Forget about ‘Low Carb’ and ‘No Carb’ – Carbs are not the culprit
In 2004, a book called “French Women Don’t Get Fat” took the diet world by storm. It was a number one New York Times best-seller, and sold three million copies worldwide.
Today, in 2016, that title is no longer true. French women ARE getting fat. And they’re getting fat – and obese – in ever increasing numbers.
Just look at the numbers: In 2004, only 11.3% of the French population was obese. Ten years later, according to the World Health Organisation, it had more than doubled to 23.9%.
To put that in perspective…
- That’s even higher than the sausage and beer-loving Germans, who have an obesity rate of 20.1%.
- And pasta-loving Italy, where only 21.0% of people are obese.
- …And quickly catching up to the UK (28.1%)
So what went wrong?
Simple: the French have changed the way they eat.
Now, instead of slow, healthy meals eaten with family or friends…
* The French are devouring fast food in such quantities that McDonald’s is more profitable in France than any other country in the world, aside from the USA.
* 63% of 18-35 year olds eat at least half their meals in front of a computer or smartphone.
So the answer is simple: The French never used to get fat because they ate like French people. Now they eat like Americans, they get fat.
And that’s exciting news for the rest of us. Let me explain…
How you can get slim – and stay slim – while eating delicious foods…
As strange as this sounds, rising obesity in France is good news for us. For two reasons…
First, it means the French weren’t slim because of better genetics. When the French eat like us, they pile on the pounds, just like us.
Second, that means, if we eat like the French, we’ll stay slim like the French. Which means we, too, can eat foods like…
- Red meat
- Unpasteurised Cheese
- Ham
- Pastries
- All butter croissants
- White baguettes – filled with ham, cheese… or ham AND cheese
- Rich sauces
… washed down with glasses of wine…
… and stay slim.
Isn’t that great? It’s practically a list of everything experts have told us we should never eat.
So, forget about no carb, low carb, and slow carb. Forget about low fat. And forget about giving up beef and ham.
In fact, forget about every diet that sucks all the joy out of eating.
The secret: eat real, food
Did you know that, in France, baguettes are only allowed to have four ingredients: flour, yeast, salt and water.
That’s written into law. Seriously.
By contrast, here are some of the ingredients of a loaf of British bread:
- Diacetyl tartaric acid ester of mono/diglycerides (also known as E472e)
- Vegetable fat (Rapeseed, Palm)
- Ascorbic acid
Does that sound like natural food to you?
By eating real food – delicious food – and taking the time to enjoy it:
#1: You’re giving your body real nutrients. When you eat empty calories – i.e. processed foods – your body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs. So it tells you to eat more. That’s one of the reasons why you can eat a lot of processed foods, then find you’re hungry soon after.
#2: You’re consuming more fibre and less sugar. Processed foods are high in sugar and low in fibre. That’s a big problem because sugar, especially in the absence of fibre, causes your insulin levels to spike. That spike causes your body to store energy as fat, fast. And, because your energy has just been stored as fat, you soon become hungry again because your body still needs energy.
#3: By eating more slowly, you give the food time to reach your stomach, which allows it to signal you are full. This means you’re far less likely to want to overeat.
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