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1600 of 1810 found the following review helpful:
 The title and the content don't agree Feb 14, 2008
By Kelly A. Mchale
As a person who has a biology degree with a focus on nutrition, an advanced biology teacher, vegetarian, and a marathoner/triathlete, I was interested to read a book that may give me strategies to use myself and to interest my students in eating better. This book started well and then changed courses quickly. The scientific evidence in this book is just WRONG. It is riddled with inconsistencies and hypocrisies including that you shouldn't eat meat because it is rotting flesh and vegetables are living when you eat them. Unless you are eating them off of the plant, vegetables are also dead and decaying (look what happens to fruits and vegetables when they are not eaten in a timely fashion). They also say that you shouldn't eat processed foods, which I totally agree with, but then go on to advocate for veggie/vegan products that taste like meat which are incredibly processed but according to them are still good because they are vegan. With a statement of " A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous!" you would have thought it would be all about good things to eat and how to exercise to lose weight. Not so, this is just a manifesto on how bad the meat industry is and how bad the government is. This book actually made me angry because I didn't buy this book to be inundated with these two women's opinions about the government and their dislike of all meat products. This book is not worth the money or time unless you want to read two women's rants about how everyone should be vegan.
1076 of 1228 found the following review helpful:
It's not sad that the authors think this way... May 25, 2008
By GadgetChick
It's sad that anyone would take their advice.
I have no issue with veganism. Veganism is fine. I was a vegetarian for several years and didn't eat red meat for several more after that. I couldn't do the vegan thing, but I appreciate that some people do want to eat that way, and I think there are some good reasons to limit or eliminate meat and dairy consumption. What I have a problem with is the language that the authors use in the book to try to convince people to eat vegan - and I'm not talking about the profanity. You see, in addition to being an ex-vegetarian, I am also in recovery from an eating disorder. And so much of the language in this book is exactly the kind of thing I would say to myself to convince myself not to eat, when I was at the worst point in my illness and trying to eat less than 600 calories a day, while at the same time exercising 3-4 hours a day.
It's a lot easier not to eat when you convince yourself that what's on your plate is disgusting - that it is rotting, filled with pus, decomposing, etc. Who would want to eat a horrible plate of rotting meat, right? If you can look at your plate and see filth rather than tasty food, it's easy not to eat it. It's easier to not eat when you constantly tell yourself that you're fat, lazy, worthless, stupid, etc. if you eat. Because if you can make the self-criticism stop by not eating - if you can feel virtuous and clean and okay by not eating, and have the relentlessly critical voices stop for a little while, and have some peace from your own anxiety and tension - then not eating becomes an easier and easier thing to do, over time. I didn't hear two angry vegans speaking in this book. I heard two women who have major food and body issues that they've never addressed. A lot of people have objections about the authors calling other people fat, stupid, etc. - you have to understand that is not the authors talking about other people. Those are the voices they hear inside their heads, every single day, telling them that THEY are stupid, THEY are worthless, THEY are bad if they stray from this very strict diet they have devised. That's exactly what happens when people have an eating disorder. Ultimately, it is NOT about food or losing weight, it is about control. By limiting what they eat to this very narrow selection of foods, they can maintain or take back control they don't feel they have normally. 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. If you want to be vegan, that's great, but this is not the book to read. Because this is way more about the psychology of eating disorders than it is about good reasons to be vegan. This book is about how to be a vegan with a very twisted relationship with food. There are other books out there that can help you be a healthy vegan, who has a healthy relationship with food, and with your own body.
There's one other thing I want to say about the book. Vegan diets work great for some people in terms of weight loss. For other people, eating large quantities of fruit (high in sugar) and soy (high in phytoestrogens and endocrine disruptors) can cause big problems and would not result in weight loss. I have PCOS and the diet prescribed in this book is exactly what my nutritionist and physician have told me NOT to eat. If you have PCOS, or an existing thyroid condition, PLEASE talk to an endocrinologist before adopting the eating plan in this book. Did you know that soy ice cream has a higher glycemic index rating than pure glucose? If you have blood-sugar issues or hypothyroidism, soy products are very problematic. There's also evidence (that these authors don't discuss) linking soy to hormonal imbalances and cancer. Women with breast or thyroid cancer, or who are at high risk for those cancers, are usually counseled to avoid soy.
In any case - this is honestly not a diet book, or at least not one that people should be taking advice from. I have struggled with my weight my whole life (due in part to the fact that my PCOS went undiagnosed for years). I would love to lose weight but I also think part of the goal of living is to be a happy person. The kind of negative self-talk the authors encourage under the guise of "straight talk" does not lead to happiness, I can testify from experience. There is a huge problem with obesity in this country, but we aren't going to solve it by having people develop extremely negative relationships with food. This book gave me the chills because it reads so much like stories girls in my therapy group told about how they talked to themselves, to convince themselves to stop eating. It was disturbing to me, and it's even more disturbing to me that thousands of women out there are taking it as the gospel truth.
148 of 168 found the following review helpful:
 I like the idea behind it but....yikes.... Aug 31, 2007
By a student
Okay, I guess I should start off by saying that I am a proud vegan. I love my diet for its health and environmental benefits and would recommend it to anyone.
That said, I kind of shudder to think that someone with no prior exposure to a vegan lifestyle is getting their introduction through this book. Yeah, I can handle the bad language, but they are so abusive to the reader. A few reviewers talk about the "girlfriend" tone. If any of my girlfriends talked like that to me, I'd be really upset!!
Yes, veganism is a way of losing weight - but it is not the only way of losing weight. I was a healthy weight as a carnivore, as a lacto-ovo vegetarian, and as a vegan. Going vegan has not caused me to lose a single pound. Portion control is almost the most important factor, and the menus near the end of the book don't include portions at all. They do include lists of suggested natural food products, including many prepared foods, like TV dinners. While I love some of the products listed, is over-reliance on these kinds of foods something that the authors want to encourage? Not all of them are really all that healthy. Vegan junk food is still junk food.
There is other factual information that just seems...wrong. The authors suggest donating blood as a way of helping others and losing weight. Losing weight? Excuse me? I call bull, just for the simple reason if that were true, I would have heard about it already and the American Blood Association would be using it as a way to get people to donate.
Also, the authors seem to endorse the philosophy that everything that ails you can be traced to diet. You shouldn't take aspirin for menstrual cramps because your cramps are just the result of your crappy diet. And they are also Nature's way of preparing you for the pain of childbirth. First, which one is it? (Result of crappy diet or natural process?) Second, this sounds dubious at best - ask any woman who's given birth if they thought it was easy because they had good "practice" from having had menstrual cramps. Third, some people have jobs, unlike the authors of this book, and actually need to be functional during their periods, instead of being in so much pain they can't even work. Not everyone who takes pain relievers is a "pill popper". Not everything natural is good for you. Not all your health problems are because of diet. Sometimes you really do need to see a doctor and take medicine.
I feel bad for really not liking this book, because it is getting a lot of attention, including from non-vegans. I just wish the authors of this book did a little more research and were a little less confrontational.
268 of 318 found the following review helpful:
You are what you eat Feb 10, 2008
By Melissa Niksic
"Skinny Bitch" has been making the rounds in my book club, so I had to see for myself what all the fuss was about. I actually enjoyed the book and found it more valuable than I thought I would.
The first thing you need to know about this book is that it is laced with profanity. Personally, I find the language hilarious, but some people don't like that sort of thing and should be forewarned. (But seriously, what else do you expect from a book with the word "bitch" in the title?") The book gives readers a tough-love guide on how to become healthier and skinnier. Yes, a lot of the advice is very basic: stop shoving sweets into your mouth every 30 seconds, get up off your rump and exercise, etc. However, I did learn a lot about chemical additives from this book, and I'm being a lot more careful about the foods I choose to put into my mouth. I was also blown away by the graphic depictions of slaughterhouses in this country, and although I don't think I'll ever be able to give up meat completely, I haven't eaten any meat or animal products in almost a week, which is huge for me.
There are certain things about this book that I think the authors take a little too far. They're all about the vegan lifestyle and insist that it's the only way to be healthy and fit, which I don't think is true. In the slaughterhouse chapters, the authors make reference to all the anger and adrenaline that passes through animals before they are killed, and then they claim that meat-eaters digest all that rage and negative energy, which I think is B.S. Also, fasts are strongly advocated in this book, which I don't think are necessary or very healthy.
In spite of several flaws, "Skinny Bitch" is not without merit. Reading this book will force you to finally stop and think about what you are eating, which is a good thing.
127 of 149 found the following review helpful:
I'm a vegan Jun 11, 2009
By Matis
And I have to say, this book is the biggest piece of hate-filled garbage ever to grace vegan and vegetarian literature. First of all, I work in the medical field, and most of their so-called health claims aren't even true. In fact, most of what they try to tell the young women they're targeting is incredibly dangerous -- the book basically encourages eating disorders and body hatred, and eventually gets around to, "Oh hey, by the way, animals get abused, too!" But by that time, you already hate your body and want to go to the back shed and shoot yourself in the head. I would not recommend this book to anyone; it's basically a do-it-yourself guide on how to hide an eating disorder and hate yourself, which is not, or should not be, what veganism is about.
(It's also worth mentioning that although the authors say "if you eat crap, you are crap," their cookbooks are filled with processed, disgusting food that can only be described as crap. But I guess in that way, Freedman and Barnouin are for once being honest with us about what they are.)
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