French Women Don't Get Fat

FRENCH WOMEN DON'T GET FAT: Mireille Guiliano: Random House Audio Voices: Nonfiction: 2005: AudioCD--3 CDs/3 hrs .

Good news. Contrary to what the title intimates, French women aren’t genetically thin. And Mireille Guiliano shares the secrets they‘ve been hiding all these years. She relates how as a teenager she returned to France decidedly chubbier after living in America as an exchange student. Feeling fat and frumpy next to her girl friends, she learned how to slim down and keep it off through the help of “Dr. Miracle”, the local family physician. NOT a 10 step to-do list or 30-day diet plan, Mireille discloses each morsel of advice intertwined with personal anecdotes of her own efforts and success at what the French call "reducing". She writes it all in a lovely, essayist style she owes to her old countryman, Montaigne. For a diet book, it reads like a novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sadly, portion control is encouraged, and we all know Americans don’t like portion control. We want foreign secrets and immediate success—having our cake and eating it too. And it encourages making an actual event out of eating, not throwing something in your mouth on the way to the car or eating in front of the television. It’s not all leek soup and yogurt though, wine and c•h•o•c•o•l•a•t•e encouraged! Mais, bien sur(but, of course)—after all, she IS French. It’s sensible with more than a little exotic glamour. And the bonus is listening to the audiobook read in the author’s own, deliciously accented voice. With the endorsement by Oprah, how can you resist?

Vivé la France.

DLA