French Women Don't Get Fat... read that one yet?!?

I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to, well, just about anything. Books are my passion, and lately I've read quite a few to help support my new Calorie Counting lifestyle (member since July 2009, down ~ 20 lbs). Here's my latest recommendation:

French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano

Wow!  I picked this book up on a whim after reading about the "French paradox," the mystery behind why the high-fat diet in France doesn't appear to increase their incidence of "Western diseases."

Anyway, the author writes about how French woman think about food, how they reconcile what they WANT with what they SHOULD do. They enjoy their food and realize that you don't need a truckload of it to feel satisfied.

I'm sure I'm not doing her words justice. You should read this for yourself. It's an amazing way to change your point of view:  eating and drinking for pleasure while maintaining your ideal weight.

Ooooh, thanks for the reminder!  I read this book awhile back and I think I'll dig it out this weekend and read it again!

Yes, read the book.  I read a recent article that they are opening a McDonalds in the Louvre food court.  The article also said that apparently, french women ARE getting fat!

I think we can't apply the same logic to not get fat here in the US.  In France the food quality is different.  They do not allow as many pesticides, preservatives, hormones in meat etc.  you get the idea.  The food is more pure...healthier and it doesn't wreck the metabolic system as bad.  Also French women have lifestyles that are less stressfull and eat their meals over a longer period of time...When I was in Paris people would take 2 hours to eat their lunch...which is also the main meal of their day!!!  Dinners are much lighter on regular days!  Oh and I forgot to mention that the first week I was in France I got a muscle inflamation from climbing so many stairs and walking!!  Anyway my point being that the lifestyle, food, and habits have a lot to do with why Americans are fat and getting fatter!  My family moved here from Europe when I was 15.  My mom continued cooking the same things and we eate the same way that we did back home...we didn't have McDonalds or other fast food...but within the first 3 months the whole family balooned up!!!  I gained 15 lbs! 

I haven't read the book, but am a little concerned about attempts to imitate the French attitude toward food and body image. 

Although French people are, on average, thinner than their contemporaries in the rest of Europe and in the U.S., they seem to have other problems.  France has long had more clinically underweight women than the rest of Europe and, in contrast with other locales, only half of the underweight women in France recognize that they are too thin (National Institute of Demographic Studies 2009).  The study from which that figure derives also suggests that French women are much more critical of their bodies than women from elsewhere in Europe and that being underweight is "particularly valued".

Pair that with reports that Nicolas Sarkozy went on a cottage cheese and fruit compote diet to lose weight after his marriage to model Carla Bruni (a diet that is credited with his collapse while jogging) and encouraged his cabinet to do the same, and I get the sense that France might just be on the opposite end of the unhealthy-view-of-food-and-the-body spectrum.

i agree about it being hard to apply the same logic to not get fat (in my case) in canada.  i lived in france last year and lost weight without even meaning to because i didn't have a car, had to walk very far absolutely everywhere, "my" food wasn't available to me (authentic and healthy chinese food is pretty much nonexistent in Nice) and i guess nursing a broken heart for a few months played its part, too. :P

Original Post by sadikajubo:

I think we can't apply the same logic to not get fat here in the US.  In France the food quality is different.  They do not allow as many pesticides, preservatives, hormones in meat etc.  you get the idea.  The food is more pure...healthier and it doesn't wreck the metabolic system as bad.  Also French women have lifestyles that are less stressfull and eat their meals over a longer period of time...

Isn't that kind of the point though?  That it would be better to cook from scratch and enjoy small portions of high quality food rather than rushing through a fast food lunch?  It may not be feasible to spend as much as two hours over lunch, but it should definitely be possible to spend half an hour.

I lived in France for about a year in 1979, and saw very few obese individuals.  Older women were a little plumper than younger women, but not really overweight.

I attributed it to a bunch of factors:

• Public transportation forces people to walk a lot, most houses have more than one floor and no elevator.
• People have tiny kitchens and refrigerators, so shop every day for fresh food.
• Everyone smoked (this is less true today).
• Portions were much smaller than in the US then (and would be considered minuscule by today's standards).
• Food was an event that happened 3 times a day, at a sit down meal.  Snacking of any kind was quite rare.
• Desserts were common, but tended to be fruit on "ordinary days" rather than something higher calorie.
• "Style" is really important, and women want to be able to wear clothes well, so exercise some self-restraint about food.

Original Post by dkenworthy:

I lived in France for about a year in 1979, and saw very few obese individuals.  Older women were a little plumper than younger women, but not really overweight.

I attributed it to a bunch of factors:

• Public transportation forces people to walk a lot, most houses have more than one floor and no elevator.
• People have tiny kitchens and refrigerators, so shop every day for fresh food.
• Everyone smoked (this is less true today).
• Portions were much smaller than in the US then (and would be considered minuscule by today's standards).
• Food was an event that happened 3 times a day, at a sit down meal.  Snacking of any kind was quite rare.
• Desserts were common, but tended to be fruit on "ordinary days" rather than something higher calorie.
• "Style" is really important, and women want to be able to wear clothes well, so exercise some self-restraint about food.

 I bolded the parts that are stressed in the book.

Her whole philosophy is "eat less, move more" which is something I've seen advocated a hundred times over on this very website.  The only difference is, she claims that French women do this intuitively and do not count calories per se.

Eat smaller portions of high quality food, use fresh ingredients, enjoy all aspects of food (preparation, setting, etc.), and in my favorite chapter, she talks about how growing up as a child, they had fresh strawberries in season every day for dessert- they grew on their property.  Her mother would prepare the strawberries a different way each day. 

It is logic that you can apply here, it just takes more work.  It's not easy to do in our culture--which is, of course, why we are the obesity capitol of the universe.