''Skinny Bitch'' is a

diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

book written by former modelling agent 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 Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

diet and includes sections on factory farming and

animal cruelty Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction by omission (neglect) or by commission by humans of suffering or harm upon non-human animals. More narrowly, it can be the causing of harm or su ...

. In addition to advocating a vegan diet, the authors also say that one should avoid smoking, alcohol,

caffeine Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class. It is mainly used recreationally as a cognitive enhancer, increasing alertness and attentional performance. Caffeine acts by blocking binding of adenosine to ...

, chemical additives (such as aspartame) and

refined sugar White sugar, also called table sugar, granulated sugar, or regular sugar, is a commonly used type of sugar, made either of beet sugar or cane sugar, which has undergone a refining process. Description The refining process completely removes ...

. 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 ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' 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 Unaccredited institutions of higher education are colleges, trade schools, seminaries, and universities which do not have formal educational accreditation. Educational institutions may not be legally required to obtain independent accreditation, d ...

Clayton College of Natural Health The Clayton College of Natural Health was a non-accredited American distance-learning college based in Birmingham, Alabama, offering classes in various forms of alternative medicine. The school was founded in 1980 by Lloyd Clayton Jr. as the Am ...

, 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