Skinny Bitch

Skinny Bitch

I don't consider this a legitimate diet or health book. This is a book of mainly opinions. First off, the very title and the cover artwork are sending women a bad message. Why have a gaunt, scrawny cartoon character throughout the book with sunken cheeks and eye sockets when you are writing a so called 'health' book. If you are encouraging health, why would you not want artwork of a chic, slim but healthy looking woman? This cartoon girl looks like she belongs in an episode of the Musters. And what's up with the B-word? As if we don't have enough self rightous, know it all, foul mouthed, self appointed divas setting a bad example for young women today. They could have picked a word more flattering to women.

Second, I saw a sad lack of current, proven scientific research backing all these claims. There were also a lot of needless political opinions in this book. These women who wrote this are MODELS, they are not personal trainers or nutritionists. They might have had some professionals helping them and they might have had some schooling but the fact remains, they don't know enough about nutrition to be writing a book about it. From the pictures of them, it looks like they aren't even very good models considering their unprofessional, unflattering and frumpy choice of attire. A lime green tye-dye t-shirt? A pink tube top with pockets? Ew! What you put IN your body is just as important as what you put ON it! It looks like someone snapped a picture of two college girls at the beach. These two don't look or sound like respected health professionals. If you want to be taken seriously dress like a woman, don't dress like a teenager.

Third, 'skinny' is not always healthy and vegan is not always healthy. This book is trying to give a "one size fits all" diet to people of all different shapes, sizes and body types. Skinny is not a healthy option for some people. In fact, the healthiest and longest lived people tend to have a BMI of 20-24 where as the average model is under 18 and obese people are 25-30. There are also three different body types, Ectomorph (naturally thin like Kate Moss), Mesomorph (naturally muscular like Venus and Serena) or Endomorph (naturally large and thick like Rosie O'donnell) YOU CAN'T CHANGE YOUR BODY TYPE! You can diet and work out and be healthy but even starving won't change your body type. There was no mention of genetics in this book. Just like we cannot turn a Pit Bull into a Grayhound, we cannot turn Rosie O'Donnell into Kate Moss and if we tried, we would end up with a very scrawny, unhealthy and weird looking Rosie.

Fourth, our digestive tract looks nothing like a cow, sheep, horse or giraffe. It's not realistic to compare us to them. A cow has multiple stomachs. A horse converts carbohydrates into amino acids. Humans are different. We do not make our own protein and must get it through food. Our hair is made of protein, skin of protein, nails of protein, organs...guess what? PROTEIN! If we don't get that protein from somewhere (veggie, meat or otherwise) then our body is tearing down it's own muscles and other tissues to feed and repair itself. In other words, without enough protein we might be skinny but eventually we will look droopy, old and probably have health problems. The arguments in this book about protein are weak at best.

Fifth, I make a good living teaching people how to lose weight the healthy way. It frustrates me to NO END when non-professionals write books like this because then I have to spend HOURS explaining proven facts to women regarding food, all because they read misinformation in some book and believe it blindly. Sure there are healthy vegans. There are many fat and unhealthy ones too. There are also healthy (and skinny) meat eaters and coffee drinkers and some unhealthy fat ones too. Reality is, there is no one diet that works for everyone and vegan certainly doesn't work for a lot of people. There are some good points made in this book but they are unfortunately obscured by a lot of one-sided opinions and theories. I also didn't find the delivery of the information funny or amusing.

I also thought their extreme "all or nothing" attitude toward junk food was annoying. Some of us like to be able to live and eat somewhat normally. People lose weight all the time while still keeping small portions of their favorite foods and they are perfectly healthy. It's not realistic for everyone to live on organic vegetables for the rest of their lives. People with real jobs, lives, kids and families would find it hard to make this 'diet' work. The cost and all the restrictions would make it extremely difficult for most. We don't have to do this to lose weight and look good. Overall, I don't think this book is useful for weight loss. I would rather read "French Women don't get Fat" if I am going to read a non-factual wannabe diet book. FWDGF is a much more balanced realistic approach to controlling your food intake but much like this book is mostly opinion and very little fact. That being said, yes French women DO get fat and NO being vegan and eating organic veggies all day won't neccisarly make you skinny or healthy. I would not read this book again nor would I buy it...Skinny Bitch