Nash Noreen - The Paris diet : the European revolution in weight control

THE PARIS DIET

NOREEN NASH

MONIQUE DE WARREN

JEANNE REJAUNIER

All rights reserved

ASIN

Cover design - Brent Meske

Interior design and editing - Jeanne Rejaunier

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

(including The Miraculous "One Day Diet")

PARIS DIET

Recipes for Keeping Fit on Fish; Chicken, Beef, Vegetables, Soups, Salads, Eggs, Desserts

The idea for THE PARIS DIET came to us thirty years ago, but at that time there was a plethora of diets, mostly by doctors and nutritionists, and so we put our idea aside. Since that time, obesity has skyrocketed in this country. Millions and millions of people have gone on diets, only to gain the weight back. But neither Monique nor I have gained a pound, because we have been on THE PARIS DIE T .

This book had its genesis in a sidewalk caf in Paris over an excellent bottle of wine and some fresh shucked oysters.

My son and daughter-in-law had spent a week on a barge in England, cruising up and down the Thames, enjoying the leisurely life, eating breakfasts of thick sausages, lunches of pastry wrapped meats and pies washed down with ale, high teas of scones and jams, and desserts smothered in thick Jersey cream. They arrived in Paris realizing they had gained a great deal of weight. But this was their vacation; they would diet when they came home. For the next week they enjoyed the best Paris has to offer. Taking in the finest restaurants, bistros, bars, brasseries, cafs and salons de th , they ate their fill of delicious fish, of veal prepared with delicate sauces, of fresh vegetables cooked with herbs, of chicken simmered in wine, of cheese and fruit, and always a bottle of wine. And then they walked, savoring the sights of Paris. Much to their surprise, by the time they left Paris, they had lost all the weight they had gained in England.

Laughingly over dinner one night, my daughter-in-law told the story. "Oh," I remarked, "what a wonderful way to lose weight, on THE PARIS DIET!"

It was then I realized I myself had been on THE PARIS DIET most of my life. During my teens I began to be plagued by a tendency to gain weight. At eighteen, I signed a contract at MGM and was told to lose weight; it was imperative to be slender. From then on, each time I would begin a film, I would go on a starvation diet, lose the desired weight, only to gain it back again as soon as the picture was completed. My doctor husband warned me of the dangers of this. Fluctuating weight takes a toll on one's health, impairs one's beauty, causes the skin to sag. He said experience had taught him that fad diets didn't work, that the only way to conquer overweight was to change the eating habits, and in order to do that, one must find a diet that was not only low in calories, but nutritious, appetizing, and realistic as well.

Thousands of books have been written about the glories of French cuisine; bookstores and internet websites are filled with diet books, but Paris, that mecca for gourmets and epicureans, is not one's idea of a place to go to lose weight, and yet as you will see, it can be the perfect place. After much thought and discussion, I decided to write THE PARIS DIET. What qualified me to write such a book besides loving Paris, good food, and being slender?

I, Noreen Nash, was an actress for twenty years. At forty, I enrolled at UCLA, where I earned a degree in French and history, and later wrote and published two historical novels, one work of nonfiction, and numerous magazine articles. All my life, I have been an avid cook with an interest in nutrition. I have two grown sons and four grandchildren. My late husband of forty-seven years was a prominent Beverly Hills, California physician. Besides his private practice, he was Medical Director of 20th Century Fox Film Studio, and the majority of his patients were connected with the film industry. It had been his responsibility to keep Hollywoods biggest stars in shape. From him I learned about diet.

Encouraged and guided by my husband, I began to write this book. I delved even further, studying medical journals, reading books, collecting the latest data on obesity and nutrition, as well as experimenting with new recipes. But since this is THE PARIS DIET, I wanted the book to have an authentic French accent, and so I invited Monique de Warren to join me.

Monique is a true "Mademoiselle de Paris," although she tells us, "I was born in the part of France which smells of thyme, garlic, and olives, where the sky is so light and blue that you believe you are going to fly with the alouettes, where people sing when they talk." The place she speaks of is Provence, that sweet magic country that gave her a taste for color, smell, and perfume. However, having lived many years in Paris, Monique is very Parisian, with a thorough and vivid knowledge of the city, its restaurants, and its cuisine. She studied at the Sorbonne and L'cole du Louvre, and has been an art dealer for many years, a connoisseur of art and antiques. Although very slender, she is a fabulous cook. Monique, or the Countess de Warren, as she is called because of her fifty-two year marriage to a French count, has four children and ten grandchildren.

Aside from her career as an actress and author, Jeanne Rejaunier has been a francophile since the age of seven, building on her French roots, devouring French language and culture throughout her life. We were old friends who had worked together in the past, so it was fitting that she join us on THE PARIS DIET team.

We have pooled our knowledge and our experiences to create THE PARIS DIET.

Those five little words conjure up an image of a dull and bleak existence, tasteless food, no wine, no entertaining--a life on hold. But don't despair; we have a diet for you ...

... THE PARIS DIET

Paris is synonymous with pleasure. It is the city of lights, vibrant, alive, in love with life. It is a place where the sounds, the smells, the sights pique our sensual appetites and satisfy our esthetic senses.

Paris is a gastronomical feast, a haven for the epicurean, known the world over for its fine cuisine, its three star restaurants, its charming, cozy bistros, its lively, noisy brasseries from which tantalizing aromas come wafting out into the streets, tempting us, beckoning us. Inside these wonderful restaurants, as culinary experiences await us, our mouths begin to water, our palates are primed.

How can we think of dieting? Dieting means deprivation, misery, starvation. Going on a diet is punishment for having enjoyed life too much. The words "Paris" and "diet" don't belong together. They are an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms.

But actually the word "diet" isn't such a bad word. It comes from the Greek word diatia , meaning "manner of living." And that is what we wish to propose, a better, healthier manner of living. It has been said so often that "everything good is either illegal, immoral, or fattening" that we have come to believe it. We have been programmed to think that diet food is bland, tasteless, and unappetizing, whereas French food (or anything delicious) is fattening.

One day at a luncheon I served trout en papillote ("in the bag"), asparagus Hollandaise and strawberries Romanoff. The guests devoured the meal with gusto, and even those who claimed they didn't like fish savored each mouthful.

After the luncheon I remarked that the entire meal had been very non-fattening, less than 300 calories for everything. One lady who had been trying to lose weight looked up sadly and said, "Why did you tell us that? It ruins it." This woman will always be overweight until she learns that food can be good without being fattening.

The low calorie recipes in THE PARIS DIET are basically French. French cooking is thought to be difficult and complicated, requiring hours to prepare. A worldwide reputation for excellence has created a mystique about French cuisine and its master chefs. One gets the impression that a French chef always starts from scratch, makes his own broth and his own dough, and doesn't take any shortcuts. To do otherwise would be sacrilegious. At least in my reverence for this fine cuisine, I thought so.