The Fat Fallacy: The French Diet Secrets to Permanent Weight Loss

The French paradox has confounded doctors for years. They skip the gym, smoke more, drink more and enjoy more rich foods than Americans. And we Americans are fatter and have more heart disease. The scientist author offers two explainations. One they eat real food. Two is their way of eating. The first is simple. We eat crap. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil instead of cream in our coffee. Same poison in margarine instead of butter. Soy protein instead of goose liver pate. Our fast food is gross. Sugar in my hamburger patty, bun and fries too! If people didn't eat it one hundred years ago, it isn't likely to be real food. Second is how we eat. Meet another couple for dinner on a weekend. Their cell phones ring again and again. Business, the kids, discord with relatives,... And in thirty minutes they have wolfed down their meal and are ready to drive across town to the next event. Maybe next time we could meet at 7-11 for a microwave burrito. When you travel you see Europeans relax by the hour with coffee leisurely enjoying their meal and company. It seems a lost art in the USA. Eating is best relaxed, with friends and family, really tasting your meal. Put your fork down and talk. Listen. Enjoy. Turn off the phone. Sit at the table with nice music. Turn off the TV. Enjoy your meals. Enjoy your friends and family. Enjoy your life.

I first spotted The Fat Fallacy in a bookstore at a time when I was feeling frustrated at not being able to shed those last 10 pounds after months of exercising more regularly than I ever had before and trying to eat low-fat. I was intrigued by the idea that I could eat foods I love - cheese, full-fat premium ice cream, and chocolate - all while losing weight. It sounded almost too good to be true, but I'd seen firsthand from a trip to Paris that the French ate very differently from us yet stayed thin. Also, many of Will Clower's comments made a lot of sense intuitively. I decided to give it a try, hoping for the best, but promising to stop if it caused me to gain weight instead. I tossed out the skim milk, "low-fat" cheese, and processed foods containing high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and other artificial ingredients (you'd be amazed how many things include them!). To refill my pantry and refrigerator, I bought cream-top yogurt, whole milk, cheese, freshly baked french bread, good olive oil, high-quality dark chocolate, fresh vegetables, etc. I loved eating the new foods, found I didn't need to eat as much as before to feel satisfied, and was amazed at how quickly I saw the pounds start coming off. Within just over a month of making the changes, I had lost the 10 pounds I'd been struggling with. Another 5 pounds that I wasn't even trying to lose came off in the following month, leaving me happily surprised to have dropped 3 clothing sizes. Wow! It's so wonderful to be able to enjoy food without guilt, and to be happy with my body at the same time! I've since bought several copies of The Fat Fallacy to share with friends and family who've expressed interest. I'm always happy to be able to tell people about this book, as it encourages a healthy lifestyle rather than a "diet". It's definitely worth reading, and the recommendations seem so much healthier than some of today's trendier diets. Hope you'll read it and get as much out of it as I did!

I rarely feel strongly enough about a book to take the time to write an online review, but in this case I HAVE to share my thoughts. If I could encourage everyone in the country to read this book, I would!I have always loved food and loved cooking. However, I have always felt guilty about enjoying my food because I seem to want to gorge on it. Then I'm off into the want to eat/feel guilty about eating cycle! I am also an emotional eater, and nighttime snacking is my downfall. Over the past 2 1/2 years I have lost about 75lbs, mainly by just eating healthier and exercising. I cut out most processed and fast foods, sodas, sweets etc. and sought to eat more healthy foods. As my weight loss slowed over the past year or so I have gone through the counting calories phase (far too time consuming and tiring to do for long)and the counting protein/fat/carb grams phase (again, too time consuming). The one good thing that came out of these phases was learning to control portion sizes.A week or so ago I read the article in Woman's World magazine that mentioned this book "Fat Fallacy". The themes of eating whole, real foods struck a chord in me, and so I went out and bought it. In the week that I have been following the principles it suggests, my life has been transformed. I don't know that I can even express with words how much! For the first time in my life (and I'm 41), I feel free from the bondage to food. Instead, I feel freedom to really enjoy food and not feel guilty about it! I have not felt the urge to mindlessly stuff myself at night since I began.The concept that has most revolutionized my life from this book is slowing down while you eat. You'd think this would be a basic concept, but not here in the U.S. I was one who would eat in front of the TV constantly, stuffing my face long after I was full. Or at work I ate lunch at my desk, not even realizing what was going into my mouth! I now either eat at my kitchen table (no TV!)at home,or at work I go outside to eat at lunchtime. No more eating at my desk. I eat small bites, put my fork down between bites, and am really learning to taste my food. I'll have a book at the table to read, but I don't read while I'm eating. I'll have a few bites, put down my fork, read a page or two, put down the book, eat a few more bites, etc. This way when my stomach signals my brain that I'm full, I haven't eaten way past the full point to the stuffed point.I've gotten rid of all those supposedly "healthy" foods from my refrigerator and cupboards. No more protein powders, energy bars, low-fat anything's! I now eat whole foods, or at least make sure I recognize everything on the ingredient list if I eat something packaged (and those things are pretty hard to find!).Dr. Clower puts the "How to Eat" chapter before the "What to Eat" chapter for a reason. If you are eating slowly, you will need smaller amounts to fill you up. Then the fact that you can eat butter, olive oil, cheese, bread and choco

The Fat Fallacy is a refreshing new way (or rather old way) of looking at food. In our search for the quick-fix weight-loss solution, we have basically abandoned food and learned to embrace a diet of generally non-edible chemicals that have been dressed to resemble food. This becomes apparent at the end of every chapter, where there is a "faux-foods" quiz, which lists the ingredients of a common food substance and dares you to identify it. I only got one right, and wondered why I've been eating all this stuff. His advice is grounded in common sense - "if it ain't food, don't eat it" - and is actually quite easy to follow. How much time do Americans spend obsessing about how many carbs or sugars or fat grams are in their "food"? And when was the last time an American actually ENJOYED one of these low-fat, low-carb, low-sugar, low-taste, low-nutrition meals? The basic idea behind this "diet" is that Americans are fat because they eat too much. We keep getting fatter in spite of all the diet "foods" we eat. The human body doesn't get the nutrition it needs from this chemical soup, so it remains hungry until it gets some kind of real food. This is the typical binge. It's really quiet disgusting if you think about how much we eat. But in The Fat Fallacy, we are shown how to choose real food and enjoy it, all the while losing weight. How? When your body actually gets the nutrients it needs, it stops telling you that it's hungry, and that's when you stop eating. Pretty simple stuff. No agonizing over what frozen-food item has less fat or less carbs, no more choking down those tasteless food-sticks, no more disgusting eating habits. Our bodies need food. Be nice to your body and give it some.

This book has changed my life period. In fact, I'm so angry now that I've learned all of the misinformation I've been given all these years. The preservatives and processed sugars in packaged and low-fat foods are what make Amerians fat! It's so hard to believe that eating cheese, milk, olive oil and cream could make me lose weight, but it did! I lost 10lbs in 6 weeks and have never felt better. I have struggled with intestinal problems all my life, but eating natural foods has helped to minimize this problem. It's about eating quality food that has higher levels of nutritious fat. And unlike Atkins, you can eat bakery goods as part of your regular diet. The book teaches you that you can eat desserts and enjoy foods that are rich because your body is satisfied with the smaller portions of quality food you are ingesting. I can't recommend this book more. As someone who has tried all other diets, including the Weight Watchers points system, this is the best. It teaches you how to choose foods and most importantly, why each food item contributes, or damages, your overall health. Thank you Dr. Clower for bringing the mediterranean lifestlye into my life. I have a healthy relationship with my food now and don't feel the need to binge on sugar and other chemical-based foods.