Has anyone read this book? I'm told it was quite popular when it first hit shelves a couple of years ago, and as with most things, I lagged behind the bandwagon.

Anyways, B let me borrow it and I'm only a few chapters in and am a little frustrated at Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin's advice. Mainly, after reading only the first three chapters of telling us everything we CAN'T eat, I'm a little confused about what we CAN eat to achieve what the book labels it's ultimate goal, to become a "skinny bitch."

Throughout the section I've so far finished, repeatedly the book tells us that aspartame, the ingredient found in most artificial sweeteners, is absolutely terrible for us. There are over 92 different symptoms that can ensue from consuming aspartame, according to the book, some of which being cancer, birth defects, Alzheimer's and hair loss. The book also says that one of the ingredients in aspartame, when mixed with carbohydrates, can produce formaldehyde in your body-which is used to preserve dead bodies and frogs used for high school science lessons.

But not even a whole chapter later, the book goes on to call sugar "the devil." So, if I can't eat aspartame and I can't eat sugar, then what can I put in my coffee? Oh yea, the book says you shouldn't drink coffee either, because the acid content can apparently lead to all sorts of diseases. And as for Splenda, it goes on a long rant about how that contains funky metals too.

The next thing it tells you not to eat is meat...pretty much all meat. According to this book, red meat can cause all kinds of crazy diseases, and even grilled chicken can cause you colon cancer. One interesting point it raises is that the animals from which we get most of the meats we eat, at times, become unhealthy and need to be fed antibiotics so farmers can keep them alive long enough to slaughter them for our food. The book says that these antibiotics in animals can later lead to the immunity of similar antibiotics in humans once they eat the meat themselves.

Fish can also kill you quickly, according to this book, with high levels of mercury and other antibiotics pumped into them by farmers.

So, I was wondering if anyone else read this book, and if they have, what they think of its theories. Or maybe are there some nutritionists on here who can tell me if these things the book preaches are true, or if I really do need to give up sugar and sweeteners for the rest of my life.