodies do or don't process non-animal proteins.

For some people, a vegetarian or vegan diet is better, and for others, it's unhealthy.

Rox - perhaps you want to experiment with eating less meat, switching to organic meats (and therefore eating less of it, because that's stuff's expensive) and paying attention to other sources of protein.

And pay attention to your body - if you feel loggy and slow after eating a lot of meat, then that's useful data. If switching to soy milk gives to a lot more energy, great. If you find that you hate the taste of it, then try switching to organic cow's milk.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

Rox - perhaps you want to experiment with eating less meat, switching to organic meats (and therefore eating less of it, because that's stuff's expensive) and paying attention to other sources of protein.

I did say, in the post, that I plan to try buying organic meat from now on, with an eventual goal of scaling back or cutting it out entirely. I know that with a major staple like meat, you can't just cut it out without replacing it with something, so researching other protein sources is implicit in the scaling back. (At least, in my head it is.)

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I am not an expert on diet or science or evolution. I am simply paraphrasing and condensing a full chapter or two from the book. I can't really provide more info on this one.

[deadwinter.livejournal.com]

I hope you understand I was being rethorical. I know that humans evolved to eat meat. The whole "humans are supposed to eat plants" myth is a pretty persistent one.

We can certainly survive on plants alone. If we really, really bust our asses, we can, thanks to modern civilization, find all the nutrients we need exclusively from plant sources. This is because, as great apes, we are opportunistic omnivores. And one thing opportunistic omnivores evolved to do is to try to get their nutrients as efficiently as possible.

I am not, in any way, shape or form, trying to discouraging you from either converting to veganism or scaling back your consumption of animal flesh. It is certainly true that most modern industrial meat and poultry production is cruel. That alone is reason enough to adopt a vegan lifestyle, if you can.

But, in this book, as in all things, I have to object to the bad science, which was the whole point of my comment.

[dreda.livejournal.com]

Nope. We're omnivores - that's why we have the mix of teeth we do. You can make the argument for no-milk-for-adults, but blanket statements about homo sapiens being built as vegans just doesn't fly.

Now, making sensible and ethical choices about where your meat and dairy come from? Rockin'. Choosing not to partake because your personal ethics don't line up? Excellent. Cherry-picked biology to serve an agenda? Nope.

[birdmaddgirl.livejournal.com]

i've been trying to cut back on my dairy intake (and am also *never* going to give up cheese), so i'm starting with small things and working my way up -- right now i'm using soy coffee creamer and soy butter. it's a small small step, but the cost is similar to the dairy equivalents (an important factor for a girl who doesn't get a paycheck until september) and i don't have a whole lot of straight-up milk in my diet. i also try to buy soy ice cream instead of regular.

J used to always use rice milk, but switched over to regular milk recently. he's a cereal junkie, and found that his body wasn't liking the rice milk very much, as odd as that sounds.

[robotpistol.livejournal.com]

Okay, I have read this book. Many of its alleged "facts" struck me as misleading and wrong, so I did some research on its recommendations and turned up a lot of sources debunking them. My personal opinion is that Skinny Bitch is NOT a diet book or even a lifestyle/self-help book. It is a political vegan/animal rights book MASQUERADING as a diet book. And that is my complaint: not the veganism, but the deliberate, slick-marketing deception perpetrated by the authors.

You can read more about debunking this book in the following Salon.com article and in the New York Times. Wait, how do you paste a link into a comment? Sorry, I'm dumb. Cut and paste into your browser:

www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/02/11/skinny_bitch/

www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/books/01skin.html?scp=1&sq=skinny%20bitch&st=cse

It is possible to follow a healthy vegan diet, but it takes a high level of knowledge, research, discipline, commitment, and vigilance. But the authors of Skinny Bitch act like anyone can do it by snapping their fingers, and only laziness is stopping you, you disgusting ugly fat cow.

If you read this book and ahbor the newfound knowledge that chickens at the Tyson plant get their beaks chopped off to prevent them from pecking each other, then ceasing to eat chicken is not the *only* answer. Another alternative is to stop eating *Tyson* or other commercial chicken products. You can find meats at your local health food store, Whole Foods, farmer's market, etc and you can eat them 2-3 times a week instead of every day. You can opt out of the animal cruelty and the over-processing and the chemical additives while still having foods you enjoy. Michael Pollan's books offer a far more thoughtful and accurate meditation on that subject.

Some things the authors say are true. Soda? Really bad for you. But meat and dairy products do not hurt our bodies. It's possible to live without meat and dairy products and be healthy, but those things don't do us active harm. Yeah, the nitrites that get added to commercial pork can do us harm, but again: get the pork from the health food store and make sure the label says "no nitrites." It's a distinction the authors of Skinny Bitch refuse to acknowledge.

And their claim that adult humans don't need milk? Well, low- or non-fat dairy is a simple way to take in calcium...and you only have until the age of approx 35 to *store* calcium in your bones. After that age, your body leaches calcium gradually from your body's reserves every day and you're on the system of needing to take in daily what your body needs daily; if not, then you operate at a deficit until finally you wind up with osteoporosis. It is vitally important to get enough calcium while you're young. (My great-grandmother & grandmother had/have osteoporosis, so this has been beaten into me from childhood.) Yes, leafy greens have calcium, and it is a valid decision to eat a few cups of kale a day in order to get the same calcium as an 8-oz glass of milk. The kale will require planning and forethought, though.

I found the book's "we love making you feel like shit" approach extremely unhelpful. The accurate stuff in the book was all stuff I already knew, and there was a distressing level of unfounded and wrong information. They seem to have written the book mostly to belittle dieters and hate on non-vegans. There are far better and more honest books about going vegan out there.

Skinny Bitch didn't get much attention until Victoria Beckham was seen carrying a copy while out shopping. Within a few weeks of that paparazzi photo being published, the book shot onto the NY Times Bestseller List.

[queende.livejournal.com]

i think you mentioned something really important that gets overlooked when people talk about healthy eating and dieting etc and that is: it is impossible to eat healthier foods/healthy processed foods (consistently) when you are poor. I say this as someone who has been poor (and ain't rich right now) who is trying to make healthier eating choices. No diet I've ever read about seems to want to talk to masses of people; they really just want to speak to the people who can afford to buy the next book/cookbook/tshirt/water bottle with logo/specialty foods in your grocer's freezer.

if you have ever wandered into the grocery store thinking only of your budget, you can easily see that the 10/$10 store brand mac & cheese is going to last you a lot longer than the 2/$10 weight watchers/lean cuisines/healthy choice meals.

i generally define this as blatant classism and it pisses me the heck off.

i also hate the title:I've never wanted to be a skinny bitch. I'm much more interested in being a healthier kind person--who's going to write that book?!

here's your LJ back:)

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I kept picturing a woman with three kids and a mortgage, who works a secretarial job, trying to do this diet and utterly failing. The book claims to provide a weight loss solution for EVERYONE, but it's clearly written for young single upper middle class white women. It pissed me off throughout the entire book.

I'm much more interested in being a healthier kind person--who's going to write that book?!

I love you, De.

[queende.livejournal.com]

I love you, too! do what feels right for yourself. one of the rss feeds i have is gluten-free girl, and although i am interested in her gluten free writing, i also love how she writes about her relationship with food--recognizing the nourishing, life giving aspects. i really love it.

i think you should do what feels best for you.

and dude, we should totally write that book:)

[lizabethanqueen]

I think that the dairy thing makes sense since most people are lactose intolerant... but the not eating meat thing makes no sense. My brother did the raw food diet for a long long time and he's super healthy and it agrees with him,but his wife tried doing it too and she felt horrible and sick all the time. She feels better when she has a healthy amount of meat in her diet (not American sized portions, real normal portions). They just handle food differently... I think it's up to the individual to see what makes them feel good

I did the vegetarian thing and I felt good, but it was hard for me to eat healthy balanced meals on a tight budget and with not enough time to cook. I don't eat tons of meat, but I don't think that eating chicken or pork every now and then is bad because I try not to eat tons of it. Moderation is key...

I personally don't understand the vegan diet. I never understood how someone could give up all that delicious cheese.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

They bring up the lactose-intolerant point in the book. They make the argument that the FDA food pyramid is incredibly racist, because so many nonwhite people are lactose intolerant. Apparently like half of black people and the vast majority of Asians, plus a significant portion of Hispanics and Native Americans, are all lactose intolerant.

Every person's body is different and has different needs, and that's largely ignored in this book.

[lizabethanqueen]

Every person's body is different and has different needs, and that's largely ignored in this book.

Exactly!!! Eat what you want/need. I think this goes along with weight as well. That whole BMI thing is inaccurate. I'm technically obese, but I'm a size 6 and thin? I think it all depends on the person and that's where our health system is failing...