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Healthy eating in… France

Swap heavier French food for lighter, healthier options, and you can indulge yourself while on holiday in France without worrying about your weight.

It’s always rewarding when you’ve shed a few pounds to make sure you’re in shape for your well-earned break – and our Summer Diet can help. But having worked hard to get yourself trim, so that you’ll look great and feel confident while you’re away, why blow it by piling the pounds back on before you return?

Of course holidays are all about indulgence. But you can dine on delicious food and have fun, while staying healthy and not wrecking all the effort you put in before you left home.

So instead of returning from holiday with ‘excess baggage’ round your waist, follow our fantastic French food ‘swaps’. Whether you’re staying in a hotel or self-catering, the key is avoiding the hidden calorie traps. Our swaps show you how to stay on track in France.

Always remember…

Ask the waiter to take the bread away, so that you don’t end up eating half a baguette before your starter arrives.

Starters orders

• French onion soup instead of paté
With just 100-150cals in a bowl of French Onion Soup, it makes a really ‘skinny’ choice next to a slab of fat-rich pate with 348cals, even before the bread accompaniment.

• Ratatouille instead of chicken vol-au-vent
A simple bowl of pepper, tomato and aubergine-filled ratatouille makes an antioxidant-rich starter, which provides two of your five fruit and vegetables for the day for just 147cals per serving. A couple of small flakey pastry based vol-au-vonts, on the other hand, will give you 300cals and oodles of saturated fat.

In the main

• Coq au vin instead of cassoulet
It is hard to imagine a richer meal than the artery-stopping cassoulet, a casserole-style dish full to the brim with pork and duck, sausage and chorizo. A portion is bound to give you 600cals plus, while you can dine on a beautiful and traditionally French chicken in wine main course for 400cals per person tops.

• Tuna nicoise instead of croque monsieur (cheese and ham toasted sandwich)

If you are stopping for a quick brasserie-style lunch, opt for a salad Nicoise with dressing on the side. Full of lettuce, tomatoes, green beans, a few new boiled potatoes and grilled tuna, a bowlful has about 350cals, which compares well with a butter-soaked, Gruyere cheese-filled toasted sandwich, racking up 450cals before you even start on the fries it inevitably comes with.

Just dessert

Crème caramel is a surprisingly light pudding, with 100-145cals per serving. It’s a much better choice than tarte aux pommes, which may sound healthy, but weighs in at a minimum of 200cals per slice.