New York: A new book, championing the diet lifestyle of French women has become a best seller amongst New York’s social “X-rays”. French Women Don’t Get Fat which champions a gourmet eating regime is now set to go on sale around the world

“French Women Don’t Get Fat has become something of a phenomenon,” says Sonny Mehta, Chairman of Knopf, the book’s publisher. “Americans are tired of fad diets, counting calories, and living within restrictive guidelines about carbs and fat. They are turning to Mireille Guiliano, the author (pictured right). for her sensible and admittedly contrarian advice on eating well.”

In her book, Guiliano champions a new approach to food — one that embraces pleasure, not deprivation — in the quest for achieving and maintaining an ideal weight. “Nearly a million readers have already signed on to Mireille’s regimen,” Mehta observes, “and the popularity of her book has, in turn, created a shortage of yogurt makers, kitchen scales, dark chocolate and leeks.”

Guiliano’s book has already been the subject of Op-Ed pieces in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Los Angeles Times, among others. But perhaps the most telling proof that FRENCH WOMEN has entered the American vernacular is the fact the New Yorker Magazine has twice featured the book in its most indelible form of cultural commentary: its cartoons.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then FRENCH WOMEN DON’T GET FAT could hardly be more admired. New and soon-to-be-published books jumping on the “French” bandwagon include The French Diet: Secrets of Why French Women Don’t Get Fat; French Cats Don’t Get Fat; and even Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat.

FRENCH WOMEN DON’T GET FAT went on sale December 28, 2004 with a first printing of 60,000 copies. After appearances by the author on NBC’s “Dateline” and “Today”, CBS’s “The Early Show” and features in USA Today, the book began appearing on bestseller lists in January and has been the lifestyle book par excellence ever since. In May, Guiliano appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, prompting Knopf to return to the presses for a twentieth time, bringing the total number of copies in print to 1,024,200. On June 5, the book will re-appear on the New York Times Advice, How-To Hardcover bestseller list in the number-two spot.

So, you might ask, who IS this woman, and what makes her such an expert? Mireille Guiliano was born in France, came to America as an exchange student, returned home resembling (in her father’s words) “a sack of potatoes”, consulted her family physician, and eventually regained not only her slim figure but her self-respect, too. Oh. She also happens to be the President of Clicquot, Inc.

Clearly, Guiliano has become the goodwill ambassador for the French way of life. But how does someone who dines out about 300 times a year — and naturally consumes a fair amount of champagne — manage to stay so thin? Doubting Thomases can find out for themselves, starting June 1st, by logging onto www.askthefrenchwoman.com” And if you haven’t made plans for Bastille Day, you might want to visit your local bookseller in July, when stores will be taking part in a special champagne promotion in which one lucky reader will win an all-expense-paid trip for two to Paris to enjoy dinner with the author.

With America well on its way to discovering what the French have really always known — the secret of eating for pleasure — the rest of the world will soon be catching on, too: FRENCH WOMEN is due to be published in more than thirty foreign editions.

For more information www.askthefrenchwoman.com