misunderstood | French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure

Romanticizes French women somewhat | French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure | Mireille Guiliano

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	• French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure Mireille Guiliano Knopf, 2004 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 377 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Balanced food for balanced weight

Part healthy living guide, part memoir, this non-diet book is chock-full of great advice for weight control. I have lost over thirty pounds since reading this book almost two years ago, which has also been reread when I've felt myself slipping back into an American standard of eating. Even if you don't want to buy a yogurt machine or eat leeks for a weekend, this sage advice is well worth your time.

As Madame Guiliano teaches us, the biggest "secrets" to maintaining a healthy weight are portion control and balanced eating. The "trick" is not deprivation, but indulgence in fine foods in portion-controlled amounts. Deprivation only leads to overindulgence later. Tantalize your taste buds! Yes, you can have the wine, the champagne, the rich food, and the few pieces of (high-quality) chocolate too! The biggest lesson on portion control: French women eat until they're satisfied. Americans eat until they're stuffed.

As she shows us, both when and how are important for balance. If you had the bread at lunchtime, skip it at dinner. If you had the croissant for breakfast, balance it with vegetables at lunch and a piece of fruit mid-afternoon. Eat three healthy meals a day. If you eat well throughout the day, you will lose the need to gorge all night long.

Madame Guiliano advises us that the most delectable portion of a course is in the first three bites. Go for the cup of soup, not the bowl. She also advises us to cultivate an appreciation for fresh foods that are in season, and to use them. As she notes, there is nothing more flavorless than a winter tomato, so why torture your taste buds by eating them? Other useful "rules" include: NEVER eat standing up, pay attention to presentation (every meal should be an experience), and don't rush through meals - pay attention to your food!

Of course, French women walk everywhere, too, but we Americans don't need to be told we aren't moving enough. We all know it. We don't want to hear it, but we don't have an appreciation for how small things add up to big changes. Park your car at the furthest space away from the store, take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk from a store to the one next door instead of driving across the parking lot. It all adds up!

This book has given me a renewed interest in cooking, and an appreciation of the freshest seasonal foods available. Whole Foods has become a staple for my produce and chocolate. I have dusted off my favorite cookbook and found dozens of easy recipes using spices I had never tried (I found her recipes a little too difficult, using ingredients I don't readily have at hand). Best of all, put these suggestions into action and enjoy a "joie de vivre" you've never experienced before!

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misunderstood

I feel that some people are taking this book too literally. This book, like any other diet book, is about changing some habits from unhealthy to healthy. And it promotes thinking about food in a different way, and using different ingredients than you normally would.
I used to go to the farmers market every Saturday and buy loads of healthy food, and then let it all go to waste because I was either too lazy or uninspired to do anything with it.
After reading this book I am planning my meals more, thinking about at least 3 different recipes I could use for one kind of fruit or vegetable when I buy them (to prevent waste), and balancing my meals better.
Sure, sometimes it can come off as condescending, but what diet book doesn't?
Instead of nitpicking maybe people should just get over their attitude and enjoy the book for what it's worth.

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Romanticizes French women somewhat

The advice shared in this book is fine. I have no quarrel with it. I will agree with some of the other reviewers that some of the strategies the author suggests come much easier if one lives in a city than if one lives in a rural area. However, adjustments can be made.

However, her point about French women effortlessly controlling their weight is a myth from what I've observed. I lived on a French island, and believe you me, those French women watched every morsel they put into their mouth. Oftentimes, I would see women nibbling on a few slices of cataloupe and ham for lunch and that's it (far different from the indulgent lunches that the author describes). I knew of plenty of French people who went to the gym (and this is on an island, where they could have the choice of swimming or some other water sport).

I'm not saying that the author's advice is wrong. I think many of her strategies are on target. However, what she's describing may be the France of old, not the France of today.

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The answer I've been looking for

The concepts in the book were not hard to follow. The food plan is just an example, it doesn't have to be followed to the letter. It can be adapted to suit personal tastes and preferences. The most important things were: Walk as much as you can, do a little strenth training, avoid pre-pacaged food as much as you can. Coffee and alcohol in moderation, eat fruit for dessert, and drink water instead of soda.

An American who lived this as a teen and learned from it

At age 55, people often tell me that they envy the way I can apparently eat anything I wish and stay slim. That isn't true, of course, any more than it is for anyone else.
But when I was 19, I went to Paris and worked as an au pair for a year, and after the initial culture shock (no eggs and bacon for breakfast?! supper late and small? Lunch big and SLOW?), I learned that I felt healthier and stronger when I ate in the classic French manner: exactly the diet and routine outlined in this book. For the past 35 years, whenever I feel a little sluggish or put on a few pounds, I return to eating in the French manner to the extent that this is possible in the United States.
That is the real crunch, as mentioned by a number of other reviewers. What is easy in France is difficult here. I live in an urban community where a nice grocery with fresh produce is a short walk away, and I can easily walk to the post office, library, movie theater, etc. I rarely go to a restaurant that is not within a 5 minute walk from my house, and I have a large variety to choose from. A small minority of Americans live in this context.
But I did not always live here. When I have lived in more suburban areas, I thought about ways to simulate a similar life. Some things are easy: park at a small distance from your destination and walk the rest of the way. Get in the habit of stopping on the way home from work to purchase those few fresh fruits or vegetables that will make dinner special. Eat a smaller and later dinner, and do change plates between courses, even if only once. Those four extra plates per family of four are irrelevant, and the difference in eating habits is worth the little effort.
Some things are hard: portion size in restaurants in the US is huge. Good produce can be hard to find and expensive. A smaller and later supper is not appropriate for a child or teen who had to wolf down a quick school lunch in the allotted 25 minutes. Ready-prepared food (usually caloric and bland, and often pumped with preservatives and unpronounceable ingredients) is prominently displayed in the grocery store and very tempting! In suburban areas without sidewalks, any walking at all is risky to one's life and limb. And most of us work more hours than the French and see the preparation of meals after a long day at work as a burden and not a creative process. That is even more true when we take into account that the average family dinner takes less than 15 minutes to devour, and that allows for little sense of pride in the meal that was prepared.
Still, I have found over the years that it is worth the effort to emulate the traditional French lifestyle to the extent possible, even if that is sometimes limited to the weekends. When I get too far away from it for too long, I definitely can tell the difference; I have less energy, I feel bloated, and even my skin and hair look dull. A week of consciously living more like the French will revive me.
Several reviewers have pointed out that the French themselves are getting away from these traditions and putting on weight as their lives become more like ours. This is true. It is also true that the French government and health care community see this as a cultural and health crisis, and serious efforts are taken to guide the French back to their traditional lifestyle. Alas, we Americans are held up as a bad example, and (also alas) this is entirely appropriate. Exporting our lifestyle has also exported the health and diet issues that are inescapable and unfortunate by-products.
A final anecdote: two years ago, I was helping the children of an expat French family to make the transition to the English language in an American school system. I met with the daughter to discuss her studies, see what she needed help with, what she did not understand. Her immediate concern was the food pyramid. She simply did not understand the concept. We discussed it at length (in French), and suddenly a light bulb went on: "Oh! Is it to teach Americans how to eat? But why would a person need to learn how to eat? It is so easy! I learn from my family by seeing what is served every day, and I will do the same for my children, of course." Later that week, she was very distressed. The children had been told to keep a food diary, and then to compare it to US dietary guidelines, and to write a short paper on how they could improve their daily diets. Charlotte was nonplussed...there was nothing to change. She asked me if she should eat badly for a day or two so that she would have something to write. This experience really put the whole issue into focus for me. A ten year old French girl knows how to eat well. A ten year old American snacks on junk food and often eats dinner out of a bag. We CAN stop the madness, but our society makes it very difficult. This book can be just the inspiration needed, if approached with an open mind.

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Stylish, convincing, wise, funny?and just in time: the ultimate non-diet book, which could radically change the way you think and live.

French women don?t get fat, but they do eat bread and pastry, drink wine, and regularly enjoy three-course meals. In her delightful tale, Mireille Guiliano unlocks the simple secrets of this ?French paradox??how to enjoy food and stay slim and healthy. Hers is a charming, sensible, and powerfully life-affirming view of health and eating for our times.

As a typically slender French girl, Mireille (Meer-ray) went to America as an exchange student and came back fat. That shock sent her into an adolescent tailspin, until her kindly family physician, ?Dr. Miracle,? came to the rescue. Reintroducing her to classic principles of French gastronomy plus time-honored secrets of the local women, he helped her restore her shape and gave her a whole new understanding of food, drink, and life. The key? Not guilt or deprivation but learning to get the most from the things you most enjoy. Following her own version of this traditional wisdom, she has ever since relished a life of indulgence without bulge, satisfying yen without yo-yo on three meals a day.

Now in simple but potent strategies and dozens of recipes you?d swear were fattening, Mireille reveals the ingredients for a lifetime of weight control?from the emergency weekend remedy of Magical Leek Soup to everyday tricks like fooling yourself into contentment and painless new physical exertions to save you from the StairMaster. Emphasizing the virtues of freshness, variety, balance, and always pleasure, Mireille shows how virtually anyone can learn to eat, drink, and move like a French woman.

A natural raconteur, Mireille illustrates her philosophy through the experiences that have shaped her life?a six-year-old?s first taste of Champagne, treks in search of tiny blueberries (called myrtilles) in the woods near her grandmother?s house, a near-spiritual rendezvous with oysters at a seaside restaurant in Brittany, to name but a few. She also shows us other women discovering the wonders of ?French in action,? drawing examples from dozens of friends and associates she has advised over the years to eat and drink smarter and more joyfully.

Here are a culture?s most cherished and time-honored secrets recast for the twenty-first century. For anyone who has slipped out of her zone, missed the flight to South Beach, or accidentally let a carb pass her lips, here is a buoyant, positive way to stay trim. A life of wine, bread?even chocolate?without girth or guilt? Pourquoi pas?

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