A trifle arrogant
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I started this book off hopefully but found (as did other reviewers) that it is full of common sense. Basically everything in moderation. Yes, generally French are thin, but so are Chinese, Korean and Japanese amongst others. Speaking of Japanese, by far surpassing this book is WHY JAPANESE WOMEN DON'T GET OLD OR FAT(Naomi Moriyama). Highly recommend the latter plus stories and anecdotes are interesting. I found Mireille's anecdotes dull after the first few and skimmed through the last chapters as the stories just didn't grip me and the advice was nothing revolutionary. Her 20 odd reasons for why French women are so brilliant I thought a little arrogant.
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French women DO Get Fat
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Sorry, but I've lived in France for 10 years now, and most of the thin French women I know are that way because they are semi-anorexic. They pick at their food, get anxious about going to dinner parties and feel guilty and rotten if they've "eaten too much". Those French women I know who do not buy into this idea that anything other than super skinny is revolting, are just as prone to being a little bit chubby as the rest of us! As far as the book is concerned, I'd say there is some basic common sense to it - eat what you want, but in moderation, and exercise regularly. Don't bother buying this book because you don't need to spend money to be told what you already know.
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Mais non! Entertaining but a trifle (ha ha!) misleading
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So, how do zoze naughty French women stay so thin if zey do not diet?
Well, according to Mireille, they stay thin by dieting ALL THE TIME.
They don't do Atkins or WeightWatchers, non, but then they don't eat like the English or Americans either.
Basically, to eat like a French woman, you have to think like a French woman, live like a French woman, and eschew all those guilty pleasures that every other diet tells you to avoid as well....
This is not revolutionary stuff - the book is engaging enough with Mireille telling you about how she cured her own (American food eating induced) battle of the bulge a la francaise. There are some wonderful recipes and some anecdotal evidence of how eating a la francaise helped some other women in America.
But if you are looking for a step by step account of how to eat sensibly to lose weight; this is not the book for you. The precepts are so subtle as to be almost invisible. I read it twice through trying to see what it was I had to do and from what I gathered you have to: not over eat (!), compensate by under-eating the next day if you do over-eat, avoid foods that will make you fat and take some moderate exercise every day ... oh and one super slim French lady cheated by ordering dessert, distracting her dinner companions with her scintillating conversation until the waiter cleared the plates away with her pud uneaten! If that doesn't work, recommends Mireille, feed your pud to your partner or a friend ...
If you want a book that really helps, I recommend 'Overcoming Overeating' or 'Beyond Chocolate', both of which give more explicit instructions and are more about eating in the real world for real people.
Bon chance!
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Diet book for foodies
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This book is a wonderful antidote to fad diets. I lost ten pounds following her eating and lifestyle tips.
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Us Brits have done it so badly! Time to get 'French'...
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What a delight this book is: timely, savvy and witty, showing everyone (particularly us flabby Brits) where we've been going wrong for so long! Mireille's observations and advice brim with logic and joie de vivre, so far from feeling (too) humiliated I am keen to take many of the 'French' suggestions on board. A woman could do much worse than keep this in her (petite et jolie) tote, referring to it if and when she needs a little feminine nudge in the right direction. Merci Mireille, et Salut!
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