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The Marie Antoinette Diet: How French Women Eat Cake but Don't Gain Weight
Consultant Dr. Mabel Blades BSC RD. • A delicious and healthy way to lose weight • Discover the centuries-old secrets that help French women stay slim • No calorie counting • Transform your health with simple changes to your diet and lifestyle About the Book The Marie Antoinette Diet is based on the eating habits of the 18th-century French queen and generations of French women since. A recipe for painless and delicious weight loss, it is peppered with interesting snippets of French history and served up with a lot of modern science. It is packed with useful tips and information, not just about weight loss, but for improving your overall health with some simple lifestyle changes. The author, a cake-loving, former fashion and beauty editor, gained 10kg (1st 8lb) while living in France and was determined to lose it for health reasons. A light bulb moment occurred while reading a biography of Marie Antoinette. The French queen ate cake for breakfast and was fond of hot chocolate, but seems to have known instinctively what scientific studies have recently for example, it is not what you eat, but when you eat it. Inspired by Marie Antoinette’s eating habits, and using a recipe for the health-boosting ‘wonder’ soup that the queen ate for dinner every evening, the author created a diet that allowed her to lose 10kg in 10 weeks – while eating normally most of the time. No calorie counting, no food groups excluded and yes – if you follow a few simple rules – you can eat cake. The Marie Antoinette Diet • Why eating cake for breakfast promotes weight loss • The benefits of a 12-hour night fast • How to rejuvenate and re-energize your body • Why diets that ban dessert are doomed to failure • What we can learn from the 18th-century diet • The centuries-old secrets of slimming à la française • The recipe for Marie Antoinette’s health-boosting ‘wonder’ soup • How to kill cravings for junk food • The simple changes that will transform your health • The ‘chill pill’ of the nutrient world • The (deeply unfashionable) meat that can help weight loss • The fats that you should be eating (they’re not the ones that you might think) •Nutritious and slimming soups for every season
178 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 4, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 10, 2014
I was intrigued by this book but to be honest, I didn't think there was anything I could learn from it. The cake I eat every day is homemade and low in fat, the soups I make with the ingredients from our garden are healthy and hearty and having lost over 15 kilos and kept them off for over five years, I was expecting to nod along in agreement, enjoy the snippets she shares of her life in France and benefit from some of her recipes.
It just goes to show that you are never too old to learn something new. Whilst it was reassuring to read that the expert dietician Dr Mabel Blades BSC RD, who helped Karen with this book, agrees with most of my ideas there are definite improvements I can make to my diet.
I was always a soup for lunch girl, having my main meal in the evening as I struggle to be organized to serve a full meal at lunchtime, but having read this book I have had to rethink my day. Karen and Dr Mabel say serving my soup in the evening will really benefit my digestive system. This is in agreement with another diet book I read last year, so with two experts telling me similar things I've been given the kick I needed to make positive changes.
This book is clear, easy to read and with lots of ideas for changes you can make without too much hassle. It is not always what you eat, although that does have to be taken into account, but also when you eat and how you cook, especially what fat you use. It goes without saying homemade will always be better than processed foods. Karen also includes some great soup suggestions and delicious cake recipes as well as her tips as to how she fitted the changes into her life.
If you are looking to shed some kilos, but don't want to feel you are on a diet; this is the book for you.
It just goes to show that you are never too old to learn something new. Whilst it was reassuring to read that the expert dietician Dr Mabel Blades BSC RD, who helped Karen with this book, agrees with most of my ideas there are definite improvements I can make to my diet.
I was always a soup for lunch girl, having my main meal in the evening as I struggle to be organized to serve a full meal at lunchtime, but having read this book I have had to rethink my day. Karen and Dr Mabel say serving my soup in the evening will really benefit my digestive system. This is in agreement with another diet book I read last year, so with two experts telling me similar things I've been given the kick I needed to make positive changes.
This book is clear, easy to read and with lots of ideas for changes you can make without too much hassle. It is not always what you eat, although that does have to be taken into account, but also when you eat and how you cook, especially what fat you use. It goes without saying homemade will always be better than processed foods. Karen also includes some great soup suggestions and delicious cake recipes as well as her tips as to how she fitted the changes into her life.
If you are looking to shed some kilos, but don't want to feel you are on a diet; this is the book for you.
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January 22, 2024This is less the Marie Antoinette diet and more the Karen Wheeler diet. Wheeler starts with a valid premise: the French are slim and relatively healthy (certainly compared to Americans), so we should do what they do, but then she starts ‘improving’ things.
One of the original books advocating French eating (or at least one of the first I encountered) is The Fat Fallacy : Applying the French Diet to the American Lifestyle. Start there if you like. There are dozens of other books along more or less the same line. Where these books say, this is what the French do, do it the same way, then follow those books. Where these books say, yes, but we know better, so instead do this — ignore that advice. All of these books have value, but you have to separate out the increasingly ancient wisdom of how the French eat to how a particular author believes they can improve on this ancient wisdom.
All of this is not to say that the French way of eating is the healthiest, but you will lose weight, especially if you can get behind four principles of French eating:
There is more to it, fine detail and subtleties, but these four get you to 80%.
There’s no clear way to rate this book. It’s a mixed bag. Further complicating things is the fact that although Marie Antoinette was French, to be sure, she did live in the 18th century. Evolution in the French diet has naturally occurred. To add potential injury to insult, understand that although a person eating a typical American diet will almost certainly improve their health and reduce their size by mimicking the French way of eating, there are healthier ways of eating. Myself, I cycle through a number of paradigms, depending on intuition and current need. If you want to be slimmer, the French have your pass at the ready, but if you want to be healthier you’re going to need to maybe start here and then invest in a much more nuanced nutritional education.
One of the original books advocating French eating (or at least one of the first I encountered) is The Fat Fallacy : Applying the French Diet to the American Lifestyle. Start there if you like. There are dozens of other books along more or less the same line. Where these books say, this is what the French do, do it the same way, then follow those books. Where these books say, yes, but we know better, so instead do this — ignore that advice. All of these books have value, but you have to separate out the increasingly ancient wisdom of how the French eat to how a particular author believes they can improve on this ancient wisdom.
All of this is not to say that the French way of eating is the healthiest, but you will lose weight, especially if you can get behind four principles of French eating:
1. Eat only the highest quality, most natural ingredients.
2. Proper portion sizes are much smaller than you think. Check out what a typical portion size would have been in the 1950s — this is a good guide.
3. Eat mindfully, slowly, and without distraction.
4. Don’t snack. A meal begins. It ends. You’re done. We’re not cows and we do not need to graze. (Do you really want the bulbous cow to be your model?)
There is more to it, fine detail and subtleties, but these four get you to 80%.
There’s no clear way to rate this book. It’s a mixed bag. Further complicating things is the fact that although Marie Antoinette was French, to be sure, she did live in the 18th century. Evolution in the French diet has naturally occurred. To add potential injury to insult, understand that although a person eating a typical American diet will almost certainly improve their health and reduce their size by mimicking the French way of eating, there are healthier ways of eating. Myself, I cycle through a number of paradigms, depending on intuition and current need. If you want to be slimmer, the French have your pass at the ready, but if you want to be healthier you’re going to need to maybe start here and then invest in a much more nuanced nutritional education.
August 1, 2017
For a cookbook
For a cookbook I couldn't put it down. Seriously thinking about buying the actual book for the recipes. Very insightful. Easily understandable.
For a cookbook I couldn't put it down. Seriously thinking about buying the actual book for the recipes. Very insightful. Easily understandable.
July 26, 2019
Not a bad book for one that I got free through from Amazon from the bookbub list. It's best when it's focused on common sense advice based on current scientific knowledge of how diet works, including when referencing historical patterns of diet, a la Marie Antoinette. It's at its worst when it mentions garbage pseudoscience like alkaline diets. http://authoritynutrition.com/the-alk...
I've tried a few of the recipes, and they were decent. I even adopted the idea of a small piece of healthy cake as part of breakfast, and really enjoyed it. Healthy, in this case, is highly relative, but much of the sugar was from added fruit and almond flour was substituted for some of the white flour, overall lowering the glycemic index. I have to admit that it tasted great, and I was far less likely to scoop up some crappy pastry at work when I'd already started my day with a little treat.
I like the ideas of front-loading calories, eating more earlier in the day when your body will have time to burn the food, and not eating late (for me, after 8), in order to induce a mini-fast. Fasting is increasingly shown to be very effective for weight loss and health, and reduced calorie consumption remains the strongest predictor we have for longevity. The approaches in the book make it easier to accomplish this without feeling like you're suffering.
I've tried a few of the recipes, and they were decent. I even adopted the idea of a small piece of healthy cake as part of breakfast, and really enjoyed it. Healthy, in this case, is highly relative, but much of the sugar was from added fruit and almond flour was substituted for some of the white flour, overall lowering the glycemic index. I have to admit that it tasted great, and I was far less likely to scoop up some crappy pastry at work when I'd already started my day with a little treat.
I like the ideas of front-loading calories, eating more earlier in the day when your body will have time to burn the food, and not eating late (for me, after 8), in order to induce a mini-fast. Fasting is increasingly shown to be very effective for weight loss and health, and reduced calorie consumption remains the strongest predictor we have for longevity. The approaches in the book make it easier to accomplish this without feeling like you're suffering.
July 14, 2015
It was OK - interesting from an 18th century commentary on what rich people were eating in France. By following the directions to cut calories, but don't deny yourself everything as long as you pay attention to portion size, I am sure you would lose weight. However the importance placed on eating less in the evening (or not after a certain time), is not scientifically sound. Calories are calories, no matter what time you eat them - as long as you are under or at the amount recommended by a doctor, it doesn't make a difference.
January 10, 2016
This just makes sense.
I gave this book 4 stars because I really enjoyed it. It was a pain to have to do some conversions between pounds and kilograms. I never use the word diet in my house so finding a book that touches upon unhealthy fads from the past and offers a more practical and affordable option is great, especially if it helps you lose weight. I found this to be very well written and easy to navigate. A few good recipes have been included as well.
I gave this book 4 stars because I really enjoyed it. It was a pain to have to do some conversions between pounds and kilograms. I never use the word diet in my house so finding a book that touches upon unhealthy fads from the past and offers a more practical and affordable option is great, especially if it helps you lose weight. I found this to be very well written and easy to navigate. A few good recipes have been included as well.
May 11, 2015
Interesting
A different take on dieting...the secret to dieting is finding the right diet for yourself. I enjoyed some of the recipes but being a diabetic it would not work for me. The author does point that out at the beginning. I also think this would help people who need to lose a few pounds, not for the truly obese. But I might be wrong
A different take on dieting...the secret to dieting is finding the right diet for yourself. I enjoyed some of the recipes but being a diabetic it would not work for me. The author does point that out at the beginning. I also think this would help people who need to lose a few pounds, not for the truly obese. But I might be wrong
May 19, 2015
Yummy
I'm not a dieter, or a diet-book-reader, for that matter, but I like the idea of eating richer breakfasts and simpler suppers for the practicality alone. This seems like a logical way to eat that wouldn't make me feel constricted or limited. But I'm probably not organized enough with my meal planning to pull it off right now.
I'm not a dieter, or a diet-book-reader, for that matter, but I like the idea of eating richer breakfasts and simpler suppers for the practicality alone. This seems like a logical way to eat that wouldn't make me feel constricted or limited. But I'm probably not organized enough with my meal planning to pull it off right now.
May 11, 2015
So interesting
One of the best cookbooks I have read in a while. Facts were clear, and backed up with recipes. It even offered alternatives for hard to find ingredients. Now this a cookbook worth having. Thanks
One of the best cookbooks I have read in a while. Facts were clear, and backed up with recipes. It even offered alternatives for hard to find ingredients. Now this a cookbook worth having. Thanks
May 18, 2015
I found this to be a very readable book about how the author did her research and tailor-made a diet that would work for her based on moderation. I enjoyed reading through her process and learned a few things along the way. I'm excited to try some of her soup and cake recipes.
March 15, 2015
I love Karen Wheeler's others books about completely different subjects. I thought her insights into French eating practices were great!
May 16, 2015
Some interesting concepts that I will incorporate into my lifestyle, but not something I would be able to follow for any length of time.
January 6, 2016
It is a good book encouraging those who want to loose weight to eat as people did in he 1800's. No preservatives, trans fats etc. Cooking your own food is best.
May 23, 2015
Soup for dinner
Enjoyed the idea of soup and salad for dinner along with the recipes.
Great idea for staying trim and maintaining weight.
Enjoyed the idea of soup and salad for dinner along with the recipes.
Great idea for staying trim and maintaining weight.
March 13, 2016
Wonderful!
I have not tried the recipes yet,but it all sounds wonderful!
I need something better for my lifestyle eating habits and this could be it!
I have not tried the recipes yet,but it all sounds wonderful!
I need something better for my lifestyle eating habits and this could be it!
May 14, 2015
Very interesting.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews