Product Description

This is the book we've all (certainly every woman between 25 and 75) been waiting for. It is classy, chic, convincing, funny, wise, well-written and very timely. It's the ultimate non-diet book, which nonetheless shows us how to eat with balance, control and above all pleasure. Chuck out all the radical diet books, think about what you eat and why, and then enjoy eating the right things (and some of the wrong ones) intelligently, and in smaller portions. Eat, like a French woman, with your head not your stomach. Guiliano, French-born and bred, gets the tone absolutely right. She succeeds in that rare high-wire act of being really serious about her subject but without taking herself too seriously; manages to encourage and inspire and amuse, without being bossy or earnest. This is a book that will make you laugh out loud and yet have you following several of her practical precepts within days - everyone who reads it becomes evangelical (French women don't go to the gym, they climb the stairs). It combines just the right balance of memoir, wisdom, wit, delicious recipes, and French common sense. Guiliano emphasizes the virtues of freshness, variety, personal taste, enjoyment and, above all, portion control (research shows that dishes served in US restaurants are 25 per cent larger than those served in restaurants in France!).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11646 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Guardian
Perennial favourite

From the Publisher
How do French women do it? This is the book that unlocks the simple secrets of 'the French paradox' - how to enjoy food and stay slim and healthy. With a simple USP and a title that almost sells itself, it’s guaranteed to be a bestseller.

About the Author
The author is French, brought up in Alsace and Provence, educated at the Sorbonne. She was an interpreter at the UN in New York, where she now lives most of the year, and is married to an American. She is now the successful President and CEO of Veuve Clicquot Inc., the US arm of the French champagne makers - increasing their market share in the US from 1% to 21% in 10 years.

Customer Reviews

Oh my goodness!!!
This book has completely changed my life and I cannot urge you to read it strongly enough!! Having battled with weight for all of my adult life including 2 pregnancies and a debilitating dependency on chocolate cheesecake which I grew to dread, my sister sent me this book! I am now a healthy and happy eater of all the things I love and only the things I love (having discovered a number of new ones previously untried) in, honestly very happy, moderation! This book has made food into a joy rather than a toil and given me back control! If I ever met this woman I would kiss her feet!!

Eating and Reading for Pleasure
Bravo. I gave this wonderful book to my American wife and then could not put it down. It is beautifully written, and who doesn't want to know the secrets of enjoying Champagne and eating well on the road to good health and weight? I certainly do. The handsome volume is a collection of stories and recipes and tips and tricks by a successful and slender French businesswoman who lives in New York and Paris that gets you into the mind and body of one of a breed of admirable women that seems a dying species in today's world of mindless consumption and endless unhealthy temptations. And it is all about pleasure! Madame Guiliano's lifestyle book is full of common sense and self-evident truths you wish you had formally recognized before and is right on the mark as far as the chic French of a certain age go. It certainly makes you want to throw away all those diet books that really don't work. She is an apostle of thinking and moving, and she has already got me taking the stairs and drinking lots more water...and savoring every bite of the good things I put into my mouth.

Throw away your diet books
This is an excellent book for serial dieters who want to get off the starve\binge\penance treadmill. It is all about throwing away the Anglo-Saxon puritan attitudes that make us hate our food, hate ourselves and, ultimately, get fatter. Instead, you can eat great food while focusing on balance and variety instead of rules, embrace the pleasure of food instead of seeing it as an enemy to be conquered, and start eating like a normal human being again.

Trust me - you will lose weight, slowly but surely, if you follow the recommendations in this book.