Skinny Bitch Book Review : Part I

This review is broken up into two installments. Why?  Because I had a lot to say about the book Skinny Bitch, and I just kept going and going and going……well you get the point. I’m not exactly short winded sometimes.  Without further ado, here’s part one of my Skinny Bitch review.

I picked up a copy of the book “Skinny Bitch” when I was at Borders a few weeks ago, and since then, I’ve read it twice. I loved it.  You may have heard of this popular book by now.  The authors are Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, one a self professed “know it all” and the other a former model and nutritionist.

While they site another book which I love and which I happened to read years and years ago a lot called Fit for Life, which advocates food combining and somewhat eschews meat like these authors do, I found the approach refreshing and very entertaining. I blew threw this book quickly. If you are sensitive or don’t like a lot of profanity or potty mouth talk, you may want to avoid this book, but if you tend to have a trucker mouth in your own home, somewhat like I tend to have at times, then this book is for you.

I did find a few one sided opinions though, such as the idea that eating soy ice cream and tons of processed soy products instead of meats and cheeses is ok. I personally think that you need to limit soy products because they have been under scrutiny for causing hormonal imbalances and also for possibly adding to blood sugar issues.  They also may screw up the function of your thyroid gland when consumed too often – this was something I read only recently.

The authors clearly advocate veganism. Veganism is a step harder than the vegetarian diet, because you have to eliminate all animal fats and meats from your diet. This includes eggs, cheese, milk and of course all meats and fish.

This  can be a lot harder than it sounds.  A lot of breads, pastas, and readily accessible foods and restaurant foods have egg or milk products in them. Even foods you may not guess have things like whey, a dairy product, or an egg derivative in them, so you have to become an avid label reader.  I even found out that Veggie Slices cheese and Veggie Shreds shredded cheese, which I thought were purely soy based, contain whey or other milk derived products in them, so they are not strictly speaking, vegan products.

Unfortunately, the truly vegan cheese is pretty hard to melt and I haven’t found any that are extremely flavorful, but I’m sure there something out there I just haven’t found yet.  I’ve been experimenting on and off with the vegan diet since reading the book, so I’ve been exploring the options and trying out some recipes, and I must say that once you open your eyes to the options, there are some very tasty options.

I still don’t think I could be a full time vegan. It’s just too hard, and I do still crave meat once in a while, and cheese and dairy products, or they’re just too hard to avoid if you’re out and about, but I still try to make healthy choices with these too.  Quinoa is one of my favorite vegan foods. It contains the full spectrum of amino acids, so it’s an excellent source of protein and fiber for vegans.

Originally when I read Fit for Life years ago, which advocates a diet very low in meat and never combining the food groups unless it’s a veggie with another food group, I thought that was hard to apply as well, although I found that approach effective as well for weight maintenance.