The French Women Don't Get Fat Diet: Ooh La La, I Am Zee Jealous

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I had a friend who went to Paris for a week. By the time she managed to spit out enough of her high school French to order something, it was time for her tour group to get up and leave. By the time she got back, she was ten pounds lighter and practically starved to death. I wore vanilla scented perfume to pick her up from the airport and I swear that woman tried to bite me. Twice!

The difference in the way that food is eaten in France and in the States is simple: we eat in a hurry and off we go - we have millions and millions of things to do. We eat in our cars. We eat standing up over top of the sink so we don't slop stuff down the last clean blouse we have right now. We never take the time to stop and savor our food because we just do not have that kind of time. We have to keep on keeping on and that catches up to us.

The Creator of the diet
Mireille Guiliano left the United States and went back to France with a rather nasty little souvenir of her time here - twenty extra pounds packed on her formerly dainty frame. Once she returned to her home though, the weight came off and she managed to keep it off. Intrigued she decided to compare the foods that she ate her with the foods that she ate there. To her it would seem reasonable to assume that French women would be the bigger of the two - after all French cooking is just swimming in butter and heavy cream sauces and they are really huge fans of fromage (Cheese).

Wine at every meal, big beautiful baguettes, and croissants that would melt in your mouth- well, the list could go on and on. Other than some minor missteps (escargot, how about escar NO!) the French have some of the most luscious cuisine in the world. And yet, here we have the parado - how is it that the author can contend, and convincingly that French women, despite the gorgeous foods and frequent trips to the patisseries do not get fat?

Jumpstart the Plan
The diet starts with a two day jumpstart which is meant to rev your metabolism and get it ready for weight loss and fat burning. During the two days you eat a specially devised leek soup and nothing more. You can eat all of the soup and drink all of the water that you want for two days and then gradually ease your way back into eating more healthy foods.

The Plan's Pros First, this is not really a diet plan so much as a guide to life. You are encouraged to drink more water and to keep a food journal. Exercise, especially walking is strongly recommended. You are also prompted to eat a wider variety of foods include more herbs, new recipes and food choices you might not have tried before. You are also supposed to eat only good foods of high quality, in small portions and you must slow down so that you can savor each and every single bite. There is no counting of calories nor is any food off limits.

The Plan's Cons
The paradox has died a miserable and rather pitiful death. It is no longer true to say that French women do not get fat, the obesity rate in that county is growing at an alarming rate. French women are no longer strolling everywhere they go, daintily nibbling at the small corner of a croissant before strolling off to their next errand. It would seem that more of them are bellying up to the table, wolfing down seconds or thirds and then wandering off to the nearest patisserie for chocolate.

Even before giving up the ghost, the plan had its detractors - Guiliano is not a weight loss professional (she does not claim to be one) nor is there any real science involved in the book.

The Official Website is:
http://www.mireilleguiliano.com/frenchwomen.htm, if you want to read more about the diet.

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