STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

dc · Dooney & Bourke

eat like a french woman

Fireball · BCBG

Hey dc, that link isn't working for me. Can you re-paste it?

cc · Marc Jacobs

oh they did something like this in one of the women's mags a year or so ago. a french woman had to eat like and american and vice versa. it was pretty interesting.

dc · Dooney & Bourke

Oh - in addition to the link I posted above (I edited it... it should work now), this related article about the cookboook is even more interesting.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2005-01-03-french-diet-cover_x.htm

lsubatgirl · Gucci

quote:
Originally posted by: cc
"oh they did something like this in one of the women's mags a year or so ago. a french woman had to eat like and american and vice versa. it was pretty interesting. "

I remember reading about it and thought it was a neat concept. I remember the French woman couldn't stand eating like an American because it was so unhealthy to/for her.

dot · Marc Jacobs

I remember this as well. If I remember correctly, the American woman was really into eating frozen dinners and drinking tons of soda.

Maddie · Coach

Sometimes I really like the French. When I was in Paris for a month I lost about 10 lbs.

lsubatgirl · Gucci

quote:
Originally posted by: dot
"I remember this as well. If I remember correctly, the American woman was really into eating frozen dinners and drinking tons of soda."

They actually made her eat a typical american diet: bags of potato chips in one sitting, frozen dinners, lots of soft drinks, other high fat and greasy foods. I would have vomited too if I actually had to eat like that and I wasn't use to it. My body certainly can't handle it now.

blubirde · Chanel

So has anyone actually read the book? I saw it in the bookstore the other day and was tempted to buy it but I wasn't sure it wasn't hooey. Worth buying?

cc · Marc Jacobs

quote:
Originally posted by: dot
"I remember this as well. If I remember correctly, the American woman was really into eating frozen dinners and drinking tons of soda."

I think the American woman just snacked and maybe got a lot of takeout. They definitely gave the French woman a gross diet that seemed worse than what the American writer actually ate, but it wasn't totally over the top.

DC Shopper · Dooney & Bourke

Reading these articles from an urban planning perspective is really interesting. So if you'll forgive me for over-thinking this and being an annoying grad student....This diet sounds so good, but I think it will be very difficult for most Americans to follow, especially those who don't live in dense cities. How many of us live within a quick walk or drive to the grocery store? I mean in terms of difficulty in getting there every day or even every two or three days as the French diet requires...I think part of the problem is that the built environment in the U.S. is so different than in France. In Europe, there are markets on every corner where you can buy food. The food is of high quality, and they still have things like butchers, bakeries, and fish markets. These are hard to find in the U.S. these days. In the U.S., we've consolidated these markets into big supermarkets, making it a real pain to get to the grocery store every few days, as the book suggests. Plus the produce isn't high quality, unless you can get to (and afford) a Whole Foods or something similar.

I'm not criticizing the french author at all, I think her book hits the nail on the head, and I think it points to a bigger deficiency in American life than just our diet...I think that Americans need to re-evaluate our whole culture if we are ever to truly be healthy and enjoy life - our underlying work ethic, the "bigger is better" idea, how we design and build our cities, rampant commercialism...all this I think contributes to an increasingly unhealthy society.

it's just something that jumped out at me after reading the articles.

-- Edited by DC Shopper at 17:05, 2005-01-04

Fireball · BCBG

I completely agree with you on this. I live in a suburb where this diet is pretty difficult to follow. Although, I do manage to go to the grocery store every few days (mainly because I like having fresh stuff on hand), walking as part of the experience is not happening. There are virtually no sidewalks and the streets are 6 lanes wide (counting both sides of the street). WALKING to a grocery store is not only annoying it is potentially dangerous to my life. People drive like maniacs and I can't really be strutting my stuff with grocery bags as I'm trying to haul ass across 6 lanes of traffic.

Mia · Kate Spade

DC Shopper, of course, you are right. When I lived in London I shopped *every* day for groceries - and not at a grocery store, but I got meat from the butcher, fruit and veg. from the fruit/veg. guy, fish from the fishmonger, bread from the baker etc. I much prefer that pattern to my current pattern, which is a huge grocery shop every two weeks to stock up (I live on an island so it is a pain to get to the grocery store).

Blubirde - I don't know if it woud be worth buying the book. It's a pretty simple principle - buy fresh, high quality produce and don't eat big portions. I had a French roomie for awhile in London and she was constantly eating cream, meat, butter, foie gras etc. and was skinny skinny skinny - it didn't take long to figure out that it wasn't *what* she was eating, it was *how much* - her portions were very small compared to what we are used to in N America, and she did not snack between meals at all (she smoked...heh).

Patricia · BCBG

DCS, I totally agree. Unless you live in what I think of as urban small towns (I'm thinking like Greenwich Village in NY or Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia) it's pretty much impossible. The stress of going to Giant more than once a week top eat like a French woman is probably more hazardous to my health that eating like an American.

Dizzy · Marc Jacobs

DC - that's so funny that urban planning/land use is an interest of yours! I spent three years volunteering with an urban planning nonprofit, and I went back to school so I could do more with it. But where I live, people just look at me funny if I say anything about it Anyway, I was just excited to find someone else who's into it...

DC Shopper · Dooney & Bourke

quote:
Originally posted by: Dizzy
"DC - that's so funny that urban planning/land use is an interest of yours! I spent three years volunteering with an urban planning nonprofit, and I went back to school so I could do more with it. But where I live, people just look at me funny if I say anything about it Anyway, I was just excited to find someone else who's into it..."

that's what i'm in school for! i just finished my first semester. i always get, "so what is an urban planner?", which always catches me off guard. It's f'ing hard to explain for some reason and i always feel so dumb trying to describe it. so are you in school now, or are you working as a planner? yay, a fellow planning dork!!