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If I were to write a nutrition book, I would be encouraging without offending. But we all know with diet if you get an inch, you take the excuse and run. We want people to tell us it's ok to be unhealthy. These girls don't excuse anything. They are tough and mean, like drill sergeants ripping away all unhealthy vices, getting you to conform to their health code with fear. And like all good sergeants, they do it with offensive language. They even admit they picked the catchy title to sell books. The roughness is a technique to get you to change your life.

The book is left-winged propaganda for a vegan lifestyle. But they don't advertise it that way. They get you in on the promise of a skinny diet. If I didn't agree with much of it, I would have been more bothered by their twisting of facts and words to win you over. There is plenty of evidence for proponents of a meatless lifestyle without blaming government agencies and farming companies. Sometimes when you argue beyond reason, you loose the ground you could have won by sticking to an unbiased view. But I was glad someone was saying many of the things I read. I disagree with some points and I wish they were cheerleaders for 6 meals a day instead of 3 and waiting until you're starving. It's better for your metabolism to eat more often.

This book reached me at an opportune time. I'm already turned off by meat (although not a strict vegetarian) and eat fairly healthy. But I'm waning. My husband is a meat and potatoes guy and I never thought to convince him to the lifestyle. So I struggle with what to serve for dinner. We're rounding on that time of year when my sweet tooth takes control with holiday treats. And in the rush of last month, I was appalled the other day to not find any fresh fruits or vegetables in my poorly stocked fridge. The book fortified my conviction (especially for organic) and left me much to consider in the jump to vegan.

Will I do it? Probably not. I am a firm believer in moderation in all things. Vegans are not moderates. If your diet requires you to take a vitamin B12 supplement not found in your food choices, isn't there something wrong with it too? I was left more with a sense that everything is unhealthy, even vegans (they just aren't telling you). But after reading the book, I read much of it to my husband in an attempt to convert him to a less meat-heavy lifestyle. And I was glad to find recipes and brand suggestions. So you don't have to endure the foul language, I'll summarize the arguments:

Vices: Cigarettes kill your taste buds. Beer (and most alcohol) makes you bloated and messes your blood-sugar levels. "Soda is liquid Satan" causing osteoporosis. Aspartame is blamed on a "slew of scary maladies"; it turns into formaldehyde when you drink it; and it screws with your serotonin making you unhappy. Sugar is acidic causing your body to produce fat cells to keep the acid away from your organs. The scary chemicals in junk food mess with your well being and therefore our weight (including low-fat options). Plus the sugar makes it addictive. Coffee is an acidic addiction with lots of side effects. Drink water (and they recommend green tea and freshly squeezed juice). Stay away from drugs. Masking the symptoms makes it harder for your body to fight disease and chemicals cause side effects. "Suck it up. Stop interfering with Mother Nature." And of course you can't be healthy or skinny without exercise (cardio and strength).

Carbs: Carbohydrates are vital for providing energy to our bodies. Stay away from the simple trash carbs in food that has been processed causing highs and crashes. The additives manufactures put in to re-add the nutrients in the food they took it out of (enriched, fortified) are not natural and our body don't know what to do with them. Stick to complex carbs and get your vitamins, minerals, and fiber. You need fiber to protect against many diseases and of course it helps detoxify your body by keeping it regular. Eat lots of fruit: it tasks great and is loaded with nutrients. It's best to eat fruit alone because with other foods it rots in our stomach before we get the nutrients out of it. They recommend eating fruit for the first meal of the day and waiting 30 minutes to eat.

Sugar: It's addictive and it hides in unexpected places. Sugar cane plant once it's been processed and destroyed causes a list of side effects and makes you fat. High fructose corn syrup is even more processed and sweeter, is more dangerous, but it's cheaper and used more often. They recommend agave nectar (I love it! It takes similar to honey) because it absorbs slowly into the bloodstream so it doesn't impact blood sugar levels the same. They like Stevia too as an herbal sweetener with no calories and no glycemic index, but it is not a recognized sweetener in the US (I hear it can be somewhat bitter). They also recommend evaporated cane juice, sucanat (pure sugar cane), brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup, molasses, maple syrup, etc. Still go easy on the sweeteners, but use a better option. They go into the history of aspartame (denied by the FDA 8x and only passed through manipulated test results and conflict of interest). I'm glad someone's saying it. If you like artificial sweeteners (very acidic which cause weight gain and nasty side effects) you should read these pages and maybe they'll scare you into stopping.

Meat: According to them, anyone who believes the Atkins diet just wants an excuse to eat unhealthy. The weight you lose is water because your body has to work extra hard to metabolize protein and get rid of the toxic urea from meat in your urine. You need fiber to rid your body of the toxins so you're hurting your kidneys, liver, and colon. Meat is acidic and we can't break it down as easily as carnivore animals. Meat rots, decomposes, and ferments in our stomach until fiber moves it through. Half of the antibiotics in the US are used on farm animals to keep them alive in their unhealthy living conditions. Not only are they sick and diseased, they're given hormones to grow, exposed to toxic herbicides and pesticides, and other toxic chemicals and all of that ends up in our food supply. White meat is just as bad and in some cases worse (more carcinogens in chicken than beef and mercury and other toxins in seafood). They get a little crazy with the vegan sell, but have some good points too.

Dairy: I personally disagree with the argument that whole milk is the way milk was intended to be consumed. I agree with the authors: yeah for baby cows who double their birth weight in 47 days. By the age of 4 we lose the enzyme lactase that is needed to digest lactose, and milk can actually leach calcium from your bones. Milk is full of natural narcotics meant to encourage newborns to nurse. So it's addictive, but personally I don't like milk. And the highest concentration of casein (one of these chemicals) is in cheese so it's highly addictive (and fattening). Those hormones and chemicals making their way into meat, find their way into byproducts like dairy and eggs too. Dairy is bad for digestion and good for disease. I worry about overuse and non-organic dairy than no dairy. Their sell against eggs didn't convince me.

Slaughterhouses: Living conditions are deplorable. All slaughterhouse workers abuse or witness abuse without informing (and conditions are filthy). Because mass production, animals are often alive when their necks are slit, dunked in scalding water, and hair/feathers removed. Contaminated meat/animals are processed and mixed with good meat. "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we'd all be vegetarians." I won't go into the disgusting details, but if you read it, you'll be turned off by meat too. As they say, closing your eyes to the problem, won't make it go away, but flaunting it in our face with biased hatred isn't the answer either.

Protein: We need 20 amino acids (building blocks of protein), 11 of which we produce naturally, and 9 of which we get from food, but we don't need as much protein as we are told. People of other cultures consume half the protein and live longer. American are more in danger of too much protein. They claim there is plenty of protein in a "vegetarian" diet (one of the many times the interchanging of vegan with the milder term bothered me) such as lentils, beans, nuts, seeds, fruits, veggies, whole grains, and soy. Of the essential fatty acids, our bodies don't make 2: omega-3 and omega-6 found in oils, nuts, seeds, and avocados (and of course dairy and meat). Hydrogenated oils are oils with their molecular makeup altered which is scary; they degenerate cells, accelerate aging and weaken your immune system. But even good oils at high temperatures cause free radicals.

Government: I'm not going to go into all their anti-government and Bush administration propaganda. They go over the history of the FDA, EPA, and USDA (most notably fabricated studies to get MSG approved and they rip on the school lunch program). But what I will comment on, is that they recommend looking for organic seals other than the USDA's (because the government is out to protect the agriculture and farming industry not health). You go organic to avoid pesticides, hormones, chemically altered food, etc. (they also promote natural beauty products). Their point is, don't rely on the government to make you healthy.

Etc: They discuss food as addiction and tips for your new lifestyle. I love that they recommend fasting once a month to detoxify, get rid of cravings, and give a new perspective. They list what vitamins and minerals do for us and which foods are rich in them. There's a list of harmful ingredients that we don't understand and ones that sound harmful but aren't. Don't count calories or read fat percentages, just read the ingredients to everything. Organic is more expensive, but it's cheaper than the medical costs for bad nutrition.