MIREILLE'S MUSINGS: The French on high-protein diets?

July 12, 2010

There have been a lot of stories in the news lately about high-protein diets in France. Nothing new here. These diets come and go and have been stories in those multinational women's magazines for years, but lately they are written by doctors and can fool a lot more French people who think it must be ok if a doctor says so. It is not. With too many French having gained five pounds this past decade and food bombarding them everywhere (like in the U.S. and anywhere in the developed world) and snacking becoming a way of eating, the appeal of fast and short-term (which is also linked with everything else we do in most aspects of our life, alas) make these yo-yo diets appealing. Serious (read responsible) doctors warn about the imbalance of such diets, especially over a few weeks.

What is ok is to do for a few days what in my books I called “detox,” where you only take out a couple of offenders (bread and wine for me) and have a great breakfast (read my Magical Breakfast Cream, from The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook) and then lunch and dinner of normal meals (though moderate portions are key) with the 3 key substances, carbs/protein/fat. I’ll never say it enough…don’t deprive your body of a bit of rice, potatoes or pasta, or chocolate for that matter, as the vengeance will come and so will your pounds…isn’t this basic common sense?

(For more of my views on detoxing, read To Detox or Not to Detox)