Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen - The Parisian Diet: How to Reach Your Right Weight and Stay There

Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen provides keen and astute wisdom as he has us looking beyond traditional dieting. By blending the effective healthy lifestyle of the French and the determination of Americans in their never-ending quest for losing weight and feeling great, Dr. Cohen gives us new and fresh ways to approach our health. I highly recommend this book as a revelation and one that will truly work! Cest magnifique!

Robyn Webb, MS, LN, food editor at Diabetes Forecast Magazine, cookbook author, and nutritionist

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In France and beyond, Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen is the undisputed and well-respected leader in the field of nutrition and physical well-being. He has earned this position through his efforts to debunk many unscientific myths and pseudo scientific abuses in the field of nutrition. Instead of the charlatanism pervasive in the industry, his diet offers basic rules that are rooted in his medical experience and in his deep understanding of the psychological aspects of nutritional health that he has garnered from treating tens of thousands of patients. He has developed simple, applicable solutions and practical guidelines. They are compatible with our modern way of life, and help us confront the challenges we face from a food industry that is not always health conscious. Its no surprise that Dr. Cohens books and television appearances have made him the father figure of a good, sensible, and healthy style of nutrition.

Guy Sorman, journalist, philosopher, and author

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Dr. Cohen puts something useful on every page of this book. His plan is easy to follow and practical, but its also motivatingtwo ingredients that should be on the list of everyone looking for a better diet.

I love how Dr. Cohen places emphasis on enjoyment of food. He shows the reader how to really take pleasure in the process of becoming healthier. He reveals how to reach the weight thats best for you, and how to feel great about it. This book is for more than just dieters, its for anyone who wants a healthier lifestyle.

Keith-Thomas Ayoob, EdD, RD, FADA, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York

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What is great about Jean-Michel Cohen is that his approach to eating well combines pleasure and health. His in-depth understanding of ingredients is what makes his advice so successful.

Thierry Marx, Executive Chef and Food & Beverage Director at Mandarin Oriental, Paris

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This book is written by a well-known food scientist, but that is almost irrelevant because it is so rich in practicalities and devolves from the rich clinical background of an experienced physician. It begins where most of us beginunrealistic information from the media about food, body image, etc., which is more focused on marketing than on individual or public nutritional health.

As a clinician myself I really appreciated the early case-based scenarios, for they brought forward the day-to-day issues that often have a psychological basis rather than a medical/scientific one.

The Right Weight formula is a place to start and notes a practical way to set ones initial goals. What follows is a three-phase program, including commonsense rules and step-by-step work-arounds that take into account ones likes and dislikes and permit substitutions. There is something for everybody in the rich anthology of menus: I want to travel to Franceor learn how to cook in the French style. There are practical thoughts for the various phases and how to traverse among them.

Part 4 may be the most importanthow to integrate the Parisian diet into your life. This is much more than just plain old nutritional science! It even gives good dining out advice and presages some of the pitfalls to help you stick to the diet.

I had expected a well-rounded scientific compilation of adviceI got so much more! I am impressed with how Dr. Cohen relied on his personal clinical experience and integrated it with some of the social sciences in the arena of nutrition to produce a well-reasoned, practical, yet delightful book on dieting. I am anxious to try multiple of his suggested meals in any of the three phases of his life-style diet for health.

Alan D. Rogol, MD, PhD, Vice President of the Endocrine Society

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To eat you have to make a choice! For usomnivorous gourmand bipedsliving in this part of the world where we are inundated with options, each meal presents a dilemma. You have to learn how to choose, how to nourish yourself. From among all of these varied food typeswhether theyre natural or engineereddelivered from all corners of the globe by the pallet load, you have to choose which ingredients you put on your plate.

But its not easy to decide. Sometimes we need a hand, we could use some help. We seek informed advice that will help us organize our desires. How much is based on our whim? And how much on what is actually necessary? It takes time to get to know ourselves, to figure ourselves out.

Because he knows his subject like the tip of his fork, Jean-Michel Cohen can help you sort it all out. He knows what hes talking about, and he explains it well. He uses essential conceptsclear and easy to assimilatesimply, like a friend would do.

CharlElie Couture, musician, painter, and sculptor

Editor: Kate Mascaro
Translated from the French by Anne McDowall
Text adaptation: Margit Feury Ragland
Recipe adaptation: Helen Woodhall
Design: Gravemaker+Scott
Proofreading: Nicole Foster
Indexing: Cambridge Publishing Management Ltd
Cover illustration: Kanako Kuno
Flammarion, S.A., Paris, 2013

All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced
in any form or by any means, electronic,
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or otherwise, without written permission from
Flammarion, S.A.
87, quai Panhard et Levassor
75647 Paris Cedex 13
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editions.flammarion.com

13 14 15 4 3 2

Hardcover ISBN: 978-2-08-020139-3
eISBN: 978-2-08-129557-5

Dpt lgal: 01/2013

v3.1

O NE AFTERNOON IN J UNE 2007, I entered the waiting room of Dr. Jean-Michel Cohens medical practice in Paris. It was two oclock in the afternoon and the room was crowded. I sat down next to a heavy-set older woman. Chatting with her, I learned that she had arrived in Paris that morning from Bordeaux, a five-hour journey. Her consultation was scheduled for three oclock. She was early, but couldnt afford to be late because there was a three-month waiting list for appointments. My own meeting was scheduled for two thirty. In a few minutes, I was going to meet the most famous French nutritionist. The one who appeared on television several times a week, the favored doctor of overweight celebrities: singers, actresses, politicians, etc. Even though I was a bit nervous, I was really looking forward to meeting him.

It was the day after the official launch of the first iPhone by Steve Jobs, which marked a major revolution in mobile phone history. I was particularly struck by two things that Jobs had said: Apple is going to reinvent the telephone and it would put your life in your pocket. These two catch phrases may have seemed far-fetched or pretentious at the time, but we take them for granted today. In 2002, I had created Anxa.coman online start-up based on a simple and ambitious idea: to revolutionize health and fitness by using new technologies (internet, mobile, and desktop). My technique was largely inspired by Jeff Bezoss philosophy for developing Amazon.com. I had the privilege of speaking with Bezos in 1999, during the Amazon France launch where he advised me that the key to success in the twenty-first century would be the quality of the customer service. His work both persuaded and inspired me. And so I placed the individual at the center of our business strategy by developing a particularly proactive level of customer service. To do so, my team maintains daily contact with each client, individually, in order to check on their progress and satisfaction, and to offer encouragement. Anxa.com had already established a reputation in Paris by 2007, and the company was poised to revolutionize the online health, nutrition, and fitness market.