Stylish, convincing, wise, funny, and just in time: the ultimate non-diet book, which could radically change the way you think and live – now with more recipes.
French women don’t get fat, even though they enjoy bread and pastry, wine, and regular three-course meals. Unlocking the simple secrets of this “French paradox” – how they enjoy food while staying slim and healthy – Mireille Guiliano gives us a charming, inspiring take on health and eating for our times.
For anyone who has slipped out of her Zone, missed the flight to South Beach, or accidentally let a carb pass her lips, here is a positive way to stay trim, a culture’s most precious secrets recast for the twenty-first century. A life of wine, bread – even chocolate – without girth or guilt? Pourquoi pas?
The message of this book could be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. There is no hard science, no clearly-defined plan, and no lists of food to have or have not; instead, you’ll find simple tricks that boil down to eating carefully prepared seasonal food, exercising more and refusing to think of food as something that inspires guilt. It’s both a practical message and far easier said than done in today’s “no pain, no gain” culture.
Author Mireille Guiliano is CEO of Veuve Clicquot, and French Women Don’t Get Fat offers a concept of sensible pleasures: If you have a chocolate croissant for breakfast, have a vegetable-based lunch–or take an extra walk and pass on the bread basket at dinner. Guiliano’s insistence on simple measures slowly creating substantial improvements are reassuring, and her suggestion to ignore the scale and learn to live by the “zipper test” could work wonders for those who get wrapped up in tiny details of diet. She sympathizes that deprivation can lead straight to overindulgence when it comes to favorite foods, but then, in a most French manner, treats them as a pleasure that needs to be sated, rather than a battle to be fought.
A number of recipes are included, from a weight-loss enhancing leek soup to a lush chocolate mousse; they read more like what you’d find in a French cookbook rather than an American diet book. Most appealingly, these are guidelines and tricks that could be easily sustainable over a lifetime. If you agree that food is meant to be appreciated–but no more so than having a trim waist–these charmingly French recommendations could set you on the path to a future filled with both croissants and high fashion. –Jill Lightner
Amazon Exclusive Video
| Click here to watch Mireille Guiliano introduce French Women Don’t Get Fat to Amazon customers. |
|
Gather Up Your Friends
| Click here to learn how to create your own reading group around French Women Don’t Get Fat. |
|
Stuffed Cornish Hens
Serves 4
When I grew up, the holidays always meant lots of visitors and a series of requisite celebratory meals, mostly at lunchtime. This easy dish was always on one of the menus. Mamie was usually busy (what else during late December?) and would make the stuffing in advance so lunch could be ready in less than an hour. The recipe serves a family of four for lunch in style, but double the ingredient portions and obviously you are ready for a full table with guests.
Ingredients:
2 Cornish hens (or poussins)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons chicken stock
Stuffing:
2 cups water
2/3 cup brown rice
1/2 cup mixed nuts (pine nuts, walnut pieces, whole hazelnuts)
2 tablespoons golden raisins
1/3 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon parsley, freshly minced
1 teaspoon dry herbs (chervil and savory or rosemary and thyme)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1. For stuffing: Bring water to a boil. Add rice and cook for 15 minutes. Drain and mix well with remaining ingredients. Season to taste and refrigerate overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Rinse Cornish hens, dry the inside with paper towels, and season. Add stuffing loosely and truss hens. Reserve remaining stuffing in aluminum foil.
3. Put hens in baking dish and brush them with melted butter and other seasonings. Put in oven and baste 10 minutes later with chicken stock. Continue basting every 10 minutes. After the hens have cooked for 20 minutes reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and put the remaining stuffing in a small ovenproof dish. Roast the hens for another 20 minutes. Serve (half a hen per person) immediately with a tablespoon of stuffing on each side of the hen as garnish.
N.B. For a wonderful tête-à-tête romantic dinner, serve one hen each with a vegetable then dessert. I have prepared it successfully to my husband on Valentine’s Day. While the hens are in the oven, you have time to concoct a little dessert, et voilà, you can pop a cork of bubbly, sit for candlelight dinner and have your husband serve dessert.
Hot Chocolate Soufflé
Serves 6
During the season of overindulgences—Christmas, New Year and all the festivities in between—there is in our home a succession of store-brought, traditional goodies: Bûche de Noël (yule log), marrons glacés (glazed chestnuts), the 13 desserts of Christmas in Provence. This is not to say that the holidays don’t bring out the baker in all of us, but whether it is to give as gifts or to maintain tradition, people do load up with holiday sweets from pastry shops (as I can attest from seeing from the window of our Paris apartment the annual long lines of people outside the pastry shop across the street). When I grew up, however, come New Year’s Day, and there was a home-cooked chocolate ritual. Our big festive meal was on New Year’s Eve, which left New Year’s Day as a quiet, family “recovery” day. (I appreciate some reverse the big meal day… or have one both days.) Anyway, for us, breakfast was well… late (especially for those of us who went partying after dinner), and limited to a piece of toast and a cup or two of coffee. Lunch was mid afternoon and usually made up of leftovers or an omelet, but the first dinner of the year was marked with a special dessert. The simple meal at the end of a week of overindulgences consisted of a light consommé, some greens, cheese, and the chocolate treat. There were no guests, plenty of time, and Mamie was ready for the flourless soufflé. She is a chocoholic and it would be unthinkable to start the year off without chocolate. So, what better way to end the first day of the New Year than with one of her favorite chocolate desserts as both a reward and I’m sure good-luck charm?
Ingredients:
1 cup milk
1 cup unsweetened Dutch cocoa powder
1/3 cup sugar
4 eggs at room temperature
2 tablespoons butter at room temperature
Pinch of salt
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 1-quart soufflé mold by lightly buttering it, dusting the insides with sugar and tapping out the excess. Place mold in refrigerator.
2. Pour the milk, cocoa powder and sugar into a heavy saucepan and stir to combine. Bring to a boil over moderate heat while stirring constantly. Reduce the heat and cook while stirring until the mixture thickens (about 10 minutes). Transfer to a bowl and cool slightly.
3. Separate the eggs and stir the egg yolks into the warm chocolate mixture. Stir in the butter.
4. Beat the egg whites until they reach soft peaks. Add the salt and beat until stiff. Whisk half of the egg whites mixture into the chocolate mixture. Fold in the remaining whites gently with a spatula. Pour the mixture in the soufflé mold and smooth the top.
5. Bake in the lower-middle shelf of the oven until puff and brown for about 18 minutes which will give you a soft center. Serve at once with softly whipped cream.
Red Mullet with Spinach en Papillote
Serves 4
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil
8 fillets of red mullet, about 2 ounces each
1 lb. spinach, washed and dried in a salad spinner
4 teaspoons shallots, peeled and sliced
8 slices of lime
4 tablespoons of crème fraîche
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1. Cut 4 pieces of parchment paper (or aluminum foil) into squares large enough to cover each fillet and leave a 2-inch border all around. Lightly brush the squares with olive oil. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Put the spinach in the center of each square and top it with a tablespoon of crème fraîche. Top with two fillets and add one teaspoon of shallots, two slices of lime. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Fold up the edges to form packets. Put the papillotes on a baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes. Serve at once by setting each papillote on a plate.
N.B. You can use sole or snapper instead of red mullet
Pappardelle with Spring Veggies
Serves 4
Ingredients:
12 ounces pappardelle
1 lb. green asparagus
2 cups fresh peas, shelled
2 tablespoons of shallots, peeled and minced
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of pine nuts, toasted
1 cup freshly grated parmesan
1 cup roughly chopped parsley
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1. Cut off end of asparagus and blanch in salted water until just tender (about 5 minutes). Blanch peas separately for about 1 minute.
2. In a heavy saucepan, gently sauté the shallots in olive oil until they begin to turn gold. Add peas and asparagus and cook for a few minutes.
3. Cook the pappardelle in boiling water, drain and pour into saucepan. Add pine nuts, parmesan and parsley and season to taste. Serve immediately.
Croque aux Poires
Serves 4
Ingredients:
4 slices of brioche
2 ripe pears
2 tablespoons of sliced almonds
2 tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon butter
1. Peel the pears and cut into small cubes. Melt butter in a saucepan and sauté the pear cubes for 2-3 minutes.
2. Arrange pear cubes on brioche slices. Cover with honey and almonds. Put under broiler for two minutes watching carefully. Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream or crème fraîche.
A yummy dessert also wonderful for a weekend breakfast or brunch.
I actually read this book a while back and after falling off the eating wagon a bit, I reread it again recently. Oddly enough I gleaned a lot more from this book the second time around, possibly because I was able to overlook the author’s slightly condescending nature this time. I also managed to avoid her 3 page list on what French women are and what American women are lacking because honestly? I don’t need her to tell me that when my brother/mother/husband would be happy to tell me what I’m lacking any day of the week.
The author is Mireille Guliano, President and CEO of the champagne company Cliquot Inc. She is not a doctor or a nutritionist, but rather, a person who learned through her own experiences how different Americans and French view food. After a stint in America as an exchange student, she returned home to France needing to rethink her newly acquired eating habits. With the help of a doctor – who she refers to throughout the book as Dr. Miracle – the author is able to return to her normal size and kick all her bad habits to the curve.
She talks about:
French women eat at regular mealtimes, never standing up, never in the car, never in front of the TV or with a book. They sit with proper utensils and a place setting.
French women eat real foods in moderation. This means butter instead of margarine, full fat milk instead of skim, sugar instead of Splenda. They eat smaller amounts but more variety.
They eat what is in season to ensure maximum flavor. i.e. just because Trader Joe’s carries strawberries in February doesn’t mean they will be flavorful.
They don’t feel guilty about food the way Americans do because they believe in indulging on occasion but cutting back slightly the next day to make up for it.
They drink water and walk all day long.
No gyms, no 30 Day Shred DVD’s, no spin classes.
French women eat chocolate and drink wine.
Obviously a lot of what the author talks about is common sense. We shouldn’t be eating chemically altered food. We should be cooking more at home. We should be drinking more water and walking more.
What I learned:
Our meals should be filling enough that we can go a few hours without a snack. I used to eat just a small breakfast and be starving for a snack an hour later. Now, I eat something filling enough to get me to lunch.
We shouldn’t be exercising so we can eat more. This was a tough one for me as I would be in the gym at 5 am every day running like a crazy person so that I justified eating an extra cookie or 5.
Her ideas about recasting did wonders for my sugar habit! While I didn’t make her famous (infamous?) leek soup, I did go 2 weeks with no sugar and suddenly I just don’t crave it anymore. I was “recast” I guess. Whereas I used to need a ton of brownies to feel satisfied, now I just need a bite or two and I’m done. I can’t remember the last time I had a brownie!
This book contains lots of recipes and while I’ve only made a few of the easier ones, I was inspired to start making a lot of my own food. Now I actually prefer to do so because I can control the portion size, the oil, the salt, and the sugar content. She also introduced a lot of foods I hadn’t really thought of trying before and I now regularly consume.
This book isn’t just about what to eat or not eat, it is also about how to savor life by eating with friends instead of in front of the TV. How to enjoy food, especially good quality. She discusses eating 3 course dinners (small portions of course) unhurriedly. This is something I was never able to do and I feel like I am slowly getting better at this.
What I Didn’t Like
As I mentioned before, the author has a tendency to sound smug. I love France just as much, if not more, than the next person but I don’t think the French are better in every regard. Besides, I often wondered why she settled in New York if she believes France is THAT much better.
As a vegetarian I found it a bit difficult to utilize a lot of her recipes/menus. It is much easier to eat meat and feel full but feeling full with vegetables can be challenging.
As far as I know she has no children and apparently her husband isn’t picky which makes eating the French way about 100 times easier for her. Maya is fairly adventurous and will try most anything, but what child will eat Red Mullet with Spinach en Papillote without putting up a fight?
The author obviously has money. Can most people really afford to buy a piece of wild salmon for dinner? Especially not these days, in this economy.
I disagree that the gym or some type of formal exercise is not necessary. Yes I agree that we shouldn’t be spending an extra 10 minutes on the stationary bike so we can eat a vat of fries, but in my opinion a regular person needs to be active for at least 45 minutes a day for their overall health and mental well-being, not specifically just for weight maintenance/loss.
Summary
This book is a quick, easy read, and is interesting – even if you aren’t trying to lose weight. The breezy nature of the book, the anecdotes of the author’s childhood, and the delicious sounding recipes make me recommend this book. It has that same old world charm that I associate with being in Paris and I am totally sold the things she emphasizes – luxury, quality, variety, freshness, and balance. And last but not least, anyone who can recommend dark chocolate as part of a healthy diet must be on to something.
Ameena Din
Freelance Reviewer
Fancy That…Fancy This
[...]
Related Products
Where to buy cheap prices? -French Women Don’t Get Fat $6.90
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 07, 2010 07:40:09
Cheap Sex Toy Diet Step
Where to buy cheap prices? -The Low Blood Sugar Handbook: You Don’t Have to Suffer $3.93
