What an attitude in front of the galette des rois, the Candlemas pancakes, Easter eggs, rosé and summer grills, Christmas foie gras, champagne at any party and other pleasures cleverly distributed by marketing calendar? Not really big prohibitions for a harmonious weight loss. Mainly awareness related to simple logic.
Eating better is theoretically eating everything, I cannot repeat it enough, but being careful all the same, and not taking advantage, in the name of this variety, to consume the light spirit of products that we know very well. that they are not conducive to weight loss. This is the case, for example, with the stupid galette des rois which follows the two New Year’s Eve by a few days. This is also the case with foie gras which, in the name of the famous “French Paradox”, confuses good fats with excessive “shoot” of calories. Eating better is also knowing not to tempt the devil. The first few weeks of weight loss are incompatible with celebrating the rite… You have to make choices. You will always find nutritionists to show you that this is not a big deal from an accounting point of view. This is correct when we isolate and summarize the problem in a single act: a slice of foie gras of a few grams, or a small slice of pancake: where is the problem? The same as parading naked women in front of a Trappist in doubt. The terms “a few grams” or “small” have no place in a fat person in the middle of a fight. Not to mention that the galette and the foie gras, for example, cannot be conceived without the “coupette” or the “Sauternes” which go well. Let the ceremonial of the Easter eggs hidden in the garden generally continue with the feast of the paschal lamb.
I campaign for a harmonious weight loss, without really big prohibitions, mainly by awareness related to simple logic. But there must be no dangerous exceptions in the name of some conviviality that can perfectly well occur without all of these foods.
Interview with Professor Pierre-Michel Llorca (head of the psychiatry department in Clermont-Ferrand)
Q: Our calendar is punctuated by food rites. How to escape it?
PML: Rites are extremely important in food, because they are contextual elements. They contribute to the structuring of the relationship to food, and escaping them, the ritual of family lunch, the ritual of exchange around food, removes all the emotional aspects that are essential in food. Food rites, but it can also be alcohol consumption, are social rites. The difficulty is that when we get out of social rites, we get out of social interaction. I think that these are therefore rites that must be preserved.
Q: At this moment, what can be the arguments for those who want to escape it?
PML: It’s still the same idea. Do I want this, am I hungry, what pleasure does it give me? Am I still hungry? It’s exactly like in physical activity, not being in a kind of representation, of losing the sense of the immediate things that you do. So it’s really keeping the anchor in the immediate sensation.
Q: Chocolate is the very example of a psychic food; you agree ? Or is it a marketing argument?
PML: Both at the same time! It is true that chocolate is rich in a substance which is disturbed in depression. But, clearly, you have to eat pounds of it to have a real antidepressant effect … It is therefore a marketing food. But, at the same time, it is a food that is often associated with extremely positive emotions, related to childhood, education. In fact, it is rather this dimension, the emotional dimension of chocolate, which is important, more than the substances it contains.
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