"French Women Don't Get Fat"

i believe littlek read it, she was recounting it to me the other day. sounded great.

Did she mention anything about the book in terms of French culture?

well, yes. it is very much about their relationship with food, as i recall. food is to be enjoyed and cherished in french culture. not something that is to be gobbled down and then torture you because you gain weight.... But: remember i haven't read it. i'll send littlek over here when she gets home.

I hope to hear from someone who's read this, it sounds like such an interesting book!

I've read reviews of the book, seems about six months ago. I wouldn't mind at least looking at it myself. Have you checked a2k's amazon link on the home page? Sometimes there are reader reviews there.

Yeah, I read the reviews. They left me wanting more :smile:

So.... buy it, and tell us.

Its not in my budget to buy it right now, unfortunately.

Library?

The library near me doesn't have it. If I could get it soon I wouldn't have started the thread. :smile:

yes they do

Rather than buy the book, just ask yourself why they don't get fat.

The big thing that struck me when I first went to France and met my brother's French family (he married a French girl and moved there in '81), was that, as Dag has already noted, they don't abuse food.

Chocolate? Only the finest quality is purchased. They eat a square or two, and put the rest away for another day.

Wine? I have NEVER seen any of the French women drink more than a single glass at a sitting. Sipped and enjoyed.

McDonalds? In the semi rural part of France where he lives, they tried to open one. It was boycotted from day one (parents banning their kids from going there) as it was seen as providing unhealthy food. Simple as that. It closed down after six months. Unfortunately, it is now starting to take hold in many parts of France. One day, the new French will be as fat and unhealthy as the rest of us.

Food in general? Mainly home cooked, from good quality products, made to good traditional recipes. Lots of courses consisting of small portions of good, wholesome food. Salad course (always), then cooked meat with fresh veg, very small yet appetising dessert.

School meals are usually just as good as they would get at home.

They don't exercise any more than we do. They just don't pig out on crap.

For now that is.........

There are rumblings that the younger generation are rapidly turning towards our type of lifestyle, including alcohol consumption to excess and unhealthy eating. Whether France will manage to stem the tide is anyones guess.

I hope they succeed.

I heard about this book and read a few reviews of it. I copied some of the major points, one of which is that the French eat real foods. If they eat cheese, for instance, they eat the real thing, not the processed crap.

In fact, the French believe that dairy (whole milks, whole cheese, whole yogurt, real butter) and dairy fat, vegetable fat (olive oil), and fat from ducks and geese are healthy; not healthy are fats from beef and pork.

What Lord Ellupus said about wine being "sipped and enjoyed" is true; this leads to another important point that we Americans need to learn from are European counterparts.

Our lifestyle is so rushed -- we tend to rush through our meals the same way we rush through everything else in our day. The French take their time enjoying their meals, they actually chew their food before swallowing (imagine that!). If you eat slowly you will eat less, and at the same time, you will get more enjoyment from your meal.

The French also incorporate exercise into their lifestyle more naturally than we do; instead of going to the gym, they are more likely to get exercise by walking or riding a bike.

There is another book about the French approach to food that is also supposed to be very good. It's called, "Joie de Vivre." It was written by a French restrauteur living in America (sorry, can't recall the author's name at the moment!).

Thanks, StrayCat! That's all very interesting.

HickoryStick, ask your library to get it for you on an interlibrary loan - or simply ask them to order it. The hamburgers often get their local library to buy books they're interested in.

Here it is:

Joie de vivre

French Women Do Too Get Fat ... click






I remembered that we'd discussed this book on another forum last year, still had a link to this.

Thanks ebeth, but that's still fewer fatties than in the US, and I still think highly of what the book seems to say.

On trip to France, and everyone can experience first hand that
Kate Taylor's assumption doesn't make too much sense.