Authors can't be too thin or too (rhymes with rich)

Associated Press, February 15th, 2006
MEGAN SCOTT

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The book "Skinny Bitch," published in December by Running Press and billed as a no-nonsense, tough-love guide on how to be skinny, may be tough to swallow, considering neither one of the authors has ever been overweight.

Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman are gorgeous women with metabolisms so high, their Big Mac attacks and daily bacon double cheeseburgers never went straight to their thighs. (The two confess in the book that they once were regular Mickey D's customers.)

"I was blessed," says Freedman, a former agent for Ford models who changed her eating habits 12 years ago.

"The diet I was eating — I should have been dead, obese or both," says Barnouin, a former model who has a master's degree in holistic nutrition. "I was a little heavier when I was eating meat and dairy."

Sure. One pound.

PETA hooked her

So why are these lifelong skinny minnies dishing out dieting advice?

Sample menu

Breakfast: Fresh-pressed apple juice and slow cooked oatmeal with dates, raisins, walnuts and bananas.

Lunch: Grilled soy cheese with tomato and a small side salad.

Dinner: Shepherd's pie with vegan mashed potatoes, fake ground meat, lentils, corn and sautéed spinach and mushrooms.

Freedman says she became a vegetarian after receiving something in the mail from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She saw pictures of slaughterhouses and animals being tortured. She started reading about people who were getting sick from eating meat. The more she learned, the more she became convinced of the health benefits of vegetarianism.

She says she and Barnouin, who was not available for an interview, wrote their book to help people "make intelligent and educated decisions about food."

"We were living in different places, and we kept saying how horrified we were with obesity," says Freedman, who lives in Los Angeles. "We were both growing more and more passionate about doing something. The more we started learning, the more we wanted to do."

Enter the authors' approach — and unforgiving regimen.

No coffee or milk, not even skim. (They say dairy causes disease.) There is no meat allowed, not even fish, because after all, fish have feelings. Soda is liquid Satan. And diet soda? Forget it: They're against sugar substitutes, too.

Become vegan, go organic and don't worry about fat grams and calories, they say. Read the label. If there are ingredients you don't understand, don't eat it.

"I think the best thing about our plan is it encourages people to think for themselves," says Freedman. "They can read this book, take what they like, but the overall message they will walk away with is to use their own head and read the ingredients."

Not so fast, says dietitian Robyn Flipse, a registered dietitian who has counseled models, says the skinny ones are dishing out some bad nutritional advice about dairy, eggs and meat.

"For thousands of years, people have been milking cows," says Flipse, founder of Nutrition Communication Services in Bradley Beach, N.J. "If it was responsible for disease, we would have perished a long time ago.

"I think a lot of harm can be done when you attack basic, wholesome foods. If you leave out a food group you are going to miss that important nutrient."

The book at times reads like a research paper, with tons of footnotes. There are no testimonials or before and after photos, but the authors say on the back they have helped models, actors, athletes and other professionals using the book's method.

Hold no punches

The authors are brazen, beating up on women for smoking, drinking, not exercising, banning bread and fruit (you are a total moron if you think the Atkins diet will make you thin, they say), and believing vegetarians don't get enough protein. Freedman says their tell-it-like-it-is tone plays to their personalities. They're not trying to win popularity contests, she says — they just want healthy people.

It's not entirely clear, however, whether their approach works on people who are really struggling with weight.

Also, whatever happened to just being a healthy weight? They say they are not promoting eating disorders, but come on now: "It's time to strut your skinny ass down the street like you're in an episode of 'Charlie's Angels.' " , "It's time to prance around in a thong like you rule the world."

Not affordable for all

Flipse says some people can starve themselves and won't ever be skinny. She also says the authors ignore the fact that some people can't afford to eat organic and don't have the time to press their apple juice, as suggested in one of the sample menus. (These are "excuses," Freedman and Barnouin say. "Certainly your health and your body are more important than anything else in your life.")

The diet, or "lifestyle," as they call it, also takes away the joy of eating.

"Eating is not just about making sure you put the perfect things in your body," Flipse says. "It's a social function of human beings, to share food together, to celebrate with food."

Freedman says the plan allows for some flexibility. She admits she eats crap some times.

But she can. She's a naturally thin, self-proclaimed title figure for the book.