Hi Zoe

I am generally interested in nutrition and there were two books I have seen before that I wondered if you had ever come across and if so what your view was:

1. Skinny bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin
2. French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano

Thanx

I replied:

Hi Lily – I’ve not read either but I’ve got a copy of Skinny Bastards (the male version of the Skinny Bitch book) and I put it down immediately when I first got it. I just hated the language – there was swearing (F words etc) and insulting and I just found it aggressive and offensive and not how I like to take in information. I persisted a little to try to get the principles and, from admittedly a quick look, it seemed like the typical eat less/do more diet that won’t work. They call low carb diets “ridiculous“. They say that carbs are vital for providing energy (their emphasis). They are not – there are cultures today and have been many historically that have lived on meat alone for years. (The only debate is around Vit C and that’s a blog in itself one day!) RF & KB order people to stay off sugar (that’s fine with me) but then they don’t approve of milk or meat (which I don’t agree with). They want you eating carbs, basically – fruit, veg, pulses, beans, breads, pasta, potatoes etc. The American Dietary Association should love them! They don’t address for one minute the fact that the body cannot store fat without insulin and only carbs cause insulin to be released and therefore they think turning the body into a fat storing environment will create weight loss. Not a diet I would support or I book I would give reading time to.

The French women one – I got quite excited about when I first heard the title and I thought “Great – someone is doing a book on the French diet and how it is high real in food (fat) and low in processed food and this would make for a good story.” However (and I haven’t got a copy) I understand that it is more about the lifestyle of French women – eat anything, but eat slowly being an example bit of advice. I saw a great review on line that said “Her book is about lifestyle. Forget low-carbs. Ignore high-protein. Too reckless. Too du jour. As she likes to put it: ‘French women think about good things to eat; American women typically worry about bad things to eat.’ ” I like that last phrase – that makes a lot of sense. I don’t know if it advocates an eating plan or a lifestyle approach – if you read it please add a comment and let us know!
Very best wishes – Zoe