Dr. William Clower - The French dont diet plan : 10 simple steps to stay thin for life

PART ONE:

Step 3: Lose Your Sweet Tooth (While Eating Real
Chocolate)

PART TWO:

PART THREE:

On a breezy Saturday afternoon, you stroll along the Sane River that laces across the heart of Lyon, France. Your long-awaited three-week vacation has finally put all your work anxieties behind you. To your left bustles a hive of shoppers at the open-air market, where rows of vegetables are so bright you want to reach out and touch them all. Bags of fragrant spices almost beg you to pinch them.

A little farther and the aroma hitsfresh baked baguettes, still warm and waiting for you to dip their crust into a bowl of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Youd love to, except that you just finished a lingering love affair with a two-hour lunch: an appetizer of rich fois gras, followed by a tender slice of duck breast with garlic green beans, and a few taut grapes followed by the most luscious cheeses youve ever tasted.

Even after walking for about thirty minutes, youre not short of breath, nor are your legs tired. Your clothes feel looser against your body and, somehow, youve lost a few pounds. You pause at a bench to raise your eyes to meet the stately Fourvire Cathedral across the river, and realize that since arriving, youve eaten whatever you wanted.

Youve forgotten your diet.

Despite the ease of the living and the luxury of the food, youve never felt betteror looked better. The only bittersweetness is the fact that youmust soon go home to the harried world of prepackaged quickie foods. And you know that, once you return to that mile-a-minute culture, youll be right back where you started from. If only you could stay this energized, thin, and healthy. If only you could somehow re-create this atmosphere that effortlessly lowers your weight and puts you at peace with your food again.

After earning my Ph.D. in neurophysiology, I was awarded a position at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences in Lyon, France, to study how our behavioral habits actually change the way the cells in our brains work. I expected to learn a lot about how behavior affects the brain, but I never dreamed that this experience would end up changing my entire thinking about food. I saw so many odd things about the French and their diet that just didnt square with my American assumptions about what wereand were nothealthy eating habits.

I found that the French break every one of our dietary rules. And as soon as everyone in my family modeled our eating behavior after theirs, all of us (except the cats) lost weight. My wife, Dottie, dropped that elusive last ten pounds, I shed twenty-five, and my mother went from a size twelve to a six. After these results became so apparent, I found myself awake at four A.M. transcribing my observations, trying to figure out what was going on.

For example, early in our stay, the director of the lab walked us around a typical grocery store. I couldnt get over all the dairy productsrows and rows of cheeses, an entire refrigerated case just for yogurts and crme frache. Something felt wrong though, and it took me about three trips to the store to realize what it was.

Where are all the low-fat products?

Each afternoon, I ate lunch in the Neurological Hospital cafeteria with my colleagues. And every day we ate rich, decadent cheeses to finish the meal. The first time they were served, I looked around to see if anyone else hesitated to indulge in food that was so bad for you. I asked one of my friends, Is this cheese high in saturated fat? To which she replied, What are you talking about?

Arent they concerned about eating so much fat?

Just after arriving in Lyon, we stayed at a little hotel in the restaurant district downtown. The September evenings were warm that year and we wouldve liked the windows open for a draft of cool evening air. But we had to shut them at night because of the ongoing clamor from the cafs outside. Everyone was still eating at the outdoor tables at nine, ten P.M. , even midnight. The voices went on, talking and laughing.

Their mealtimes last so longand they eat so late at night.

We moved from Lyon to settle in nearby Meximieux and, on weekends, my family and I would walk the streets of our little village. People would pass. Theyd sit down at outdoor caf tables, just talking and sipping coffee or something. One day, as we passed the magazine kiosk, I noticed a cover headline announcing a lead article on lobesite Americain. Then it hit me.

No ones fat here.

Despite the rich creams, cheeses, butters, and breads, the obesity rate in France is only 11.3 percent of the population (according to a 2005 survey by the London-based International Obesity TaskForce). And all those natural, unaltered dairy products have left these 60 million people with heart disease rates that are a full three times lower than ours. This high rate of heart disease is one of the reasons listed by the World Health Organization to explain our relatively poor life expectancy rating. The WHO released data showing that eight of the top ten countries whose citizens live the longest are from the Mediterranean region, and France is number three. The United States, with all our wonderful health care and prudent nutritional advice, is ranked at number twenty-four.