SKINNY BIATCH: Eat carbs!
Eat as many carbs as you want. Fruit is not the devil. Avocados and peanut butter will not make you fat. But that skim cappuccino and turkey swiss wrap will, say Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, authors of the controversial book Skinny Bitch, “A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous.”
During a recent cross-country trip I found myself making the usual rounds to my favorite pre-flight destinations, one being the airport bookstore. While perusing the assorted goodies and stacks of books, I collected my standard smoked almonds, bottle of water, and Vogue, W, and US Weekly before happening upon the book Skinny Bitch. Something attracted me to this book, maybe it was its ever-so-subtle name [insert sarcastic emoticon here], or maybe it was that it was less than 200 pages – always a sucker for a quick read. Regardless, I bought it and headed to my second favorite airport hotspot, the airport bar, a must-stop for any lone traveler with a few minutes to spare. So with an hour to kill before my plane boarded (thanks, Dad, for always making sure I’m 3 hours early for my flight), I took a seat at the bar, ordered a Caprese salad and glass of pinot, and opened the book. For the next hour, and continuing on to the entirety of my flight, I could not put it down.
So here’s the skinny, if you will, on Skinny Bitch. This New York Times Bestseller speaks of the growing epidemic of obesity in the US and states that our over-consumption of animals and animal products is to blame. Skinny Bitch is not your typical diet book. It is written in a tell-it-like-it-is style; its authors have been called brazen, “too extreme,” and “preachy.” But the truth is all Skinny Bitch really preaches is eating healthy, something that no one can deny is important. The book claims the only true way to maintain healthy weight loss is by sticking to an all-organic vegan diet that avoids caffeine, coffee, sugar, chemical additives, and (gulp) alcohol. As an avid vegetarian for the last 15 years I had zero qualms with the no meat part. But no alcohol? Scuze? Where are you supposed to get your daily intake of, umm… barley and hops? If the no alcohol part didn’t make me want to heave the book in the bar trash can and bury it under a stack of cocktail napkins and maraschino cherries, the no cheese part certainly had me using every instinct in my body not to toss it and start up with my US mag. Up until this point in my life I had never met a brie, gruyere or even jalapeno nacho cheese that I didn’t like. But I pressed on, and after the authors went into detail about what actually goes on in dairy farms, I found myself bordering between disgusted and enthralled, and ready to give up my much beloved cheddar for the better, of my health, that is.
Having read Fast Food Nation I was well aware of the grotesque animal-mistreatment that unfortunately occurs in our cattle and poultry farms today, but I had no idea the scope of associated problems within the meat production industries and how those problems are directly related to the health of our nation’s people. **DISCLAIMER: GROTESQUE IMAGERY AHEAD** The book goes into (probably a little too much) detail about these meat-production farms, providing first-hand stories from farm workers recalling everything from chickens having their beaks seared off with hot knives, to cattle having their testicles and horns ripped out, to dairy cows being over-milked with metal milking clamps which cause their udders to chafe, scab, infect. These infected sores begin to pus, and the dead white cells are sucked into the milk (Skinny Bitch, p. 61). Yes, this is the reason our milk needs to be pasteurized. Ewww.
The Skinny Bitches continue to say that even if you can deal with the stomach-turning realities of the dairy industry, there is no denying that consuming milk is just plain ridiculous when you actually think about it. We are the only species in the entire animal kingdom that drinks milk as adults. Not to mention - milk from a species other than our own. The book cheekily asks “Why not put gorilla milk on our cereal or have zebra milk and cookies?” (p. 57). Pure convenience is the sole reason we decided to rely on cow’s milk. But milk is an “America tradition” you say. Skinny Bitch says screw tradition. Slavery was a “tradition” once. So was chain-smoking. The media has practically bludgeoned us to death into thinking milk “Does a body good.” It wouldn’t be the fist time our health has fallen victim to clever advertising (think cigarette ads circa 1950). The ever-so-popular milk ad with celebrities toting milk mustaches (paid for by the Dairy Association BTW) should read “GOT MILK? GET DIABETES.” The milk industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year to market their products, but it is common knowledge in the medical research fields that dairy is bad for you. Think about it logically: by design breast milk is intended to quadruple a newborn’s size in a matter of months. Think it doesn’t have the same effect of a full grown adult? Cow milk is even more fattening than human milk, designed to grow a 90 lb calf into a 2000 lb cow over two years (p. 56). Mother Nature is no fool. She designed milk to fatten up babies until of adequate size, which is why you don’t see adults sucking on tits (well, in most cases, but were not talking about extra-curricular activities here folks).
Still have your appetite for a nice juicy steak? Well sorry to say but the book believes meat makes you fat too. The American Caner Society conducted a study over a ten-year period with nearly 80,000 people trying to lose weigh and participants who ate meat three times a week or more gained substantially more weight than participants who avoided meat and consumed more vegetables (p. 41). “But I only eat grilled chicken and egg whites” you say? Skinny Bitch says good effort, but no dice home slice. Farm animals are pumped with so many chemicals these days that there is no avoiding the side effects that come with these harmful additives: “Every time you consume factory-farmed chicken, beef, pork, eggs, or dairy you are eating antibiotics, pesticides, steroids and hormones” (p. 48). I don’t know about you but I don’t like the idea of my body being pumped with any sort of additive, especially hormones. Any female that has ever taken the pill knows what extra estrogen can do to the body. Yes it makes your boobs bigger (sweeet!), but it usually has the equal effect on the ass and thighs. And I don’t even want to think about what all those extra hormones do to males… Have your ever encountered male PMS? Not a pretty sight. Unfortunately eggs have the same hormones, chemicals, steroids, and pesticides as if you were eating the chicken directly. And too bad for you pescatarians out there; fish is no better, containing high levels of contaminants from industrial and environmental pollutants, waste products, and pesticide residues from farms. Though fish does have healthy fatty acids and vitamins, you can get those same nutrients from flaxseeds, sesame, and sunflower seeds, nuts, fruits, veggies, soy products, and whole grains (p. 50).
But if you don’t eat meat, how do you get enough protein? Ugh. This is one of the most annoying questions that non-vegetarians constantly ask. The truth is most Americans eat twice as much protein as necessary a day. And sorry you meatheads out there, no matter what your Pike brothers told you, protein does not turn into muscle. Excess protein actually converts to fat. The misconception that protein makes you stronger has lead to an over-consumption of protein and thus has sent obesity, heart disease, and cancer rates soaring over the past 50 years (p. 40). We have been brainwashed by the USDA and FDA into thinking we need to consume meat and dairy products to be healthy, when in fact these “government-regulated” administrations are in cohorts with the people that run the very cattle and dairy industries they are supposed to be protecting us against. Several lawsuits were filed against the USDA when they violated Federal laws by selecting six out of the eleven people with financial ties to various food industries to serve on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (p. 97). Its all about the dolla dolla bills y’all.
So for all of those reasons, or mainly since I just could not get the image of crusty cow udders out of my head, I decided to give this vegan thing a try. I went to my local health food store and stocked up on as much organic and preservative-free, fruits, veggies, breads, and other vegan delights as I could fit in my organic hemp shopping bag. Okay okay so I didn’t give up alcohol, but I did give up soda and coffee. Coffee! I mean I got cold sweats just thinking about not having my morning espresso, along with two more afternoon cup-o-joes to follow. (Truth be told, I did let myself have a caffeinated green tea when on a photo shoot that required me to work till 6am in the morning, but I don’t call that cheating I call that pure survival instincts!). Thank god the book promotes eating carbs (complex, whole-grain only of course). I heart carbs.
So I made the pledge to try it for one month. It was not easy. But it wasn’t impossible either. I found once I put those restricted items out of my mind I hardly noticed they were gone. And, as if this article wasn’t feeling like an info-mercial enough already (I swear I don’t get a percentage of book sales), the results spoke for themselves. I felt healthier, more energized, and lost a noticeable amount of weight, as did my friend who decided to try it after seeing my results. There is no arguing with the scale!
The truth is that most of us Americans are so damn lazy and fat it’s disgusting. And we need to do something about it fast before it gets even worse. The last 50 years have been marked by an unprecedented rise in childhood and adult obesity. One hundred and nineteen million, or 64.5%, of American adults are overweight or obese, and is projected to rise to 75% in the next few years (from a 2005 report called “F as in Fat” released by Trust for America’s Health). As with any problem that faces Americans, people are looking to point the finger at someone or something, and the authors of Skinny Bitch point there little skinny bitchy fingers directly at the over-consumption of meat and animal products.
Cocktail Talk Points:
**Remember these talk points are designed to be controversial, elevating and exciting so that you have something impressionable to talk about…choose your point!
1. I heart eating rotting flesh (but I still don’t want to have to kill it myself)….
Skinny Bitch is crazy and anyone who believes it is a crazy bitch. Our society is based around eating meat. It is part of nature, ever heard of a thing called the “Food Chain?” Humans have higher intelligence than animals and thus we created weapons for hunting and found a way to mass-produce animals for consumption. Eating meat is part of evolution.Vegans don’t get enough of several essential vitamins and nutrients. One is vitamin B-12, which is found only in animals products and is necessary for proper functioning of several bodily functions. B-12 deficiency causes a type of anemia, and damage to the spinal cord, brain, nerves in the eyes and other nerves. Vegans do not typically get enough iron, because the iron from plant foods is not as well absorbed as iron from meat. In addition, iron absorption is inhibited by fiber, phytates (in cereals) and oxalates (in green leafy vegetables) which may be more abundant in vegan diets. Vitamin D may be lacking in the diets of some vegans, because most of the vitamin D available from foods is from vitamin D fortified milk and dairy products. We can get vitamin D from sunlight on our skin. Fifteen to twenty minutes of sunlight exposure on hands and face daily will allow our bodies to make enough vitamin D. For people who don’t use any vitamin D-fortified milk products or get adequate sunlight exposure, a vitamin D supplement may be necessary.
2. I respect animals and my health, but I’m not a freakin’ masochist….
Veganism is too extreme, and not practical for everyday life. Vegetarianism is more suitable for the average person concerned about their health. Vegetarians do not consume meat, but they do eat eggs, milk, and other dairy products such as cheese, butter, and yogurt. Vegetarians have lower rates of death from colon cancer than the general U.S. population. This may be due in part to increased fiber intake, decreased fat, and/or increased amounts of fruits and vegetables in the diet. Vegetarians have less incidence of obesity than the average meat-eater. This may be due to eating less total calories, less fat, more fiber and/or to increased physical activity, and/or less obesity, often associated with vegetarians. There’s some evidence that vegetarians have lower rates of osteoporosis, kidney stones, gallstones, and diverticular disease. Vegetarianism might even be healthier than veganism since vegans don’t drink milk and thus don’t get enough calcium, a nutrient essential for bone growth and density.
3. You are what you eat and I am not a chicken. I’m a vegan!….
Yes our species has survived for hundreds of thousands of years on eating meat and the human brain allows us to stay removed from the process of hunting, but does that mean we are “evolved” and “intelligent” and should be eating animal flesh just because we can? Man’s ‘intelligence’ also created alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs (p. 42).
Not only is the slaughtering and general mistreatment of animals inhumane, consuming animal products has several devastatingly dangerous health effects for the individual. Vegans generally have a lower incidence of high blood pressure and a lower rate of Type 2 diabetes than do non-vegans. These benefits may be due to decreased fat and/or increased fiber in the diet as vegans substitute fatty meats for fiber-filled veggies. Vegans in the U.S. have a lower incidence of heart disease than the general U.S. population. Vegan diets are low in total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol, which may decrease blood cholesterol levels, a major risk factor for heart disease.
The statements against veganism such as vegans are unhealthy, calcium-deficient sissies have been scientifically proven incorrect. You don’t need to drink milk to get calcium. Calcium is found in such non-dairy items as: broccoli, soybeans, tofu, seeds, and nuts. In fact, milk does not help in bone health like earlier believed. Studies at Harvard, Yale, and the National Institute of Health were conducted on the causes of bone health and not one shows dairy as a deterrent to Osteoporosis. On the contrary, a study funded by the National Dairy Council itself revealed that the high protein content of dairy actually leached calcium from the body (p. 58). Consumption of dairy products has been linked to the following health problems: acne, arthritis, ADD, headaches, heartburn, indigestions, poor immune function, allergies, obesity, heart disease, autism, and several cancers, to name a few (p. 58). The USDA and FDA know all this and don’t care, thus they cannot be trusted. Records form the FDA show that “Virtually 100% of cheese products produced and sold in the US have detectable pesticide residues” (p. 61).
On a vegan diet, you can eat a greater quantity of food yet still get fewer calories. This is because many plant foods are high in fiber. High fiber foods provide bulk, making you feel full, but are generally low in calories. The only scientifically documented health-related “problem” with vegan diets is that they may be too low in calories, especially for children. Most Americans could stand to skip a few calories.
Vegans are just as badass as meat-eaters. Kansas City Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez is a vegan, and I doubt anyone would dare say he is a sissy.
Sarah Walatka
New York, New York
Stylist & Vegan
December 19th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
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December 31st, 2008 at 11:04 am
I LOVED that book! Very “in your face” and funny from the first page. OK, it had it’s not so funny pages, like the ones about how the animals we eat are raised - but it sure made a point with me. I’ve recommended this book many times since reading it just a few weeks ago and will now recommend this article too. Great job. Thanks
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