The Marie Antoinette Diet

This is less the Marie Antoinette diet and more the Karen Wheeler diet. Wheeler starts with a valid premise: the French are slim and relatively healthy (certainly compared to Americans), so we should do what they do, but then she starts ‘improving' things.One of the original books advocating French eating (or at least one of the first I encountered) is [b:The Fat Fallacy : Applying the French Diet to the American Lifestyle 3318694 The Fat Fallacy Applying the French Diet to the American Lifestyle William Clower https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1267932149l/3318694.SX50.jpg 3356447]. Start there if you like. There are dozens of other books along more or less the same line. Where these books say, this is what the French do, do it the same way, then follow those books. Where these books say, yes, but we know better, so instead do this — ignore that advice. All of these books have value, but you have to separate out the increasingly ancient wisdom of how the French eat to how a particular author believes they can improve on this ancient wisdom.All of this is not to say that the French way of eating is the healthiest, but you will lose weight, especially if you can get behind four principles of French eating:1. Eat only the highest quality, most natural ingredients.2. Proper portion sizes are much smaller than you think. Check out what a typical portion size would have been in the 1950s — this is a good guide.3. Eat mindfully, slowly, and without distraction.4. Don't snack. A meal begins. It ends. You're done. We're not cows and we do not need to graze. (Do you really want the bulbous cow to be your model?)There is more to it, fine detail and subtleties, but these four get you to 80%.There's no clear way to rate this book. It's a mixed bag. Further complicating things is the fact that although Marie Antoinette was French, to be sure, she did live in the 18th century. Evolution in the French diet has naturally occurred. To add potential injury to insult, understand that although a person eating a typical American diet will almost certainly improve their health and reduce their size by mimicking the French way of eating, there are healthier ways of eating. Myself, I cycle through a number of paradigms, depending on intuition and current need. If you want to be slimmer, the French have your pass at the ready, but if you want to be healthier you're going to need to maybe start here and then invest in a much more nuanced nutritional education.