French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret Of Eating For Pleasure Quotes
"I love my adopted homeland. But first, as an exchange student in Massachusetts, I learned to love chocolate-chip cookies and brownies. And I gained nearly ten kilos."
"My love affair with America had begun with my love of the English language; we met at the Lycée when I turned eleven."
"The selection committee had not found a suitable candidate. When I asked about Monique, my mother tried to explain something not easily fathomed at my age: my friend had everything going for her, but her parents were communists, and that would not fly in America."
"It was a wonderful year—one of the best of my adolescence—and it certainly changed the course of my entire life."
"My American mother, who had perhaps been through something like this before with another daughter, instinctively registered my distress."
"I was terribly anxious about what Monique would say, but once word got out, she was first to declare what a fine ambassador I would make!"
"My teacher had proposed me as an alternative, and the other members had agreed."
"For the next three weeks, I was to keep a diary of everything I ate."
"The key, he said, was not to conquer the second, but to broker a rapprochement: make friends of your two selves and be the master of both your will-power and your pleasures."
"I had never mentioned the weight gain in letters and somehow managed to send photos showing me only from the waist up."
"My father brought my brother with him to Le Havre to collect me."
"The ocean liner was still the transatlantic standard preferred by many French people in the late 1960s."
"Losing one’s equilibrium can be a symptom of a more serious trauma."
"When you’ve learned to taste your food with care, you’ll find yourself noticing the interplay of ingredients as never before."
"Keeping your mind interested in what you’re eating is fundamental to eating less and losing weight."
"Supremely nutritious, [nuts] can be a delicious and healthy accent in many a dish."
"I’m unapologetically nuts about nuts, and my favourite varieties are hazelnuts, walnuts, and almonds."
"Just remember that here, too, 'less is more.'"
"A well-trained palate is quicker to reach contentment."
"Nuts are rich in beneficial monounsaturated fat as well as good sources of vitamin E, folate, potassium, magnesium, zinc, and other minerals essential to health."
"Many people think of nuts as a high-calorie, high-fat food, which is true, so practise moderation."
"Growing up French means eating lots of fruit—in season, that is."
"Fruit consumption is one of the most telling differences between French and American eating patterns."
"Vivre de pain, d’amour, et d’eau fraîche: Live on bread, love, and fresh water. It doesn’t get more basic than that."
"French women are probably the biggest soup eaters in the world."
"Wine is not only the perfect accompaniment to a meal, creating a complex interplay of tastes that stimulates the mind and offering a much more satisfying experience; it also elevates the meal’s ritual value, helping you to see eating in a different light."
"In wine you must learn your preferences and be ready to adjust them over time."
"The French say, 'On ne badine pas avec l’amour' ('You don’t fool around with love'). To us, the same goes for bread, an old flame we will never part with."
"Dr. Miracle advised little pleasures ('menus plaisirs') were the key to success."
"Quality chocolate is labour-intensive and complex."
"In France, you’ll often see cartoons of a doctor sitting by a convalescent’s bedside, drinking to the patient’s health."
"French women eat chocolate (about five kilos a year on average)."
"French women see exertion as an integral part of the day."
"Sleep is the most neglected state of being in modern life."
"French women make sure they have lots of 'petits riens', those little nothings of daily pleasure that are actually quite something to us."
"French women dream of finding 'un amoureux rigolo' (a love who is funny, makes us laugh)."
"Genetic predisposition to slenderness is not disproportionately distributed among French women."
"Without plenty of water, a baby, especially one kept too warm, can dehydrate in as little as three hours."
"Americans seem less inclined to [fool kids into eating what is good] than they were fifty years ago; they seem to believe any form of deceit in child rearing will lead to trauma."
"Food on television makes one think about eating and gets one’s gastric juices flowing, triggering the release of insulin, lowering one’s blood sugar, and stimulating food cravings."
"French women don’t get fat because they have not allowed new attitudes and modern theories of how the body uses food to overrule centuries of experience."
"French women eat with all five senses, allowing less to seem like more."
"The real reason French women don’t get fat is not genetic, but cultural."
"French women do stray, but they always come back, believing there are only detours and no dead ends."
"For there is absolutely no French trick or custom that you can’t make your own with a little common sense and attention to your individual needs, strength, and weaknesses—and pleasures."