French Women and Weigh Down Workshop

I've been reading lately about different diets. Actually, what I've been reading hasn't been about "diets" but about ways of life related to eating. One book, French Women Don't Get Fat fascinated me.

My niece, Brannon, who is currently traveling in France says that French women don't get fat because they all smoke nonstop. The author of the book, though, says that French women don't get fat because they don't have all the hang-ups we American women have about food. They eat whatever they want to eat, but they eat in moderation. They don't feel compelled to eat everything on their plate, and they'd rather throw away food than to eat something beyond what's needed to take care of their hunger. And essentially, the Weigh Down Workshop is based on the same idea. Food is there for our enjoyment, and even the Bible tells us that there are no foods that are off-limits. We just have to get to know our bodies and not eat until we're physically hungry -- and stop eating when that hunger is satisfied. The author goes on to write about how so much of our hunger is emotional hunger rather than physical hunger, and how we can satisfy that emotional hunger through a relationship with God instead of with Food. Whatever your religious beliefs, it makes sense to work to separate emotional hunger from physical hunger -- and only use food to feed the physical hunger.