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If you can get past all the shock-jock language such as – you’re a gluttonous pig – you need to exercise you lazy shit – don’t be a pussy – you’ll find that Skinny Bitch offers some good dietary advice. I frankly wasn’t expecting much in the way of sound nutritional advice from the authors who are proudly skinny bitches themselves. Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin are both former models, with Kim holding a degree in holistic nutrition.

First it should be mentioned that these skinny bitches are vegans and Peta supporters which helps explains their anti-meat stance. But instead of blindly discarding “meat as evil,” they point out some of the negative health consequences of an animal based diet. They correctly point out that a diet high in animal protein is associated with heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis. They also debunk dairy. As I have written earlier, dairy does not aid with weight loss. Do you really think that a pro-growth substance like dairy, created to make a calf double in size, is going to help you lose weight? Dairy consumption is, like other animal protein sources, associated with osteoporosis and a higher fracture rate. Dairy was never meant for human consumption, which is why 90% of the world is lactose intolerant. I also agree with their other nutritional recommendations to avoid refined carbs (white flour and sugar products), go organic, and eat more whole unprocessed fruits and veggies.

Consumption of animal products can be part of a healthy diet, but in much lower amounts that consumed by the average American. The form of Omega -3 fatty acids found in fish, which is absent from a vegan diet, have proven benefits against heart disease and stroke with possible benefits against dementia, depression, asthma, and several forms of cancer. I would like to make clear that the plant-based form of Omega – 3 is not the same as that found in animal sources and they should not be considered as equivalent. Getting your omega 3 from flax seed is not the same as getting it from fish. Our body converts only about 5% the plant-based version of Omega 3 (ALA) to the longer chain animal form (DHA and EPA). While there is evidence that plant based Omega 3 is also beneficial in its own right, the majority of evidence for health benefits is from the animal form.

What the authors got completely wrong, however, is their advice on “detoxing” and fasting. They claim that fasting “is a powerful tool for cleansing, flushing, detoxifying and maintaining your body, and healing illnesses, both minor and major.” The authors mistakenly attribute symptoms of fasting such as “headaches, weakness, nausea, cramping, stomach pains, sweating, a swollen tongue, bad breath” as a “good thing” because the body is “digesting and expelling poisons, toxins, and bad cells – and it feels crappy.” Hello! Do you think that symptoms of headaches, weakness, nausea, cramping and the like are a good thing? It’s your body’s way of telling you that fasting is a really bad idea. There is no “detox” in fasts. In fact, fasts cause a build up of toxins because, nutritionally deprived, your body is getting sick. Any notion that practitioners feel their bodies are being “detoxed” by a fast is probably some form of fast-induced delirium. If you want to “detox” your body, eat more fruits and veggies to help rev up the most important detoxifying organ in your body which is your liver.

The authors also claim that fasting “has been used as a healthy method of weight loss. ” Another piece of bad advice. Fasting will result in weight loss because you’re basically starving yourself. But very low calorie diets also result in a substantial loss of metabolically active muscle which causes your metabolism to crash. So when you go off your crazy fast, your body has become a finely tuned fat making machine. You have just starved your body, and with your wreaked metabolism it will convert more calories into fat, so you regain weight but now you have become proportionally fatter. Welcome to the world of yo- yo dieting.

While their misguided advice on fasting and detoxing prevents me from being more enthusiastic about their book, their bad girl “skinny bitches” approach to dieting makes Skinny Bitch an entertaining read.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 8:14 am and is filed under Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.