French Women Don’t Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure is not just another diet book, but a set of guidelines for better eating and living. Whereas diets treat food as a battleground, author Mireille Guiliano treats them as desires to be sated in moderate amounts. Guiliano promotes sensible pleasures: throwing out the scale and using the “zipper test.” If you eat a chocolate croissant at breakfast, eat a vegtable-based meal at lunch and pass on the dinner rolls at dinner, or take an extra walk in the afternoon. Guiliano includes a number of recipes that ehance weightloss, including leek soup and chocolate mousse, that read more like a luxurious French cook book than an American diet one. The book also includes guidelines and tricks that aren’t just for the short-term, but rather for a sustainable lifetime.

Read a review of the book here.