Those French are all about telling us how to get skinny. There’s the French Women Don’t Get Fat Diet (only eat small portions, feel superior and walk a lot), Kate Middleton’s preferred Dukan Diet (it must work, the girl is melting away before our eyes) comes the new French diet called Le Forking (Diet with a Fork).
Put simply, don’t eat anything in your evening meal that can’t be eaten with a fork. In practice there’s slightly more detail than that because, and let’s be very honest here, there are quite a few things you can eat with a fork. Won’t win you any etiquette prizes, but at least you won’t go without.
The diet was reported in the Daily Mail by an English woman who lives in France. According to Samantha Brick, French people are obsessive about their diets, actively dieting to reduce their weight at least once a year. This applies to men and women.
Brick was inspired to take to Le Fork when she was sent a photograph of herself, kindly taken by her caring French sister-in-law, of Brick sleeping on a sun-lounger after a big meal. It was captioned “I thought you should see this.” Me, I’d have cut her right off the Christmas card list, but not Brick. No she took to Le Fork like a duck to water all the while serving up five course meals to her son and husband.
It was all worthwhile though as Brick lost 3.5kg after two weeks. He husband complimented her by saying her tummy was “less podgy” and her “double chin diminished. What a prince.
Anyway if you want to Le Fork here’s the basic outline.
- You must eat three meals a day – but do not use breakfast and lunch as an excuse to over-eat.
- At dinner, you can eat only with a fork – no knives, spoons or fingers are allowed…
Strict version: Do not eat anything that’s been prepared with a knife or spoon at your evening meal. - Gentle version: You can eat only with a fork – but you can use a knife to prepare your food.
- Foods allowed during the strict version: pasta, pulses, cereals, fish and most types of vegetable.
- For the gentle version, you can also choose from the following: salad, white meat cut into small pieces, shelled seafood, eggs (scrambled, poached or an omelette).
- The following foods are forbidden at the evening meal in the strict and gentle versions:
Nibbles: No peanuts, cashew nuts, almonds, crisps, sausages, pizza, quiche, soup, soft-boiled eggs, avocado, cold meat, taramasalata, hummus or pate. - Snacks and mains: No sandwiches, burgers, chips, steak, roast meat, liver or stew.
- Sweets: No fresh or dried fruit, yogurt, cake, chocolate, sweet desserts, fruit salad, jelly, ice cream, cereals, pancakes or waffles.
- Other: No bread, sauces, butter or margarine, cheese, mustard or ketchup. Image
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