french women don't get fat

read this book - french women don't get fat, by mireille guiliano and i absolutely love it!

by far, i'll rate this book superior to "why japanese women don't grow old or fat".

there are some recipes but what's more important is the philosophy. here are a few :

• french women eat smaller portions of more things. elsewhere, women eat larger portions of fewer things.
• french women eat more vegetables.
• french women eat a lot more fruit.
• french women love bread and would never consider a life without carbs.
• french women don't eat "fat free", "sugar free" or anything artificially stripped of natural flavour. they go for the real thing in moderation.
• french women love chocolate, especially the dark, slightly bitter, silky stuff with its nutty aroma.

and a lot more!

so there's not a list of foods not to eat, but the emphasis is on eating what's fresh, in season, good quality and variety. there's also emphasis on exercise and drinking lots of water.

eating quality over quantity is so important. i have a weakness of chocolate but good chocolates are so expensive and cheap chocolates are so bad. [i'll share with you a current chocolate favourite later.]

so if you settle for just a few bites of a good quality dark chocolate (this is the good stuff!), this anytime beats many bars of lousy chocolates. lousy chocolates are typically low in cocoa and high in sugar. thus you need to eat more to satisfy the chocolatey craving. but with dark chocolate, just a bite goes a longgggggg wayyyyyyy... get it?

it's like eating bread! if you eat only white bread, you are never satisfied. 4 slices and i still need a packet of nasi lemak but 3 slices of whole wheat bread, plus some matured cheese... hmm... heavenly... this beats nasi lemak any time!

i never find what's the bad deal about carbs. whenever i hear of people wanting to reduce weight, they'll start off by saying reducing carbohydrate. i don't agree with this at all!

you reduce simple carbohydrate. you increase complex carbohydrate.

out goes white bread, rice, potatoes, beer.
in comes whole wheat bread, brown rice.

also the prevailing theme of her book is... balance. you just need to balance whatever you eat with whatever you exert. if you had the extra bit of chocolate, reduce the bread, exercise more etc. she doesn't say you should enroll in gyms. she advocates climbing stairs for starters and it's definitely the easiest, most accessible form of physical exertion.

all in all, i thorough enjoy this book. you should too, if you want to learn more about eating well and eating healthily.

screw dieting!

ps: i had so much fun with this book, i took my colleague out for lunch. we went to a french restaurant!