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    French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure
    Unavailable
    French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure
    Unavailable
    French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure
    Audiobook7 hours

    French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure

    Written by Mireille Guiliano

    Narrated by Kathe Mazur

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Stylish, convincing, wise, funny-and just in time: the ultimate non-diet book, which could radically change the way you think and live.

    French women don't get fat, but they do eat bread and pastry, drink wine, and regularly enjoy three-course meals. In her delightful tale, Mireille Guiliano unlocks the simple secrets of this "French paradox"-how to enjoy food and stay slim and healthy. Hers is a charming, sensible, and powerfully life-affirming view of health and eating for our times.

    As a typically slender French girl, Mireille (Meer-ray) went to America as an exchange student and came back fat. That shock sent her into an adolescent tailspin, until her kindly family physician, "Dr. Miracle," came to the rescue. Reintroducing her to classic principles of French gastronomy plus time-honored secrets of the local women, he helped her restore her shape and gave her a whole new understanding of food, drink, and life. The key? Not guilt or deprivation but learning to get the most from the things you most enjoy. Following her own version of this traditional wisdom, she has ever since relished a life of indulgence without bulge, satisfying yen without yo-yo on three meals a day.

    Now in simple but potent strategies and dozens of recipes you'd swear were fattening, Mireille reveals the ingredients for a lifetime of weight control-from the emergency weekend remedy of Magical Leek Soup to everyday tricks like fooling yourself into contentment and painless new physical exertions to save you from the StairMaster. Emphasizing the virtues of freshness, variety, balance, and always pleasure, Mireille shows how virtually anyone can learn to eat, drink, and move like a French woman.

    A natural raconteur, Mireille illustrates her philosophy through the experiences that have shaped her life-a six-year-old's first taste of Champagne, treks in search of tiny blueberries (called myrtilles) in the woods near her grandmother's house, a near-spiritual rendezvous with oysters at a seaside restaurant in Brittany, to name but a few. She also shows us other women discovering the wonders of "French in action," drawing examples from dozens of friends and associates she has advised over the years to eat and drink smarter and more joyfully.

    Here are a culture's most cherished and time-honored secrets recast for the twenty-first century. 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 buoyant, positive way to stay trim. A life of wine, bread-even chocolate-without girth or guilt? Pourquoi pas?


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateDec 13, 2005
    ISBN9781415927021
    Unavailable
    French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure
    Author

    Mireille Guiliano

    Mireille Guiliano is the bestselling author of French Women Don't Get Fat, French Women For All Seasons, and Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire.  Born and raised in France, she is married to an American and lives most of the year in New York and Paris.  She is the former President and CEO of Clicquot, Inc.   

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    Reviews for French Women Don't Get Fat

    3.5/5

    490 ratings24 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Didn't really enjoy this one: it somehow manages to be both bossy and unhelpful at the same time.
    • 3/5
      I must be honest and state upfront that I found the style of writing a little irritating. Having said that, the suggestions given in the book are - for the most part - sound: eat less, exercise more, establish a positive relationship with food, eat for the season, enjoy what you eat, throw diet books out the window. Although there isn't anything new in the messages, there are some wonderful recipes for soups (and other menu items).
    • 4/5
      Excellent book. The audio book is read by the author. Her accent adds much more feeling to the story. It is a story about the author and her education about why the French don't get fat.
    • 3/5
      Filled with simple recipes and simpler wisdom about life, this guide to a diet of balance will give hope to those who have been frustrated by yo-yo diets and fads. It's a breath of fresh air to hear of slow and easy-going approach to how we as women deal with food. The author speaks from her own experience with a number of tricks to take the tension and stress out of making food-related decisions.
    • 1/5
      I don't know why I read books like this. There is such a small probability that I will enjoy them. This book is for people in love with everything French.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed the audiobook, and some of the advice in general is good, but ultimately the specifics may be challenging to apply to my own life.
    • 2/5
      Élégance and common sense.
    • 3/5
      This eating philosophy is quite similar to that of Bob Greene and Dr. Phil, enjoy your food, in moderation, get moving, don't "diet", but change your lifestyle and the way you think about food and eating, make it an experience, don't scarf down your dinner at the kitchen sink and never eat in front of the tv. The French haven't cornered the market on most of the things she discusses in this book. America used to live this way before we tripled our portion size, got too busy to cook, invented the TV dinner, and built communities based on the idea of driving everywhere rather than walking.

      I did love her description of the French market and I envied it. She compared the experience of grocery shopping in France to shopping in New York City, which is still not the same as grocery shopping in the Midwest. So a lot of her suggestions are unfortunately not practical. Believe me, I wish we could get rid of the Wal-mart Supercenter and I could walk to the outdoor market every other day to get my super-fresh ingredients to make my dinner. I would challenge her to come here and go grocery shopping with me. (Forget about buying fish, unless you want fresh-frozen Tilapia from China- ew) Okay, once in a while I can get Alaskan salmon.

      I completely agreed with her about the chapter on water. Even if you think you're drinking enough water, you're probably not. She motivated me to drink more and more. (excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom).
      And I was glad to see that like me, she's a big yogurt fan. I also liked the French philosophy on wine. I thought it was a much healthier view of drinking than a lot of Americans have.

      I have to disagree about the going to the gym part. We Americans have to go to the gym because it's not feasible for us to walk everywhere we need to go. French women don't like to sweat- well who does, but there is something satisfying to putting in a good workout at the gym, and you end up having more energy and sleep better. I think one's own exercise routine is a combination of personal preference and what fits best into your lifestyle.

      All in all, this was a fun read compared to other "diet" books. And the title is quite true, so there are some motivating suggestions to be gleaned from the book. Especially when she talks about how as we age, we need to re-evaluate our eating habits and she breaks it down into age groups. I think to truly embrace all of her suggestions though, you'd have to move to France, which after reading about some of her descriptions I'm seriously considering.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I appreciate a lot of what she says, and I appreciate that the book is not glossy with large bold type saying "LOSE WEIGHT NOW . . . 3 MONTHS TO A SLIMMER YOU!!!" But she has an annoying style, and clearly lives an upper-class lifestyle. My worst criticism, though, is the hypocrisy of her leek soup diet. At the beginning of a book dedicated to the good life, one where you enjoy flavor and the richness of the harvest, she tells you to start by eating boiled leeks for two days straight. Boiled leeks, and the water you boiled them in. The other alternative is an unspeakable chunky mush of blended lettuce (!), carrots, leeks, and celery.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      This book is sold as a diet book, but it really isn't. It would be much more accurate to call it a lifestyle guide. At its heart, the book is really about ditching the unhealthy, guilt-ridden American obsession with food and following those common sense observations that everyone knows, but people rarely act on. It is also about taking pleasure in the simple joys of life of which eating good food is a part. A bonus is that it comes with some very nice recipes for homestyle French food.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I thought this book had a lot of good advice, and it was a really interesting look at French culture from an insider's point of view. Actually, it was even better because the author is also an American - she was raised in France but then married an American, so she has good insight on both cultures. This was nice since she wasn't too hard on Americans, and she didn't come across as being all "The French are better, nyeh!"
      I guess this book was not structured enough for me, but the whole point of the book was not to follow some structured r?gime (and I believe that word actually means "diet" in French). It was about changing your culturally ingrained American habits and making slight shifts and fixes to how you live.
      This book however was a little annoying to me with its very nonvegan recipes (can we say butter, heavy cream, eggs, cheese, yogurt, duck, chicken, fish, oysters, horse! - which by the way she never liked eating for "sentimental" reasons but her parents made her every week when she was growing up), but that was to be expected since French cooking isn't exactly friendly to les v?g?taliens. I did appreciate her points about eating things in season and using the very best quality ingredients, so that your food needs very little added flavor in the form of fat and/or sugar.
      So, read this book if you're a Francophile or just interested in another culture but don't read it if you're looking for some secret miracle cure - kind of ironic since she nicknamed her French doctor who helped her lose the weight she had gained in America Dr. Miracle.


    • 4/5
      A good book with lots of helpful advice for gaining a better sense of perspective on self and your relationship to food. Food is about life and love and laughter, Mireille counsels, not deprivation. Though smug in parts, it is an approachable and convivial guide to mindful eating, set in the city of lights.
    • 1/5
      The recipes were too complicated for me to actually make. I didn't read the entire book - giving it away instead. Hopefully someone else will enjoy this.
    • 4/5
      This book was a relatively quick read (I read it while at the gym) and it has lots of tips for women who want to be attractive like the French. Like: drink water when you feel hungry, it's probably what your body is asking for, and if still hungry after 20 minutes, then eat.
    • 5/5
      French Women Don't Get Fat, and after reading Mireille Guiliano's book, I now know why.This is a fascinating book on many levels. Part memoir, part diet book, part cookbook, it it a wholly satisfying read.Mireille (meeRAY) was a normal teenager until she came to America as an exchange student. When she returned home after living like an American for a year, she was 20 pounds heavier. Her family was shocked. But her family doctor gave her a simple plan to regain her optimum weight, and the women of her family shared their secrets for maintaining her optimum weight. Now, Mireille shares that plan and those secrets with the rest of us.I cannot wait to try her "Miracle Leek Soup," which sounds divine and can help a woman drop several pounds in just a weekend. Her other recipes sound equally delicious, and her suggestions for desserts will have a special following among women whose sweet tooth is destroying their figures.The little tips and tricks, the idea of "compensations," these are painless adjustments that add up to pounds and inches kept off of the body. Nothing could be better. And from Mireille's explanations, nothing could be easier. Vive la femmes de France!
    • 4/5
      A sensible approach to eating and exercise that encourages you to enjoy food and life, and to think long-term about health. Told from a first person perspective, and with frank acknowledgment of the challenges in maintaining a healthy weight.
    • 2/5
      Interesting, but I wish I'd picked it up from the library instead of buying it. It was one of those guilty fat girl moments.
    • 4/5
      This is a no-nonsense Weight Watchers-type approach with flair and fun. Guiliano, with much humour, gives the basics to healthy, balanced living preaching moderation in eating and exercise but emphasizing on taste, time and pleasure. Being in a similar situation of growing up in France but living in Canada, I can vouch to the truth of her observations and truly enjoyed finding again all the deliciously simple recipes of my childhood. I can't wait to try them out again! This book will find its place in my kitchen.
    • 3/5
      I liked this book more for it's study of French culture than it's diet tips, though every recipe I've tried from it has been excellent. I never lost any weight by trying to follow her suggestions, but I was introduced to the marvels of both leeks and homemade yogurt. A much better read overall than a typical "diet" book, but really more about lifestyles than diets.
    • 3/5
      Who can argue with a diet philosophy that embraces chocolate. Just make sure it's the good stuff and eat less of it.
    • 3/5
      What is it about diet books that make you hungry? Is it the impending deprivation between the lines? For example, my mother’s Sunday school class all gained weight when trying the Christian based diet book, Weigh Down by Gwen Shamblin. Why? Mom claims they all had a tendency to snack while reading.Usher in a new book that puts a cultural spin on weight loss. French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano is your typical diet book; nothing new or earth shaking here. The common sense tips like drink plenty of water and eat smaller portions reduce weight. No mystery really, although, we secretly feel those Frenchies hoard a skinny gene from Gallic ancestors.The book's strong point is an eye-opening glimpse into French culture. French women shop daily for fresh in-season produce and meats. French women endure many courses in one sitting by only tasting the selections and chewing slowly. Then there is the magical (natural diuretic) leek soup recipe found on page 26.Author Giliano begins the book with her own story. At 19 she spent one year in America as a French student participating in a high school exchange program. Upon her return to France, her own father greets her with, “Tu ressembles a un sac de patates.” In English that means you look like a sack of potatoes. Quel horreurs!Giliano claims she gained weight because of a weakness for pastries. Her solution, when face-to-face with dessert, eat a bite or two for taste and then launch into a funny story. As you deliver the punch line your company will have eaten their last morsel. Then out of politeness pass yours aside and enjoy coffee.As in real estate, chubbiness is all a matter of, “location, location, location”. Plop a skinny French woman in Dixie and she would be chubby in a month. First, buckle her up in a car, no more walking to the market, and introduce her to fast food. Next, teach her to marinate the Southern way; bread and soak all manner of food in hot grease until golden brown. Lastly, take away her smokes, a sure 10 lb. gain. French women see cigarettes as a classic fashion accessory. The French term “le smoking” actually means dinner-jacket.To recap, French women don’t get fat because they don’t live in the American South and they probably smoke. So, don’t feel so guilty, we have more obstacles to overcome.The book has an instant appeal for those of us that think France is so romantic. Who wouldn’t want to live like Gigi, dressed in black cigarette pants, white swingy top and black beret toting market fresh French bread, wine and flowers ala Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina through the cobbled streets of Paris.Listen, save your money on this book and if you must read it, check it out at the library. If you are really serious about losing weight here are the keys. Drink water, exercise regularly and do not eat anything white specifically flour, sugar and salt. When you reach your target weight, eat slowly and in moderation. Vive la difference!
    • 4/5
      At the very least, this book made me think about how I eat, and has affected some of the choices I make while shopping or preparing meals. The book reads very smoothly.
    • 5/5
      The message is very simple: Enjoy what you eat, but eat less of it. There also are a number of whity stories and yummie recipes sprinkled about in the book, giving it a more personal feel.
    • 3/5
      Interesting book, I know it's been debunked by several people but some of the points she makes are actually quite good! Little and often would appear to be the motto, quality over quantity every time!