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The French Womens Diet Review
Mireille Guiliano is the Chief Executive of Clicquot, the Champagne company. She's also a slim French woman. She lives in New York and wrote the book, which became a bestseller in 2006. She doesn't set out a diet as such in her book, more a philosophy that centres on the guilt-free enjoyment of good food and the application of a little discipline and lots of common sense.
French Womens Diet Review - How Does it Work...?Piling on the pounds, it took a trip home to relearn the 'secrets' that keep many French women slim. This engaging book describes and explains those secrets, which helped her to shed the weight and maintain it on her return to the US...for over 30 years! Now there's little science and no diet gimmickery in this book. It's simply full of Guiliano's observations on how French women early on in their lives develop a healthy and balanced relationship with food, which she claims is very different to that of American women. Whereas the French enjoy their food in moderation, savouring and relishing the flavors, the Americans go for quantity. Supersized junk that helps to pile on the pounds. The key claims Guiliano, is to eat good quality food made with fresh ingredients eaten in smaller portions. Food that's well prepared and eaten slowly -- savoured and celebrated! You can eat what you like and can have several courses in each meal. Just eat less of it and take your time... It's also about balance. If you're going to indulge yourself in a rich dessert at lunch, then cut back at dinner so you're not eating any more over the course of the day. Whilst the book is about a philosophy of food, the approach does translate into a few guidelines. For instance, she advises keeping a food diary for a few weeks so you can analyse what and when you eat, looking out for the signs of overeating. Once you've built up a picture of your eating habits you can then gradually change them. There are plenty of tips on how to do this in the book and most are pretty simple to adopt. Cutting back on portions for instance, eating more slowly, cutting out foods that trigger bouts of overeating... The less is more philosophy isn't just for weight loss, it's a lifestyle choice that needs to be consciously adopted for long term weight maintenance.
French Womens Diet Review - Does it Work...?One of the first things I was taught when on a post graduate health promotion course was that whilst the total amount of fat the British and the French ate was about the same, the rate of heart disease in France was around a quarter of that in the UK.Furthermore, that the French ate fewer calories than the Brits and had over 60% fewer obese people than the UK. The French are also more active than the average Brit or American and burn off more calories each day as a result. French people walk more, cycle more, are employed in more physically demanding jobs and leisure activities... France has still got a sizeable agrarian economy, with lots of farmers and people with smallholdings. Digging a vegetable patch in your spare time is more energetic than channel surfing! There certainly seems to be something in the French lifestyle that's doing them some good! Now it's not all roses. French women smoke more than their American counterparts, which may help with weight control. And whilst there are more slim French women, there are still plenty of fat women in France. As with other Western countries, obesity levels are rising in parallel with the relentless march of the golden arches! We like this book and the philosophy behind it. Our French Womens Diet review would suggest that if you follow the advice, there's little doubt you'll lose some weight... What with smaller portions, eating in moderation, enjoying quality food, being physically active... All pretty straightforward in France, but more difficult to adopt in the US, perhaps...?
French Womens Diet Review - The Bottom Line...Our French Womens Diet review would conclude that this is a well written, enjoyable read.Full of common sense and acute observations with some useful tips and lashings of common sense thrown in. You can't help but like a book that encourages you to enjoy and develop a healthy relationship with your food. Seeing food as your enemy, cutting out whole food groups and depriving yourself is alien to the French mentality. It's also we would suggest, an underlying cause of the destructive diet mentality that has helped to fuel the current obesity epidemic. Whilst this is a refreshing and potentially successful approach to food and eating, it may be a little too relaxed for some people.
Our French Womens Diet review verdict? Make friends with your food - a winner!
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