BookBrowse Reviews French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano

Out With Diet Foods, In With The 'French Paradox'!

You've no doubt heard of the 'French paradox'; the French eat well, drink well but still, in general, remain remarkably slim - how do they do it? Mireille Guiliano will show you how - and it certainly doesn't involve paying for overpriced diet foods, pills or any of the other products that Americans spend $50 billion dollars on each year (see sidebar)!

Guiliano's advice is far from revolutionary, but that of course is the point - she's not advocating the new extreme this or that, just simple, commonsense eating and lifestyle habits that will keep you healthy and fit.

Of course, a pedant would be forced to suggest that a more accurate title for Guiliano's book would be "Most French Women Didn't Used to Get Fat". The reality is that France is suffering an obesity "epidemic" just like much of the developed world because of fast foods, the ubiquity of unhealthy snacks and sedentary lifestyles. In fact, according to a 2006 New York Times article, if French waistlines continue on their current trajectory, the French will match the USA's current 65% overweight rate by 2020. But, it seems the French government are doing a lot more to fight back against the problem than the USA, with bills passed to prevent misleading advertising, tax unhealthy foods and take soda and snack-selling vending machines out of schools; and on France's National Weighing Day "a voluntary army of hundreds of pediatricians fanned out to more than 80 cities to weigh, measure, interrogate and enlighten."

This review first ran in the January 10, 2008 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.