Customer Reviews

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

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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!

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.

You sort of get the feeling that he's bottling tap water and trying to make millions off of it. I'm sure he's a very nice person, but there is nothing that qualifies him to write a diet book regarding the French lifestyle, save his two years in France. Basically, if you Google "french diet" or "French paradox," the various articles and such, including ones mentioning W.Clowers, will tell you what you need to know about the French Paradox. Also, read all the reviews on this site, you'll learn everything you need to know about the book without buying it. Though this book is almost 300 pages in length, you could capture the formula he sets forth in a one-paged pamphlet. There are 2 things to keep in mind: (1) the way you eat; and (2) what you eat. (1) Way: Basically, three square meals of real, unprocessed food and no snacks. (NOTHING processed, not even light butter or aspartame or corn syrup, etc.) Eating slowly is most important, small bites of delicious foods, chew slowly, put fork down between bites. Sips of water and red wine between bites. Enjoy and try to eat in several courses. (2) What: Fruits, veggies, whole grains of course. But most importantly, the French believe that dairy (whole milks, whole cheese, whole yogurt, real butter) and dairy fat, vegetable fat (olive oil), and fat from ducks and geese are healthy; not healthy are fats from animal tissue, i.e., beef fat and pork. Lots of red wine, coffee, and small amounts of dark chocolate. Have red wine w/ your meal, and a small strong coffee and chocolate after Lunch and Dinner. Also, walk everywhere, make exercise an organic part of your life. I got all this off of Google searches and so his book wasn't any more informative. Pretty basic and it works b/c, miraculously, all that dairy fat deliciously and effectively kills your appetite and you're (I'm) not thinking about food constantly. Basically, print out this review, and apply those steps with a better guide book, such as French Women Don't Get Fat or Joie de Vivre (written by a French restrauteur living in America), which explains especially well the French way of eating. W.Clowers seems like a really nice person, but his writing is boring and sort of meanders all over the place. (He's a scientist, not a writer.) And one can't escape the feeling that he's really trying to make millions, especially in light of his website and future book projects and ridiculous chocolate eating courses, by bottling tap water! I think it's pretty dishonest to charge a bunch of hardworking Americans a seminar fee to "teach" them how to slowly melt a piece of chocolate on their tongue. Did that 1/2 ounce piece of chocolate cost $100? I'm tired of diet "guru" after "guru" trying to make it rich quick off the American people. He's yet another who's quickly put up a website to charge membership fees with "advisors" with questionable qualifications. 80 million French are doing it without him, and so can you!

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 chocolate is a wonderful fact, but not an excuse to eat in excess.

Just an end note ... I noticed in a couple of the negative reviews that the writers seem to think Dr. Clower is encouraging eating huge amounts of high fat foods (one mentions her sister eats 5-6 slices of bacon each morning). If you read this book and take away that idea, you've only picked out what you wanted to see instead of what is actually there. When it comes to protein Dr. Clower recommends this hierachy ... mostly fish, then chicken, then lean pork, and maybe once a week red meat. I'm not sure how you could get the idea that it's OK to eat bacon every morning from this. I guess it just goes to show you that it's easy for us to pick and choose only what we want to take away from books ... people having been doing that from the Bible for centuries!

For the person who didn't like the recipes ... this isn't really a cookbook. There are plenty of wonderful cookbooks out there. I know because I love to read cookbooks :-) Dr. Clower is showing you some basic ideas of how to put whole food meals together.

My recommendation ... invest the $12.95 and read this book!

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.

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.

I first heard of the "French Diet" in Allure magazine in July 2002. Shortly thereafter, the New York Times published "What if it's all been a big fat lie?" I looked into Atkins and bought this book. I decided I could not be happy without bread and potatoes, so the French Diet won (it helped that I'm a bit of a Francophile). It was a tremendous leap of faith, but in a matter of weeks, I began losing weight AND feeling less hungry. I have now effortlessly lost 30 pounds in 4 months, without ever feeling deprived. And I haven't even followed it to the letter--just cut out all partially hydrogenated oils, high-fructose corn syrup, and most preservatives. Fast food and snack foods that I used to crave are now distasteful compared to the real thing. I can't say enough good things about this book and Dr. Clower for writing it. DISCLOSURE: I do walk 30 minutes on a treadmill at least 4 times a week; I don't know how it would work with no exercise program.

As a continuous Amazon customer, after reading this wonderful book, this is the first time I have felt absolutely compelled to write a review. If 10 stars were possible, this book deserves it.
Will Clower's book really wakes you up to the way most typical Americans eat, and view meals. I have been on and off weight watchers for years, struggling incessantly, and this book really woke me up. I have spent years of my life, eating fat free food products that are loaded with chemicals, some of them sounding inedible after reading Clower's book. These chemical ladden foods, which were supposed to assist in my weight loss, caused me to eat tremendous amounts of food, and constantly crave sugar. Nothing was ever sweet enough. I also ate this "food" with a constant feeling of guilt, thinking everything would make me fat, and then when I would blow it I would go on a binge.
I have been eating with the suggestions of the book for 5 days now. I can't tell you that I have ever loved food more. My cravings for sweets have disappeared. This has never happened to me, and I just can't bring myself to eat the chemical ladden food I once did. Clower really woke me up! Thank you!

I recall as a child in the 1970s my mother making fried chicken and serving steak and mashed potatoes at least once a week, and no one in my family had a weight problem. Then came the 1980s and she started to take the skin of our chicken, no more frying, ground turkey meatloaf, etc, and we all gained weight??! Why - because we were still hungry and went looking for more calories, and usually consumed them in junk. Since I've read this book, I've slowed down significantly how fast I eat, which ultimately causes you to eat less. I take time to enjoy the food I'm eating and most importantly, I only eat fresh foods - no more frozen lean cuisines - I have cheese, chicken and fish, and fresh bread almost everyday and, as the author says, the pounds are starting to slowly melt off. How simple! There's more lowfat products on the market than ever and we're fatter than ever - and the author was right, it's almost impossible to find whole milk yogurt in stores! My only disagreement with her is about the importance of exercise.

I found this book in a discount section and was floored that it was there. Then it occurred to me that it went against everything the AHA has ever said about dairy and water fowl fat, YET it just wasn't radical enough to cause a craze like Atkins. It is a book written about good common food sense that we have somehow lost between all of the fast food "restaurants" and faux food factories.

In this book, William Clower gives a wonderful overview of how to get the faux foods out of your house and start BEING healthier by eating real foods. Another point that he addresses is the relation between fat and feeling full, plus the notion that food should not be eaten faster than your body can kick on the "full" response.

The rat race in America has left us doing everything fast, as though everything we do delays getting to something more important, and many actually believe that only epicureans and gastronomers have time to really enjoy food for what it is. Fooey!

If food is not enjoyable, why eat it? If something tastes good, why eat it so fast that it cannot even be tasted -- why not instead eat it so slowly that the flavors and textures linger on and on? Why do Americans serve dessert while a couple of people are still working on their green beans or their turkey? Why do we flop in front of the TV after a meal rather than going out for a nice stroll and some fresh air?

I am glad to see that this book has finally gotten enough press to be on its second cover. It is a wonderful book about common food sense that simply isn't taught in America. Our parents were so crazed by a lifetime of hearing about their own parents living through the depression, that they impressed it upon us. Between our parents' po-folks clean plate brainwashing and the rat ract telling us that meals delay getting to more important things -- we put our own children through the hells of a very high speed "clean plate club" as if eating more than what is wanted is a good thing and the faster the better, while the nation faces an increase to quite possibly the highest obesity rate in the world.

Funny, in America, we think it is an insult to the cook if we DON'T clean our plates, but in other countries around the world -- it is an insult to the cook to finish everything, as though a person were saying that the cook did not serve enough. Better to serve small portions with plans for "seconds" and maybe realize that there is just enough room for dessert, than to fill up on dinner and get indigestion (and obese) from the extra food [read:dessert]. It is not dessert that will make us obese, rather it is eating far more than our bodies can use that will make us obese. As I read this book, I couldn't help but constantly think of Marion Nestle's book "Food Politics". It just all rang so true.

I am not overweight, but I do have fibromyalgia and hypothyroidism, plus my family has a heart history to beat the band. Within just a few months of eating according to this diet, not only did my fibromyalgia symptoms back off enough that I could lower my medications, but I had a lot more energy, and my cholesterol also dropped -- by eating dairy, carbs, dairy, carbs, and then some more dairy. My housemate is constantly wanting to lose weight, but eats a lot of transfats, deep fried food, fast food, and faux foods, then lays in bed watching TV or spends a few hours as an unmoving mouse-potato. He complains because while I do eat at least 2-3 ounces of cheese and extremely rich foods every single day and am as skinny as a rail -- I hardly eat. I eat organic Pan Bigio; he eats WonderBread. If we go out to eat -- I have at least three meals worth of leftovers. I tell him it is because I am simply not hungry. Believing that deep fried grease runs in his "Southern" veins, without which he could not live, he has yet to be a convert to the filling wonders of dairy fat, water fowl fat and olive oil.

Both sides of my family are immigrants within the last three generations. Neither side ever had heart/vascular history overseas, yet within 30 years on American shores, everyone was having heart attacks, bypasses, strokes, etc. Changing out American faux foods for the real foods that my ancestors lived on only makes good sense. It will make good sense for you too.

Even if your doctor tells you that the fat in this diet is too high, the rest of the principals can still be employed easily -- get rid of the killer chemicals in your diet and start eating the real food your body wants. You'll find out very quickly that you simply aren't hungry for as much as you used to eat when your food was nothing but chemicals.

Thank you, Dr. Clower, for reminding us of the good nutritive sense that has been erased from the American dietary education!