RSS
Home
Exclusive Review: Skinny Bastard
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
"Skinny Bastard" is the latest release from street-talkin' plant-eatin' nutritional duo Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, authors of the #1 New York Times bestseller Skinny Bitch. I was sent a copy to review before their release date this May and here's what I think:
I had to wonder just before reading, "is this just another Skinny Bitch but marketed to men?" The answer is yes--and no. For those unfamiliar with Freedman and Barnouin's work, this nutritional duo isn't afraid to give it to you straight. Don't be surprised if they demand you remove your head from a particular orifice of your body or drop some S- and F- bombs to get their points across.
Do men like being yelled at by women?
While the book contains many of the same arguments as Skinny Bitch, they certainly aren't presented the same way. Let me try my best to explain this in terms of male and female dichotomies without violating my feminist beliefs. Clearly, the first work is geared toward women wanting to improve their nutrition, lose weight, or learn a thing or two about how animals are raised for food.
Skinny Bastard is the logical followup to their series including "Skinny Bitch: Bun in the Oven," "Skinny Bitch in the Kitch," and "Skinny Bitchin" geared toward men and stereotypical male nutritional and physique trends.
As far as the success of this book, I'm wondering if men are as appreciative of a woman condescendingly telling them to change their life as would a woman. Several times, the authors condescendingly comment on the reader's masculinity and desire to appeal to females. However, I was entertained with my own personal male mindset to learn about all the terrible things laced in our food these days. For instance, after the chapter on sugar, I will never look at aspartame (what makes diet soda sweet) the same way again.
In the chapter, "The High Protein/Low-Carb Pile of [expletive]," I'm happy the authors shed some light on the truth about protein--people eat way too much! Conventional wisdom tells the public vegan diets are lacking in protein but this misleading claim has scared away so many from simple solutions to preventing disease, losing weight, and ending the subsidy in the animal industry.
It's not enough to say animal products are a poor health decision; they're toxic.
Skinny Bitch equivocably examines all major food animal products; meat, milk, eggs, and fish. Barnouin and Freedman tackle the consequences of animal food consumption from both ethical and nutritional angles so you would think a vegan diet would be the answer.
After about 50 pages of an entertaining, insightful read, I was shocked to read this sentence and had to return to it to make sure I saw what I thought I saw: "So, yeah, if you want to be a Skinny Bastard, you've got to be a vegetarian--someone who doesn't eat dead animals or seafood." The duo go on to become increasingly apologetic while trying to maintain their tough-love attitude, "If you absolutely cannot...stop eating these foods--fine."
Go...Vegetarian?
What? "You've got to be a vegetarian"? What on earth does being a vegetarian have to do with reducing the consumption of animal products? Arguments by myself and others have been made in defense of veganism being the only logical starting point to ending the consumption of animals. While you may begin with a meat-free diet on your way to transitioning to a vegan diet, there is nothing inherent about a meat-free diet that would cause less cruelty to animals nor make for a healthier diet.
Informing your readers of the violence of the animal industry and the devastating health effects of food animal products with the conclusion of ending meat consumption...if you want to...is hardly tough love nor a powerful message.
Not surprisingly, Skinny Bastard also does not remind anyone animal property extends beyond food. While the book is primarily about nutrition, Skinny Bitch was candid about the inhumane treatment of animals in some chapters. I found little of this and no mentioning of the myriad of ways in which we exploit and kill animals for products other than food.
If anyone wants to be serious about challenging the property status of animals, we can do better than asking people to "go vegetarian or not" and treating non-violence as a diet.
Skinny Bastard is an entertaining read. Readers will enjoy the wealth of information about the nasty products put in our food to increase shelf life and raise profits. The evidence is prevented strongly however the conclusions are counterintuitive, weak, and further confuse the public into thinking dietary vegetarianism is the 'default' and lifestyle veganism is extreme.
I give Skinny Bastard 3/5 stars.
Related Articles:
Comments
