''Skinny Bitch'' is a
diet book written by former
modelling agent
Agent may refer to:
Espionage, investigation, and law
*, spies or intelligence officers
* Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another
** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...
Rory Freedman and former model Kim Barnouin.
The book sold better than expected despite not having high initial sales.
''Skinny Bitch'' became a best-seller in the United Kingdom by May 2007 and in the United States by July, more than eighteen months after its initial 2005 press run of 10,000 copies. The book also sold well in Canada.
Content
The book advocates a purely
vegan diet and includes sections on
factory farming
Intensive animal farming or industrial livestock production, also known by its opponents as factory farming and macro-farms, is a type of intensive agriculture, specifically an approach to animal husbandry designed to maximize production, while ...
and
animal cruelty. In addition to advocating a vegan diet, the authors also say that one should avoid
smoking
Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke is typically breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have bee ...
,
alcohol
Alcohol most commonly refers to:
* Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom
* Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks
Alcohol may also refer to:
Chemicals
* Ethanol, one of sev ...
,
caffeine, chemical additives (such as
aspartame
Aspartame is an artificial non-saccharide sweetener 200 times sweeter than sucrose and is commonly used as a sugar substitute in foods and beverages. It is a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide with the trade names ...
) and
refined sugar. Sources are frequently cited throughout the book, a large number of which point to vegan websites.
Reaction
Reactions to the book have been mixed. ''
The New York Times'' reported the lead buyer at retailer Shakespeare & Company saying: "It's definitely the most entertaining diet book I've ever read", and that it "had sold 'extremely well' in the stores."
They also quote the co-owner of a bookshop as saying:
It definitely has that sharp, chick-lit look and feel ..You look at the photo of the authors on the back, and they are both drop-dead gorgeous. If you look at the photos of authors on the crunchy granola books — maybe not so much.
A. Breeze Harper, author of ''Sistah Vegan'', criticized the book's disregard for race and class issues that make veganism difficult for some women and disputed the authors' characterization of women's inability to change their diets as laziness.
One of the book's co-authors, Kim Barnouin, holds a degree from the
non-accredited Clayton College of Natural Health, which closed in 2010. Clayton College has never been accredited by any reputable accrediting agency and is viewed with deep suspicion by the medical community.
Sequels
Several followups have been written, including the cookbooks ''Skinny Bitch in the Kitch'' and ''Skinny Bitch Ultimate Everyday Cookbook'' and ''Skinny Bastard'', a men's dietary program.
References
External links
{{Portal bar, Books, Food
Books about animal rights
Dieting books
Books about veganism
Running Press books
Veganism in the United States