Anyone ever heard/read of the book Skinny Bitch?

http://www.skinnybitch.net/

It's this book that was popularized after some paparazzi photographed Victoria Beckham (Posh Spice from the Spice Girls) carrying it.

It was a #1 New York Times bestseller when it came out.
The cover has a small "intro" that says:

"A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous!"

On the exterior it's a lifestyle change-type book to healthy eating and dieting. Once you get past the first few pages it actually reveals that it's a pro-veggie lifestyle book. It talks about how unhealthy eating dairy and meat is and why people today struggle to lose weight and stay healthy while still eating these foods.

Took me 2 days to read because I was pretty immersed in it. I finished it today and it's a pretty fun read. The author's have a really sarcastic and informative tone that really gives the book a comic twist, because if it was just a simple how-to guide, nobody would really care.

Anyway, if you're a vegetarian/vegan, and even if you're not (ESPECIALLY if you're not), you should read this book. 

Pick it up at a library or buy it from a bookstore or Amazon.com.

I love this book!

You get so caught up in it that before you know it, It's over.

I fully agree if you haven't read it, DO SO!

I may be the only person in the world that didn't like this book. I mean, yeah.. they made some good points and whatever, but making women feel so bad about the way they eat so that you can convince them to become vegan, isn't really the way I would go about it..

You know during the Olympics, when every five seconds they showed a picture of Michael Phelps face? And you started to get tired of seeing Michael Phelps face? That's how I'm starting to feel about this book being mentioned every three days.

I have mixed feelings about Skinny Bitch.  When I first read it, I was vegetarian and not vegan.  I thought it was a quirky, amusing read but I also felt that a lot of people could be offended by it.  I ended up going vegan a few months after reading the book, and I admit that was partially influenced by the authors' comments on dairy products.  I mostly agree with what they're saying - with the exception of giving up my coffee (hey, at least I only drink decaf).  However, I personally try not to be so "in-your-face" about my choices because I don't want to scare anyone off. 

perfectpanda, you are soooo not alone. I hated that book, it even drove me further into my anorexic state of mind, and made foods I used to eat off limits. It made me feel like a disgusting fat pig and brought my self esteem to like a negative 500! I can't understand what people like about that book, it is just filled with hatred and disgusting "facts" about the food industry.

Do you think Posh Spice carried this book around in her $40,000 alligator-skin Hermes bag? How ironic.

I dont agree with everything in this book, and some of their little comments were just plain annoying... however, I'm sure a lot of women picked up this book to lose weight and were inspired to consume less animal products.

Hated it

I read this book and became A VEG! I learned a lot from this book about the meat and dairy industries! Those BITC*** I was so sad and angry to find out the truth and spread the word to family and friends! They didn't get the point and steel eats meat! But After almost a year since the transition, I have slowly been eating chicken (I Feel so bad) :( I couldn’t grip the tofu thing and buying the fake meats was really expensive to feed my BF and myself. Don't get me wrong, I still get meatless products and feed them to my BF who is a meat lover (makes me sick) No Literally. He will cook meat and the smell will make me sick! I tried and tried to turn him veg but he won't. We always express our values and sometimes he makes me so mad, but hey opposites attract. NE Ways. I think if people really new what they were eating and where it came from, they would think twice!!! I sure did and do all the time!

i've read the 2nd book called "skinny b*tch in the kitch", and i really want to read the first book.

however, i don't agree with the fact that they try to guilt-trip the readers into going vegan. it's just not right. maybe it wouldn't look as bad if they even showed any care for the animals but they really don't. they just make veganism look like another fad-diet and even though i'm an omnivore, i don't appreciate it.

i'll read the book, but i doubt i'll follow it.

I picked it up in a bookstore and couldn't get past the first chapter.  The whole vegan-evangelism-with-an-attitude feel of it really turned me off.

I can understand why someone would want to be vegan but all of the recipes in the book have vegan substitutes for non-vegan items:  VEGAN cheese, VEGAN bacon....if I wanted to eat vegan I wouldn't want to eat cheese and bacon...if I didn't want to eat vegan, I would eat ACTUAL cheese and bacon.

And it's a very one sided argument supporting their beliefs...what do they think fertilises that field of veggies?  Manuer from the dairy farm....etc.  You wouldn't have the same produce industry if you didn't have the meat/dairy industry.

It was interesting to see their point of view, but I'm not uneducated enough to believe that everything anyone says in a book is fact, and I prefer not to be made out to be a bad person or a fat slob if I don't agree with them.

Edit:  I'm reading above to find out that people think they read this book and learned 'THE TRUTH'.  It is one side and some case studies, I'm not on the side of the meat industry, I'm just saying that there are many produce farmers who get poisioned from pesticides or killed in farm accidents...you can take these CASE STUDIES and state them as the truth, but that does not mean that this is the truth about the industry as a whole.

Before you pick a side, or spread the word, PLEASE DO YOUR RESEARCH.  We're smarter than that.

The girls who wrote Skinny Bitch are tacky, and try way to hard. If one of them was my wife/girlfriend/daughter, I would be so embarassed.
The cookbook isn't anything special either.

Original Post by perfectpanda:

I may be the only person in the world that didn't like this book. I mean, yeah.. they made some good points and whatever, but making women feel so bad about the way they eat so that you can convince them to become vegan, isn't really the way I would go about it..

You're definitely not the only person who didn't like it. I thought it'd be great--I love sarcasm! However I HATED this book. I felt like I was being preached. I think it should be in the "politics" section and not the "weight" loss section.

I returned this book and got my money back because I didn't want either of the self-pronounced know-it-all authors to have my money.

I did read the book, and one 'fact' in particular is very, VERY not true.

The 'fact' that you 'can't be deficient in protein'. I knwo for a FACT this is not true, especially when my hair would fall out, my nails where jacked up, I had dizzy/fainting spells, couldn't donate blood due to inadequate iron levels (despite eating lots of iron rich foods) and I lost a lot of muscle and definition. Sure, the book made some valid points, but I nearly laughed when that statement was made.

Hmm... I dont remember them saying that you CANT be deficient in protein, if they did that is dangerous and utterly moronic.

I do remember them saying that everyones freaking out about "YOURE VEGETARIAN??!?!?! PROTEIN! PROTEIN! YOU'LL DIE! WHERE WILL YOU GET PROTEIN!??" is stupid because the average american eats twice as much protein in a day as they need.

direwolf- I've seem some of your posts in ED recovery threads (good for you, I'm in the same boat!). I lost hair and fainted too, which I think was from a general lack of eating and lack of nutrients, not specifically just protein.

Thanks for that little tidbit sarahgordon. =]

Direwolf, I highly doubt it was a protein deficiency that was making your hair fall out and your nails damaged.

It was obviously malnutrition attributed by your eating disorder.
All of the things you mentioned are symptomatic of eating disorders.

Protein deficiency only really occurs in 3rd world countries. Symptoms of protein deficiency include:
"apathy, diarrhea, inactivity, failure to grow, elevated cholesterol, gallstones, above normal uric acid levels, flaky skin, fatty liver, and edema of the belly and legs."


Nowhere in the book did they say that you can't be protein deficient. They did however say that you absolutely do not need meat for protein and the whole stereotype that "LOLZ UR VEGETERIAN? WHERE U GET UR PROTEINZ FRUM?" is complete and utter bs.

Vegeterians need not worry about getting adequate daily protein. If you eat your veggies, beans, and legumes you're more than fine.

And Thermal, most produce manufacturers don't use manure anymore. It's mostly just chemical fertilizers, and hormones (often times derived from animals ;) ) that increase growth when the plant is still maturing.

Since when do you need manure to grow a plant? I have a tomato plant in my backyard. I'm not dragging cow **** there every day to ensure I get ripe tomatoes. Sorry but it seems as if you've been brainwashed somewhat.

It's strange that nutritionists are never telling people; "YOU NEED TO EAT MORE MEAT AND CONSUME MORE CHEESE!"

For some strange bizarre reason it's always "Eat more fruits and vegetables."

Nutritionists mostly advise people to get a balanced diet.... whether they're omnivorous or otherwise.   If an omnivore is anaemic, for example, they will be advised to eat more red meat, funnily enough.  A vegetarian will get different advice, naturally.   Everyone needs lots of fruit and vegetables and most people don't eat enough of them.... sometimes even vegetarians don't.   Malnutrition is not confined to meat-eaters.

If you enjoy organic produce, incidentally, animal manure features pretty heavily because chemical fertilisers are not used.  With oil prices jumping, many conventional farmers are turning away from expensive chemicals so the practice is likely to increase.  And if you like mushrooms you might be interested to know that the compost substrate they are mostly grown in is a rotted down and pasteurised combination of chicken droppings, horse manure and straw produced on site.... the contents of racing stables are highly prized!  One very large producer I know also has their own organic pig-farm.  The pigs provide some of the manure and the poorer quality mushrooms provide some of the feed for the pigs.  You should visit a mushroom farm some time.  Fascinating places. 

Brainwashing is believing everything written in a book or published on a website without questioning the accuracy.  Generalisations and misinformation abounds to make the case for someone's particular agenda.  What's more illuminating is to go to a few farms and food factories, talk to people and see for yourself what happens.  That's where I've spent most of my working life.