I have read many diet books, and been fighting weight problems most of my life. I bought this book after I recently spent 10 days in Europe, in Barcelona and in Rome. We noticed that Barcelonans and Romans were NOT overweight. While there, we ate out constantly, ate substantial breakfasts, multi-course dinners with wine and dessert late at night, stopped at pastry shops, and so on. And yet, when we returned to the US, I had lost 2 pounds and 2% of body fat! My partner was at the same weight as before. We were shocked! Note that this is a book about lifestyle and attitudes towards food and other aspects of life. It is not a diet book. I learned a great deal in Europe about how Europeans eat, drink, and live. And, I learned a great deal more from this book. Many good recipes are provided. There is some extraneous and or silly material in it (as when the author declares she "despises" gyms and ridicules things like stairmasters), as others have pointed out, but overall, the book is terrific and something all Americans struggling with weight could benefit from reading. It has helped me quite a bit, not just with weight loss, but with overall health and attitudes.

The author of this book spends more time promoting products for her company than she does offering anything approaching practical advice for wemon to lose weight or maintain a slim figure. The tone of this book is very condescending and remplit with platitudes and snobish nonsense. The author has no qualifications to write on the subject of dieting and her advice is laughable at best! On a side note my mom is from france (Narbonne) and this lady doenst even look french, she must be from Straßburg (Allemange) Finally, if French wemon don`t get fat, then why are there so many jokes of the type `ta mère est tellemente grosse que` in france nowadays?

I lived abroad for about a dozen years and in addition have traveled extensively, making several 2 month excursions to Europe. It's true that Europeans are generally thinner - they are also on the average, smaller than Americans. In fact, the only group of people who tends to match us in the size category are Russians. Think about this when making comparisons between what an average European eats and what an American eats. It's true that Americans have lots more junk food in their diet, and this may be a contributing factor in weight gain, but a larger person trying to eat like a smaller one doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense. This is particularly true for men.

An aquaintance of mine from Eastern Europe who spoke fluent French lived in Paris in the 80's. She went looking for tampax and kotex and was surprised not to find them anywhere. She was told my storekeepers that these were not very high in demand because the French women, particularly Parisians, dieted so much that they ended up missing their periods. Why hasn't this little factoid made it into the mainstream? Is it because diet authors want to offer us easy solutions?

Furthermore, there is no such thing as an all you can eat restaurant in Europe - in any case, last time I looked, they were notoriously absent from the landscape. Moreover, Europeans are stingy creatures, and budget everything, including food, to death. Europe has been in the throes of double digit unemployment for years - perhaps this is the reason for "nouvelle cuisine" and its tiny portions. Dining out in Europe is not generally a feast - small portions tend to be the norm - compared to what is offered in the US. A lot of French women smoke and drink their "lunch" anyway - who needs food when you're on a perpetual diet?

Some of the one star editorials on this book have been quite educational - to summarize -

1. Stats from "France Today" state that 12 percent of French kids and 30 percent adults are overweight. Fashion rags like "Prima" are beginning to show clothes for heavier women. GI bypass surgery is becoming popular. A 2002 best seller in France is titled What to Do? My Child Is Overweight.

2. French have one of the highest smoking rates in the world. 30.8% of the women smoke. Nicotine supresses the appetite and is also has laxative qualities.

3. Champagne and caviar eating does not include a significant of French women who under Madame's guidelines would be considered "fat" and who live on cheaper potatoes, pasta and rice. Women from the same income bracket in the states are usually anorexic as well. Note Paris Hilton and our "lollipop head" celebs. Starving horses are noted to have heads out of proportion to their bodies - this is not healthy. Anorexia and bulimia are equally prevalent in France - American anorexics: 0.5 - 3.7 percent of women (in their lifetimes) - France: 1 - 3 percent. Bulimic French: 5 percent. American binge eaters: 2 - 5 percent, whereas 11 percent of French women have compulsive eating disorders. A current bestseller in France is a book about bulimia titled Thornytorinx.

4. Moreover, Slate magazine online review of Guiliano's book was not very nice -

When she met the New York Times' Elaine Sciolino for coffee in Paris, Guiliano took one bite of her croissant, declared it "disgusting," and left the rest on her plate, thereby demonstrating a lesson from her book: "Life is too short to drink bad wine and to eat bad food." Sounds nice enough, but sticking to this philosophy in all circumstances would be remarkably neurotic. What if you're hungry? The scene calls to mind a certain type of weight-obsessed woman, the kind who uses the excuse of a refined palate to mask her suspicion of food (and to justify how little she eats).

China, on the other hand, is a country where people seem to be constantly eating, and eating, and eating, and not getting fat. In fact, a fair number of Asian films celebrate eating (I suppose because the area has been through so many famines) - for example "Tampopo" (Japan) - "Eat, drink, man, woman" (Taiwan). A skinny little Japanese guy has been the winner several times in a row of Nathan's hot dog eating contest. Have you eaten yet? was at one time the standard greeting in China. My skinny Japanese female roomates, who picked at their food in public, would suck it up like vacuum cleaners in private. Asian food tends to be low glycemic, low in sugar, and moreover, Asians eat FAST. No picking over food for 2 hours like the French, who with their high unemployment, apparently have nothing better to do than warm a seat at a cafe and BS. Unfortunately, McDonald's is going great guns in Asia (it's extremely popular there).

Russians are not fat in youth, but eventually many become obese. This is not due to an abundance of food, or a plethora of junk food - on the contrary, a lack of nutrients seems to be the problem, along with an overdependence on cheap starches like potatoes. Instead of studying Europeans, we should be looking at the Russians. Japan, with its famously obese sumo wrestlers, such an anomaly there, should be studied to compare their diets with the average Japanese.

It's hard to say why people get fat - I did notice that when overseas, I ate to my heart's content, and ended up losing weight - coming back home to the US, within two weeks my butt would expand to the size of Alaska. When I went back overseas, people would comment on this. I was frustrated, because I had no idea why it had happened. It's not like I suddenly started eating more when I came home, or that I wolfed down a bunch of junk food. I just don't do that. I am still mystified as to what this x factor may be.

Just for kicks a few months ago I plugged in what I ate to the fitday website, and found that I barely ate1000 calories a day, on the average. And in spite of walking the 45 minute a day routine, like the French, walking most places (don't own a car) and working out at a gym, I still couldn't lose. The less I ate, the more weight I seemed to gain.

I recently had success on Suzanne Somers' plan (Somersizing) and lost about 20 lbs. in a month. I found that Somers had actually lifted her ideas from Michel Montignac's books. Michel Montignac is a French nutritionist who advocates food separation (otherwise known as food combining) and an elimination of certain types of carbohydrates. Otherwise there is no calorie counting, fat counting or carb counting, and you can eat as much or as little as you feel the need to. Montignac has the answer, but obviously wrote his books because things in France were not as perfect as Madame suggests. At least Montignac is more scientific and logical.

As for this book, I feel it just rehashes a myth without taking into account the other factors that may be contributing to "thinness" in France. It might be better to look into Montignac and Somers instead. Also "Eat Fat, Lose Fat" by Mary Enig and "Eat Your Cholesterol" by William Douglas.

And please consider that you can be thin and not healthy at the same time.

I did not plan to take this book as a literal eating plan but I was still surprised at the lack of any new information. The author tells the reader that they should "diet" for three months and they should be able to lose half the weight they need to. That is a really broad generalization - some people might want to lose 10 pounds and other 100! How does she know? Also, it just seems like there was page after page about how wonderful the food is in French, which doesn't help us. I can't get local French strawberries at any time! I was very disappointed.

You are far better off reading any books by French nutritionist Michel Montignac (Suzanne Somers based her Somersizing books on his plan). Montignac's ideas work, and he explains why, w/o bashing Americans.