In light of all the hype surrounding the international best seller Skinny Bitch, I decided to pick up a copy and see for myself why this little book was flying off shelves. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the authors Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin had written a diet book with sound advice on how to slim down, and eat healthy based on decent scientific evidence.

Skinny Bitch is basically an in your face, tough love guide to veganism. The pages are full of shocking and sometimes hard to read truths about what we feed ourselves. From pesticide ridden vegetables, to slaughter house horror stories, to the corrupt ways of the milk industry, the USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency, Skinny Bitch delivers!

So what exactly do the authors suggest you eat? Organic fruits, veggies, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. That means no cows, chicken, pigs, fish, milk, cheese, or eggs. Which also means, no products that contain all the animal products above.

Now… while I agree with a lot that Skinny Bitch has to offer, here are some of the things that are a little too extreme for my taste:

1.) The authors write, “Genetically and structurally we are designed to thrive on plant foods.”(pg.44) While this statement alone doesn’t bother me, the context in which it was written is completely exaggerated. The paragraphs leading up to this quote compare humans to tigers, claiming that because we do not have sharp teeth and lots of hydrochloric acid in our stomachs, like carnivores, we our “ill-equiped” to eat meat. That is a bunch of crap!

Humans are omnivores. Our digestive system has the ability to process veggies and meat. Yes, eating meat is harder to digest and eating too much meat is definitely not healthy (especially meats high in fat), but if their comparison holds true then humans digestive tracks should look like that of an herbivore. For example, a cow has four stomachs to properly digest and then absorb all of the nutrients from it’s grass based diet. Do we have four stomachs? I didn’t think so, but maybe I haven’t looked hard enough.

2.) The authors suggest eating fruit for breakfast and then waiting until you’re ravenous with hunger before eating lunch. They then recommend that dinner should be the biggest meal of the day.

Are you kidding me? If I ate only fruit for breakfast I would be starving by 9 o’clock! In more holistic approaches it’s recommended to eat your largest meal in the morning and reduce the size of your meals as you go through the day. This makes the most sense to me. If you eat a huge dinner and then go right to bed your poor stomach is swamped trying to digest when really your body’s energy should be spent on restoring other vital cells in the body.

I also think starving yourself between meals is ridiculous and crazy! If you starve yourself between meals you are more likely to overeat at the next meal and experience extreme fluctuations in blood sugar. Eating five small meals a day is the best way to keep your energy levels stable and keep your metabolism steaming along.

And another thing… if you are an incredibly active person that is physically active more than two hours a day (like me), you cannot exist on eating fruit for breakfast and a salad for lunch. Obviously, this diet depends on your individual needs.

Alright enough of my book bashing.

Over all I think Skinny Bitch is a great resource, but feel you should make up your own mind about what parts of this diet work for you and your lifestyle.

Check out my omnivore’s guide to eating, based on advice from critically acclaimed authors Michael Pollan and Paul Pitchford.