Le New York Post, ce tabloid anti-français irrésistible qui nous fait rêver la bouche ouverte à Los Angeles (suis abonnée) interviewe une svelte executive-woman française, Mireille Guiliano, auteure d'un guide du bien-manger intitulé: Les femmes françaises ne grossissent pas.
Pourquoi? Je vous le donne dans le mille: parce qu'elles mangent peu et bien, ne vont jamais à la gym mais se déplacent en marchant. Elles n'ont aucun intérêt pour la junk food, lisent au lieu de regarder la télé et dorment ce qu'il faut, selon cette élégante gourou anti-régime. Si seulement...
Mais je soupçonne Mireille Giuliani, à 58 ans, de parler pour sa génération aux bonnes mannières alimentaires. Actuellement, 10% des Français sont obèses, contre 33% des Américains, mais les Frenchies s'imprègnent de mauvaises habitudes. Le nouveau numéro de Time remarque: "Même l'antagonisme américain actuel envers toute chose gauloise n'a pas refroidi l'accueil du livre." Il en est à sa sixième réimpression, et figure aujourd'hui en 4ième place sur Amazon. Et moi, je rentre d'un séjour en France avec 4 kg à perdre.
A lire plusieurs critiques du livre des journaux de l'Amérique profonde, cette Française en agace plus d'un, mais les commentaires les plus amusants émanent de la presse anglaise. Ils se sentent visés comme de tristes losers anglo-saxons névrosés, obsédés par le régime Atkins et le Yoga Bikram (où l'on sue comme un cochon.)
Selon le Times, Mireille Giuliano omet de mentionner que les françaises mangent moins car elles fument quelque chose comme 400 cigarettes par jour!
Why? You'll be surprised: because they eat little but well, don't work out but walk to get to places. They have no interest in junk food, read instead of watching TV, and they sleep long enough, says this elegant anti-diet guru. If only ...
I think that at 58, Mireille Giuliano speaks for her well-mannered generation. For now, 10% of the French are obese, compared to 33% of Americans, and surveys show that the Frenchies are absorbing bad food habits, too. The new issue of Time notices that "Even the current U.S. antagonism toward all things Gallic has not dampened the book's reception. It has gone through six printings and shot to No. 2 on Amazon.com. Exactly when I'm just back from France with 5 Lbs to sweat off.
Reading several critics of the book in blue-state newspapers, this French woman irritates more than one. But the most amusing comments emanate from the British press. They feel targeted as sad, neurotic Anglo-Saxon losers who are obsessed with Atkins and Yoga Bikram (the kind where you sweat like a pig).
According to the Times, Mireille Giuliano kinds of forget to mention that French women eat less because they smoke something like 400 cigarettes a day!
Bien vu, et une copine qui s'occupe du marketing des plats préparés Weight Watchers m'assurent que les ventes sont excellentes! Le titre exact aurait du être "Les femmes françaises raffinées ne deviennent pas obèses" mais j'imagine qu'il il fallait absolument le mot magique "fat". En tous les cas, cette dame est en train de se monter un juteux business de "non-régime": les droits du bouquin ont été vendus un peu partout, en dehors de la France.
Heu, la photo a été prise AVANT le petit séjour en France. Il est pas beau cet immeuble en forme de jumelles? Certains croient qu'il s'agit d'un photo-montage.
The LATimes has a story today about Mireille Giuliano. Excerpts:
"Guiliano is not going to win any awards for modesty; in her introduction she states, "I like to believe that I embody the best parts of being American and being French."
"She identifies an important cultural paradox when she says, "America, the paragon of egalitarian values, somehow suffers from a gastronomic class system unknown in France. The right and the opportunity to enjoy the Earth's seasonal best seems to be monopolized by an elite."
She is, of course, correct that the large majority of us are conditioned to accept bland, processed food that packaging and marketing have made appear wholesome. "
When I read about her book in Women's Wear Daily, my first thought was--with a title like that, this book was do very well indeed.
Well, I've read the NYP and LAT articles now. This woman is a fraud ! We do finish our meals, we do not order 6 desserts to pick one bite of each (may I see the bill, please ?), we do have plenty of words to say full... and so on.
Jeez, look at her, her look screams NAP. In France too, poor people are fatter...
I thought she was great. Even though I'm a typical American woman in being overweight and panicking at the thought of "small, incremental change" rather than an all out attack on fat which I want gone NOW, I realize she is absolutely correct. She made a point at the end of the book about putting away childish things and taking responsibility for your own well being that also hit home. Better late than never, et vive la France!
I agree with Philippe. But I also have to say that since blogging about her, I'm more careful. And even thinking of trying her magical "leek soup" over the week-end...
If the French women don't ever get fat, then why has Weight Watchers been in France since 1973? To cater to all of the fat Americans in France? That is possible, but I have a feeling that a majority of the clients are French, but I haven't completed my investigation (yet).
I've watch this woman on Dateline on NBC, and I honestly believe that yes, she is talking about more refined french women than "everyday" french women, plus she is talking about Parisian women more than those who live outside of Paris...
I am french myself and lived in Paris for 14 years...but in France we have McDonald's as well and we do have people who like to eat a lot and bad as well, and yes, in Paris maybe women walk/run more, but saying that french women don't excercice is not accurate...as one of you mentioned above, she's not realistic...at all...
My advice to stay healthy ??
Eat reasonably of everything, dance, dance, dance, don't go to a gym, it's unpersonnal, boring, take dance classes, possibly rock a billy, very tonic for your body, great work out ! and fun, you dance with a partner, with music, you meet people blah blah and keep your food in your mouth longer, chew longer, you need to give the time to your saliva to prepare the food for your stomach to do the rest !!! very important !!!
That way you respect food much more anyway and it's quite some work so you don't over eat !
Good luck, bonne chance !
It's just about aknowledging food for the pleasure it brings to us and not giving it too much power ! bon appetit !
Sandy.
I've watch this woman on Dateline on NBC, and I honestly believe that yes, she is talking about more refined french women than "everyday" french women, plus she is talking about Parisian women more than those who live outside of Paris...
I am french myself and lived in Paris for 14 years...but in France we have McDonald's as well and we do have people who like to eat a lot and bad as well, and yes, in Paris maybe women walk/run more, but saying that french women don't excercice is not accurate...as one of you mentioned above, she's not realistic...at all...
My advice to stay healthy ??
Eat reasonably of everything, dance, dance, dance, don't go to a gym, it's unpersonnal, boring, take dance classes, possibly rock a billy, very tonic for your body, great work out ! and fun, you dance with a partner, with music, you meet people blah blah and keep your food in your mouth longer, chew longer, you need to give the time to your saliva to prepare the food for your stomach to do the rest !!! very important !!!
That way you respect food much more anyway and it's quite some work so you don't over eat !
Good luck, bonne chance !
It's just about aknowledging food for the pleasure it brings to us and not giving it too much power ! bon appetit !
Sandy.
I've watch this woman on Dateline on NBC, and I honestly believe that yes, she is talking about more refined french women than "everyday" french women, plus she is talking about Parisian women more than those who live outside of Paris...
I am french myself and lived in Paris for 14 years...but in France we have McDonald's as well and we do have people who like to eat a lot and bad as well, and yes, in Paris maybe women walk/run more, but saying that french women don't excercice is not accurate...as one of you mentioned above, she's not realistic...at all...
My advice to stay healthy ??
Eat reasonably of everything, dance, dance, dance, don't go to a gym, it's unpersonnal, boring, take dance classes, possibly rock a billy, very tonic for your body, great work out ! and fun, you dance with a partner, with music, you meet people blah blah and keep your food in your mouth longer, chew longer, you need to give the time to your saliva to prepare the food for your stomach to do the rest !!! very important !!!
That way you respect food much more anyway and it's quite some work so you don't over eat !
Good luck, bonne chance !
It's just about aknowledging food for the pleasure it brings to us and not giving it too much power ! bon appetit !
Sandy.
I live in France, in very rural Provence, part of the year and there are plenty of chubby and even obese women in my village. And they talk about dieting. And they eat lots of sweets and chips. Many of the Parisiennes who come down for a month are round, not skinny. The thin French women I know all smoke -- not 400 cigarettes a day but at least 10-60.
Also, I would say that there are as many super thin New Yorkers and women of LA as there are in Paris. A certain class of women are thin -- and work at it -- wherever they are.
But I have noticed that French women are built differently than, Americans. They have very flat butts and very very thin legs. They get fat in their bellies but their legs often stay slender.
Hum. How comes that every issue of every french women magazine between april and august (included) feature a 10 pages article on 'how to lose those extra pounds before going to the beach' ?
J'ai bien l'impression que les régimes nous préocupent autant que les autres, tout dépend de où on met la barre du 'trop gros'... Parce que ces 4 kgs ne sautent pas aux yeux...