“French women don’t get fat”, or at least that’s what Mireille Guiliano will tell you.  To many of us, this is nothing but a huge farce.  After all, the French eat breads and pastries, eat 3 course meals at lunch, drink wine, and eat other high fat foods.  They’re just as bad as Americans, right?  However, despite what we may think, there is some truth to Guiliano’s book title.  Unlike Americans, who suffer from an infamously high rate of heart disease due in part to a high fat diet, the French record a relatively low number of cases by comparison each year.  This unlikely phenomenon has been coined as the “French paradox(1).”

So how do we mimic the French, especially during holiday such as Christmas and Thanksgiving?  We can be relatively sure French women aren’t eating light salads 3 meals a day every day.  They’re only human, just like us.  According to Guiliano’s book, they can eat the foods they want, because they practice portion control(2).  In other words, they don’t order a Mcdonalds meal of any kind biggie sized.  In theory, they do go to McDonalds.  But when asked what size they would like their meal to be, they opt for small or medium.  They don’t spend their holidays eating until the tryptophan kicks in, allowing them to spend the rest of the holiday in a peaceful sleep.  They stop at a reasonable point.

But, for those conditioned to American society, it is not so simple.  It is difficult for the average individual to know when to stop, to know how to accomplish a goal they’ve never before achieved.  To start, try cutting your meals in half.  If you usually go through the family Thanksgiving buffet line twice, try going once.  If you usually order a foot long sub at subway, try ordering a 6 inch.  Practicing this simple step will automatically cut your caloric intake in half.

Second, chew your food.  Many in today’s society have gotten into the habit of shoveling and swallowing.  The faster you eat, the longer it takes your body to realize it is full.  So take your time and chew your food.  Your body will not notice the difference in food intake, but you will notice the different in pant size.

Finally, compare your food to household objects.  If 1 serving of steak is comparable to a deck of cards, place your steak side by side with a deck of cards.  Likewise, a serving of rice or pasta is about the size of a tennis ball.  So take out a tennis ball for comparison sake.  This will give you an accurate idea of your nutritional needs and their fulfillment, and it will allow you to know when you’ve eaten up to the top of the food pyramid.

American society has super-sized its way into an obesity epidemic.  We want to eat as much food as we want whenever we want and stay healthy.  But unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.  In the past, some of our European or Asian counterparts have said we eat 2 to 3 times the amount they do each meal, and we have paid for it with a high level of obesity.  For those looking to lose weight, a few small steps toward portion control may be the elusive cure.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_paradox
2. Guiliano, Mireille.  French Women Don’t Get Fat.  New York, NY.

Fat: an element most dieters would not equate with successful weight loss.  There are entire diets based around the idea of eliminating most or all fat in the diet, and in theory wouldn’t it work?  No.  Unfortunately for the makers of those diets, we need fat.  In fact we cannot survive, our bodies cannot function correctly, without fat.  They provide us soft skin, essential fatty acids such as Omega-3 and Omega-6, essential fat soluble vitamins, and provide our body needed energy.

But the complications don’t stop there.  There are “good” fats and “bad” fats to decipher between.  Good fats will provide all the benefits listed above, and in some cases benefit sight, heart health, and other basic functions of the body.  Bad fat, on the other hand, will affect the body in all the negative ways we associate with fat.  It will clog arteries, raise cholesterol, cause heart disease, and cause obesity.  Our diets should ideally consist of 20-35% of these good fats per day, but a 10% minimum(1).  However, most Americans tend to have an intake of 34-40% daily fat intake.

So what are “good” fats?  They include unsaturated fats, which further break down into polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats.  You can find polyunsaturated fats in vegetable oils and fatty fish,  and some well known examples include Omega 3, Omega 6, and Omega 9.  Bad fats, on the other hand, are found in animal meats, dairy, eggs, coconut oils, and palm oils.  These should be avoided, and most can be easily replaced with good fats.

Even with this information, it is difficult for some of us to adjust our diets and lower our fat intake.  It’s difficult to know what will be counterproductive, and what will actually work.  So here are a few ideas to try.  First, try a vegetarian meal once a week.  Being that most bad fat is found in animal based products, this will significantly cut down your fat intake.  Second, try vinegar or light oil based salad dressings.  Finally, try cooking at home.  When you do this, you are eliminating processed and often fried foods, and you are more aware of what is actually going into your food.  By using these tips and otherwise sticking to unsaturated fats, you will reap both immediate and long term benefits.

1. Zelman, Kathleen M, MPH, RD, LD. The Skinny On Fat: Good Fats Vs. Bad Fats. WebMD http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/skinny-fat-good-fats-bad-fats

Whoever said you’re not allowed to enjoy diet foods never talked to Alan Hirsch MD.  Hirsch founded the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, and has recently found that more taste in your food may actually promote weight loss.  He allowed 2,436 overweight or obese subjects to sprinkle relatively bland or neutral tasting foods with various tastants with tastes such as onion, ranch dressing, banana, strawberry, etc, and used 100 volunteers to go without these seasonings on their food.  Over a 6 month period, those with seasonings lost an average of 30.5 pounds, whereas the control group lost an average of 2 pounds.  Because Hirsch did not control how much each participant ate, what kinds of food they ate, or how much they exercised, it is uncertain if the seasoning participants lost more because they were eating less or because they were turning toward healthier foods generally considered bland.  But the weight loss differences were statistically significant.

Unfortunately, the tastants used in this study are not available to the general public.  However, one could also note the fact that prior to this study, certain herbs and seasonings such as cayenne pepper have been popularly linked to accelerated rates of weight loss and fat burn.  Cayenne pepper specifically has been said to create a thermogenic effect, effectively burning more fat calories.  On another level, seasoning food to your liking may actually help you to stick to a diet plan more effectively than expecting to give up all your favorite foods and anything you think tastes better than grass.

Hirsch himself suggests dieters should “Sniff your food before you eat it.  Chew it a lot.  Choose low-calorie foods and season them.”  In short, we suggest using all things in moderation.  But more seasonings on your food may help you to lose more weight than with another diet and exercise alone.

1. Weight Loss. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 16, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2008/06/080616115852.htm