A French diet doctor, Pierre Dukan, has written a book that for the past three years has been steadily listed among Amazons top ten here in France. It will be published in the U.S. in April as The Dukan Diet: 5 Million French People Cant be Wrong.
Everyone seems to be on it. Last Christmas, when I complimented a Parisian friend on her weight loss, she gave me the little paperback by Dr. Dukan. Its French title is: Je Ne Sais Pas Maigrir (I Dont Know How To Get Thin). When I left France for a trip, the customs agent who checked my carry on luggage saw the book and told me shed lost 10 kilos on the diet (22 pounds!). Another friend says shes been following the diet for a year and its become a lifestyle for her and her husband. She showed me her photograph coming out of the Atlantic wearing a red bikini and looking fantastic. Shes 70!
My husband and I started the diet two weeks ago. The first phase was strict. Only protein. That means lean meats, poultry, eggs and fish, and fat free dairy products. We werent allowed fats or butter,no oil for cooking, no sugar or alcohol,no bread or other carbohydrates --butfor me the hardest restriction was no fruits or vegetables. I learned to braise our protein meals in bouillon, roast steaks and chicken without oil or other fattening additives, and make things taste good without sauce. It was an education! I realized that for years I had used olive oil and butter with abandon at 100 calories a tablespoonful! And here in France, bread and cheese had become a regular part of the meal. No wonder I had gained 15 pounds since going through menopause!
Though our protein meals were tasty, I have to admit it was depressing to see only one thing on the plate. You could eat as much of it as you wantedsteaks, fish, chicken, eggsbut frankly, theres a limit to how much you want if thats all there is. However, we discovered fat free milk, fat free yogurts (the diet allows two fruit yogurts a day as long as theres no added sugar), and Dukan recommends you make his recipe for galettes, a pancake, made with fat free milk and/or yoghurt, egg and oat bran. For bread lovers this is a treat. The oat bran is put in the diet to prevent constipation, but has cholesterol-lowering properties as well. Using those ingredients, plus a little baking soda and some added cinnamon, I made delicious muffins that became our breakfast staple and a much-needed snack later in the day. We each lost about 7 pounds in the 5 days of the protein-only phase that Dukan calls the attack, Part 1 of the diet. On the sixth day we entered Part 2 and added vegetables. Still no oil, butter, bread, alcohol etc., but meals looked more normal. We made freshly steamed spinach on our first night and my husband said, I didnt know how delicious plain spinach was! Vegetables never tasted so good! We made baked salmon stuffed with chives served with a puree of celery root, we had steak and mushrooms with stir fried (no oil!) watercress. And we make salad dressings using no-fat yogurt mixed with mustard, or vinegar, or lemon juice and herbs. We continued to lose. Three pounds over the next week. I have about 6 pounds to go. Dukan recommends alternating the protein and protein/vegetable regimesbut I find the idea of several days with only protein something I dont particularly want to repeat. Dukan does suggest that once you have achieved your goal that dieters have one protein- only day a week as that helps prevent a rebound.Neither my husband nor I have lost all that we want to, so we wont be entering the third phase of the diet consolidation yet. In that phase you learn how to maintain your weight. And the last part, stabilization, teaches you how to eat normally, reintroducing bread, fruit, some sugars and even cheese--for the French a must!Until then, as they say in France a suivreto be continued...About the Author: Connie Leisure is a writer who lives in FranceWhat is your most successful diet? Comment below.
