The Secret of the Skinny Bitch

Published on Tuesday, August 7, 2007, by Kara Zuaro / Edit Post

The New York Times bestseller Skinny Bitch is billed as a diet book. Its website includes info on its glamorous authors, an ad for a diet-friendly product of the week, and a press quote from Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA … but the word vegan doesn’t show up on the site. And chances are, if you’re not familiar with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, it probably wouldn’t occur to you that this book is a hard-core vegan text. According to one Amazon reviewer:

I bought this book thinking that it is another diet book, in order to lose some weight and actually be somewhat of a ‘skinny bitch.’ However, all the book has were guidelines for being vegan and much meat industry bashing. This was not helpful for a normal person.

The book was released in December 2005, but according to the New York Times, sales didn’t start picking up until May, when Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham was photographed carrying a copy. Now, with 245,000 copies in print, vegans are rallying behind this potty-mouthed book, which—besides bashing all animal products—claims that “soda is liquid Satan” and “coffee is for pussies.”

One self-professed “chubby charmer” from the Daily Mail wouldn’t mind losing a few pounds, but she isn’t exactly tempted by the book’s suggested junk food alternatives:

How could I stop my mouth watering at right-on recipe suggestions, such as taking a slice of tofu, soy butter, salt, pepper and ketchup, and hey presto you have yourself a perfect ‘fried egg’ to stick between two slices of sprouted grain bread.

Who do they think they are kidding? I will take my life in my hands and stick to the real thing, laced as it may be with ‘antibiotics, pesticides, and steroids’.

For more recipes like this one, check out the sequel, Skinny Bitch in the Kitch.

ALLFood Media
POST A COMMENT |4 Comments

COMMENT

  • Our cousins, ashvillevegan, such as chimps? Hate to inform you, but chimps eat meat, as do orangutans. Gorillas don't, but they are hardly our closest relatives in the primate family.

    It isn't meat that makes people fat, it is the fact that we eat so much while living a comparably sedentary lifestyle compared to our humanoid ancestors. We turn to high fats and sugars because it used to be...+READ

    Our cousins, ashvillevegan, such as chimps? Hate to inform you, but chimps eat meat, as do orangutans. Gorillas don't, but they are hardly our closest relatives in the primate family.

    It isn't meat that makes people fat, it is the fact that we eat so much while living a comparably sedentary lifestyle compared to our humanoid ancestors. We turn to high fats and sugars because it used to be necessary to store that fat in our bodies. The modern human eats more and exercises less, as well has the fat-storing adaptations that our ancestors needed.

    Please, before spouting off about the diets of primates and how they are comparable to humans, learn a little physical anthropology.-COLLAPSE

  • "Normal people"? Just because you don't eat meat, you're not normal?? That is really close minded. If you don't like it, don't eat it, but don't harp on other peoples' choices just because they deviate from what most people would consider to be the "right" thing to eat. Don't like the book? Don't read it. Simple.

  • you're right that Skinny Bitch isn't like your usual diet book...because it actually works, long term. if you were meant to eat meat it wouldn't make you so fat. how many fat carnivores do you see in the wild? it isn't for lack of food that they're thin. humans have an herbivorous digestive system, just like our primate cousins.
    and this review is totally unfair to the book. the recipes are...+READ

    you're right that Skinny Bitch isn't like your usual diet book...because it actually works, long term. if you were meant to eat meat it wouldn't make you so fat. how many fat carnivores do you see in the wild? it isn't for lack of food that they're thin. humans have an herbivorous digestive system, just like our primate cousins.
    and this review is totally unfair to the book. the recipes are really quite good.
    since i'm going on so, there's no reason for a peta mention. they recommend giving up soda, but you wouldn't expect them to mention the National Anti-Soda Coalition would you?
    So there.
    Your chow stinks...because it's rotting flesh. Eww.-COLLAPSE

  • Vulgar and should be removed from Chow.