Introduction x Trouble is , this focus on what to eat is largely irrelevant ; I don ’ t think I have met an overweight person who did not know what they should eat and what they shouldn ’ t eat ! Getting people excited – and motivated – about a new diet is easy ; people want to believe in a new quick and easy solution , but this motivation only works for the short term . The enticement of a quick and easy solution is the real life version of the story of the drunk looking under the streetlight for his house keys . As the story goes , a man out for a late night stroll comes across the hapless fellow and helps him search . After spending some time helping the drunk without any sign of the keys , he ventured the question ‘ Are you sure you dropped them around here ?’ ‘ Oh no ’, replied the drunk , ‘ I dropped them over there in the shadows , but it ’ s too dark to find them there .’ This book is all about venturing over into the dark to deal with the rather complicated habit of over-eating , while respecting our deep love of food . While the solution is not quick , it is very much about making it easier . What the research shows , over and over again , is that the enjoyment of food wins out every time if the weight-loss program is too restrictive . Rather than being about going on ‘ a diet ’, this book is all about developing ‘ a new eating lifestyle ’ for the rest of your life . The best way to do this is to involve the others with whom you share your refrigerator so that you create a sub-culture that makes it easier for everyone in it to eat in way that keeps everyone slim . This is the French way , which we will repeatedly return to throughout this book . Perhaps our greatest responsibility , however , is to the next generation . Rates of obesity in children have doubled . Those of us who are parents must make it easier for our children to manage their weight by making healthy eating an automatic lifestyle for them from a young age . In this way – by the time they are making their own food choices , healthy eating will be a deeply entrenched habit . GBW