The French Diet: Why French Women Don't Get Fat [Hardcover]

Michel Montignac (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 25, 2005

The French have the lowest average body weight per capita in the western world, and yet they eat famously well. Montignac explains in The French Diet that this not only has to do with which foods the French choose to eat, but their quality, freshness, and most importantly, the way that they are combined. Although the book is based on the concept of glycemic index (GI), which other diet books discuss, The French Diet is the only book that provides the net GI values of combined foods. Already a phenomenon for years in Europe, Montignac's dieting methods have been helpful to tens of thousands of people around the world who have achieved impressive and long-lasting results and reduced their risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The diet has also found a celebrity following among devotees like singer Kylie Minogue and fashion designer Christian Lacroix.

Written for a range of readers, from those who dine out frequently, to yo-yo dieters, to those who don¹t want to give up wine or "the good life" but who do want to lose weight, The French Diet reveals the secret to living, eating, and looking like the French with this delicious, deprivation-free diet.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Eating the right foods in the proper order leads to pleasurable and healthy living, promises Michel Montignac, in The French Diet. His urgent message to Americans: scrap the USDA Food Guide Pyramid and embrace the Glycemic Index (GI)--a standard ranking system he uses to separate "good" carbohydrates from "bad," based on how quickly foods release glucose into the bloodstream. Montignac theorizes that pairing low-GI foods with good fat (like olive oil), and eating foods in a specific order, is a habit that the famously lean French have long practiced. Says Montignac, this diet is neither low-carb nor low-fat; instead, it is "the right-carb and the right-fat diet."

Consider the logic: eat three square meals a day, based on the food-combining rules provided; make lunch—not dinner—the biggest meal (don't worry about calories); avoid sugar, regular coffee, and the wrong fats. Snacks? No need. Snacking is a poor habit practiced by those whose regular meals don’t contain sufficient metabolic staying power; following Montignac's system should solve that problem. Drink wine or champagne--but only in moderation, and only after meals. Montignac's sample menus and 80 recipes feature smart breakfasts, indulgent lunches, dinner entrees, and fruity or chocolaty desserts. He also includes meatless options, but double-check the ingredients before launching into a dish marked "Vegetarian Appropriate;" one such recipe begins with 1/3 pound chopped slab bacon.--Liane Thomas

Amazon.com Exclusive Content
Michel Montignac shares a mouth-watering entrée and two decadent desserts from his personal weight loss and weight maintenance recipe book, exclusively with Amazon.com customers. Bon appétit!

Chicken with Apples and Cider Cream
Phase 1 and Phase 2 (appropriate for both weight loss and weight maintenance)
Serves 5
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 40 minutes

One 3-pound free range chicken
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 pounds apples, peeled and coarsely chopped
3/4 cup apple cider
1 cube chicken bouillon
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons goose fat or olive oil (See Note)
salt, freshly ground pepper, cayenne, and ground cinnamon, to taste

Preheat the oven to 425º

Brush the chicken with a tablespoon of goose fat (or olive oil). Season with the salt, pepper, and cayenne, and place in a roasting pan. Roast for approximately 1 hour 40 minutes, or until juice runs clear.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of goose fat (or olive oil), and sauté the chopped apples, stirring regularly, for about 10 minutes, until the apples are softened. Season liberally with salt, pepper, and cinnamon. Reserve.

To make the cider cream sauce, boil the cider in a saucepan and reduce by three quarters. Add the chicken bouillon cube and dissolve well. Then add the heavy cream. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat. Correct the seasoning if necessary. After the chicken has roasted for about 1 hour 15 minutes, arrange the apples around the chicken in the roasting pan.

When ready, cut up the chicken, coat with the reheated cream of cider and serve with the cinnamon apples.

Note: Goose fat is available in some specialty gourmet shops and can also be ordered from gourmet supply stores online. If you are unable to find it, substitute olive oil.

Chocolate Mousse
Phase 2 (appropriate for weight maintenance)
Serves 6–8
Preparation: 25 minutes
Chilling time: at least 6 hours

14 ounces dark chocolate (at least 70% cacao content)
4 teaspoons instant coffee
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons rum (optional)
zest of 1 orange (organic preferred)
8 eggs
1 pinch of salt

Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a double boiler. Mix the coffee with 1/2 cup of water and the rum, and add to the chocolate. Melt the chocolate, stirring constantly over low heat. If the mixture is too solid, add a bit of water. When the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth, remove the saucepan from the stove.

Add half of the orange zest to the pot and stir. Separate the eggs into two mixing bowls—the egg whites in one, the egg yolks in another. Whip the egg whites, along with a pinch of salt, until stiff. Add the chocolate to the egg yolks, stirring until the mixture has a smooth consistency. Gently fold this mixture into the egg whites. Make sure the egg whites are well incorporated and no chocolate is left at the bottom of the bowl.

You can either leave the mousse in the mixing bowl, first cleaning the rim, or transfer it to a serving bowl or to small individual bowls. Sprinkle the remaining grated orange peel over the mousse and cool in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours.

Raspberry–Yogurt Ice Cream
Phase 1 (appropriate for weight loss)
Serves 4
Preparation: 15 minutes
Freezing time: at least 8 hours

1 cup low-fat yogurt
1 1/4 cups (about half of a pint basket) raspberries, fresh or frozen
1 large egg white, beaten until stiff
In a blender, puree the yogurt and raspberries. Pour the puree into a large ice-cube tray and leave in the freezer for at least 8 hours.
Cut the frozen mixture into small pieces with a knife. Puree again in the blender.
Add the stiffly beaten egg white and mix thoroughly.
Serve immediately.

About the Author

World-renowned diet guru and scientist Michel Montignac was born in southern France. A daily diet of fattening business lunches while working for a large pharmaceutical firm led him to study nutrition. After years of rigorous study of metabolism, he developed a unique diet plan which enabled him to lose 35 pounds in 3 months. Through his ground-breaking work (that has since been corroborated by research conducted at Harvard University), he developed his diet, based on glycemic index, into "The Montignac Method." Montignac self-published his first book, Eat Yourself Slim, which went on to become an international bestseller. He has since published 8 books which are available in 42 countries and in 25 languages. He has also adapted the diet for use in catering and restaurants.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: DK ADULT; 1st Us Edition edition (April 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075661578X
• ISBN-13: 978-0756615789
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #143,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

178 of 188 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For Montignac, Glycemic Outcome is the Answer, May 3, 2005

By 

Diana F. Von Behren "reneofc" (Kenner, LA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The French Diet: Why French Women Don't Get Fat (Hardcover)

In the wake of Mireille Guiliano's runaway best selling lifestyle memoir, "French Women Don't Get Fat," French dieting guru Michel Montignac reformats his popular "Montignac Method" for an American audience and renames it "The French Diet: The Secrets of Why French Women Don't Get Fat." His secret? Eat real food with a low average glycemic index.

Anyone familiar with Montignac's theories which were rather flagrantly adapted over ten years ago by the creators of the Sugarbusters regime and Suzanne Somers' Somersizing system and worked over to create million dollar dieting empires replete with how-to books, recipes, web sites, food products and a variety of other spin-offs including teeth whitening agents, will appreciate this compact volume that spits out the dieting principles in a minimum of pages, succinctly explains why the diet will work for life and facilitates even the most unimaginative dieter with complete menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner with accompanying recipes.

In the mid-eighties, Montignac wrote "Dine Out and Lose Weight," in sympathy for business people everywhere like himself that had gained too much weight from heavy business dinners and couldn't see a way to remain polite without the need of going up a waist size. Simply stated, he forbid the consumption of high glycemic carbohydrates with fats and proteins, explaining that the insulin release from increased blood sugar levels stores the fats ingested rather than burns them for energy. Montignac Method meals then, were either carbohydrate based or protein/fat based. Only on the maintenance phase of the diet were some lower glycemic carbohydrates allowed to ride side-car with their fattier macronutritional counterparts. Strictly forbidden on any phase were the usual suspect high-glycemic demons of sugar, white flour and other processed foods.

In "The French Diet," Montignac no longer seems caught up with adhering to his former strict dichotomy between carbs and fats. Now refreshingly, he turns his attention on the concept of GO or glycemic outcome as an explanation of the so-called French Paradox. Roughly speaking, GO takes an "average" look at the glycemic index of the entire meal, rather than its individual components. For example, eating a potato (admittedly a bad example as potatoes are forbidden on phase 1) with a high GI should be balanced with the consumption of really low glycemic, high fiber vegetables, keeping the entire GO to a level of 50 or less. For Montignac, keeping a meal at a GO level of less than 35 will result in weight loss. Anything above 50 will start packing that fat back into its favorite storage location -- your abdomen.

In addition, he throws out standard nutritional definitions categorizing carbs as either slow of fast burning, refuses to believe that caloric input and output (in the form of exercise) monitors weight loss or gain and adheres strictly to the premise that selecting foods based on their nutritional value and the effects they have on metabolism is the secret to maintaining one's weight for life. Under Montignac's plan, carbs are no longer public enemy number one and fats, the bad boys of the AHA regime are, no surprise, great if they are either omega 3 or monounsaturated fatty acids-saturated fats are used sparingly and trans fats are a no-no. As expected, proteins should be selected by origin - the best choices, of course, being fish, chicken, turkey, etc. Foods labeled as `funky'(combinations of carbs and fats like nuts and tofu) by similar food combining plans are thankfully no longer `funky' on this one.

If you thought "French Women Don't Get Fat," fun to read, but contained little dieting tenets, you will like Montignac's "The French Diet". His easy-to-understand format feeds into the American need for empiricism with just enough layman friendly science backed by hard facts and medical studies. The bottom line? Following a balanced diet of real food while tweaking the glycemic index to your best interest puts all current dietary fads to shame.

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for diabetics, December 2, 2005

By 

Ines Hajjar (Bethel Park, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The French Diet: Why French Women Don't Get Fat (Hardcover)

I purchased this book 4 years ago under the title "Eat Yourself Slim" after visiting my family in Canada where this book was popular. Following this diet was easy, I was never hungry, I lost weight. The best news was that as a diabetic on medication, 3 months later my diabetis was under control, no more pills and my doctor was amazed. Highly recommend it.

59 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I lost weight, feel great, and I'm not hungry!, May 21, 2005

By 

Sugar Addict (Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The French Diet: Why French Women Don't Get Fat (Hardcover)

Mr. Montignac is the real deal. I have friends in Europe who have been eating the 'Montignac way' for years, but until this book was published in the US he was unknown to me. Four weeks ago I began following Mr. Montignac's eating plan, and I have discovered a new and wonderful way to eat. I have lost the weight I wanted to lose (8 pounds), I'm no longer addicted to sugar (I basically lived on sweets and pasta), and I'm eating plenty. I love 'The French Diet' because it includes recipes, easy to follow eating information, and the science behind the eating methods. I plan to follow the French diet forever -- it's not really a diet, but a way of life.