Cheap Eats - The pleasure principle

Here’s an odd industry secret: More often than not, food writers are not overweight people. In fact, many of them are downright svelte.

To the American mentality, that doesn’t make any sense. Why aren’t these people who focus their careers on the pleasures of the table not bulging at the seams? Well, the hottest selling “diet book” of the season posits what might be the winning theory.

Mireille Guiliano’s French Women Don’t Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure puts forth the most sane, appealing approach to losing weight I’ve yet to encounter. Neither doctor nor dietician nor celebrity weight-loss guru, Guiliano is the president and CEO of Clicquot Inc. - as in Veuve Clicquot. She states early in the book that she eats out more than 300 times a year (sounds familiar), with champagne in hand, yet she is not overweight or unhealthy.

Guiliano begins by recounting a tale about gaining 20 pounds while living in America as an exchange student. She lost the weight by following instructions from her French family’s physician, whom she nicknames “Doctor Miracle.” His method? Balance. Small portions. A sense of enjoyment rather than a straitjacket of rules and restrictions. And lots and lots of water. Actually, it sounds like the eating habits of most restaurant critics I’ve met.

Guiliano adopts these techniques for life and shares her wisdom with immodest confidence. You’ll probably finish the crisp, jaunty read contemplating Americans’ ingrained sense of discomfort around food. At the very least, it’s certainly refreshing to read a diet guide that doesn’t bash carbs.??