It’s not so much what you eat, but how you eat. In her book, French Women Don’t Get Fat, Mireille Guiliano gives some lovely tips of how the French enjoy their food and learn to eat smaller portions of the best foods. Some of her hints:
~French women eat more fruits and vegetables and enjoy eating the best of the season
~French women don’t eat sugar free, carb free, fat free, artificial processed foods
~French women eat with all their senses enjoying their food
~French women sometimes overdo it, but they know how to compensate the next day without beating themselves up – detours, not dead ends
~French women have meal time rituals – not eating on the run, in front of the TV, standing up
~French women don’t watch much TV
~French women care about the presentation of food
~French women walk whenever they can
~French women avoid anything that demands too much effort for too little pleasure
~French women eat for pleasure

I have adored reading about the French way of eating for a number of years. Enjoyment instead of deprivation. What a concept!

USA Today had a great article on french eating: http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2005-01-03-french-diet-cover_x.htm, which is very in tune to how I urge people to eat. The article is based on the book French Women Don’t Get Fat by French-born Mireille Guiliano. The book is subtitled The Secret of Eating for Pleasure.