Balance of Food

What makes a French woman beautiful? Is it that they don't get fat? You might get that impression after reading "French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure" by Mireille Guiliano. Guiliano notes that American women can be thin by following her advice, to be more like French women. Some of her advice will help you lose weight. Guiliano suggests diluting juice with water, so you would consume less sugar. Take stairs instead of the elevator. Share desserts. Avoid processed foods. Eat smaller portions. And, above all, never say the word "diet." The beauty of French women doesn't lie in their weight. Their approach to beauty, food, exercise, and life is what makes them attractive. And they know how to receive a compliment. I watch a lot of French cinema. Yes, most of the actresses are thin. But you can find thinner women in America, on and off screen. Yes, the French actresses are pretty. But you can find prettier women in America, again on and off screen. Guiliano focuses on what to learn from French women. When French women look in the mirror, they don't see what's wrong. They eat with all five senses to truly enjoy their food. From the book, it doesn't appear that French women work that hard at their success. There aren't tons of hours spent at the gym. There aren't tons of diet tips to sift through to read. Despite the success of the book, it will be extremely difficult to convince American women this could work. American women are used to hearing phrases like "thunder thighs" (otherwise known as cuisses de tonnerre). They train for losing weight like it's an Olympic sport (and getting gold medals in gaining the weight back). American women work harder to lose weight and are much less successful. But the secret of the American women failure lies in what they already do. They consume too many diet foods; they obsessively read magazines with tips like "How to lose 10 pounds in a week"; they mismanage their eating by doing things like starving themselves and then eating ice cream from the container. Guiliano says deprivation is the way to failure. The irony is that American women will jump on any diet program, regardless of credibility. So even if this program works, American women will already fall into one of their negative traps. So it's easy to say, "Be like a French woman and lose weight." But truly living the French way won't be easy. There is one design flaw with the system. Living the French way is easier if you've never been fat, but far more difficult if you've been fat or currently are larger than you want to be. The more times you diet, the more your body works to resist the diet. If you have stress because of weight struggles, relaxing about weight would be a rather difficult task. Yes, Guiliano gained 20 pounds on chocolate chip cookies and brownies, and yes, she lost it with tactics such as cleansing with leek soup. However, she had an inherent advantage most Americans don't have: she grew up in France. Guiliano didn't spend her childhood being obsessed about diet. Even if she did forget how to eat well, she already knew the right way to take in food. And unless she left something out of the book, she had only one significant weight gain, making it easier to lose in the first place. Understanding what you eat is important. The author suggests keeping a food log for up to 3 weeks, identifying key sources of concern, such as sugary drinks, fast food, dessert, and chocolate. She notes that people need to figure out how to cut back on those items without feeling deprived. To attain what Guiliano says to live like a French woman, one has to adapt the mentality. Though years of brainwashing are difficult to remove with just one book. Losing weight is not enough: You need to change your relationship with food to do it the French way.