How French Women Curb Cravings: This 5-Minute Breakfast

Elle

For a best-selling author who writes books with sharp titles like French Women Don't Get Fat and French Women Don't Get Facelifts, 67-year-old Mireille Guiliano isn't what you'd expect. The former Veuve Clicquot CEO is instantly warm and chatty-with the kind of vibe that compels strangers to divulge their most pestering neuroses. "Eating on the go! That is your problem," she says eyeing my Skinny Vanilla Latte as I walk into apartment. Despite its 14th Street location-a notorious thoroughfare for disgruntled New Yorkers-the split-level pad is an oasis of calm with a really sick view. A proponent of a texture-rich breakfast that "forces you to chew," Guiliano and her adorable husband, Edward, have been eating what she's dubbed the "magical breakfast" for over a decade. Culled from a recipe she learned from her grandmother, the "magical breakfast" is a light and tart parfait with intestine-wringing benefits. The magical ingredients? Detoxifying lemon juice, high-fiber flaxseed oil, and acacia honey. Below, a step-by-step tutorial on the five-minute recipe that Guiliano says, no joke, saved a friend's daughter from her three-cupcake-a-day habit. It's just that good.

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SHOPPING LIST: While Guiliano makes her own homemade yogurt and picks up her supplements from a West Village health grocer, some version of the ingredients can be found at your local supermarket. If Quaker Oats isn't your speed, Guiliano suggests sugar-free cereal as a substitute.

MIX MASTER: After pouring a teaspoon of flaxseed oil into 1/2 to 2/3 cup of low-fat yogurt, Guiliano adds the juice of one Meyer lemon.

SWEET DISPOSITION: The author artfully drizzles in a teaspoon of acacia honey. The sweetness, she says, tricks our bodies into registering the mixture as "dessert." The result? Fewer cravings and a lowered likelihood of finding yourself downing donut halves alone in an abandoned break room.

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CAPTAIN OATS: Carbs? For reals? Oh yes, says Guiliano, who crushes up two tablespoons of raw, old-fashioned oatmeal and two teaspoons of walnuts with a pestle. In the event that you don't own a club-shaped mashing instrument, make a week's worth of the mixture in a large glad bag and then give it a loving beat down.

ET VOILÀ: Mix it all up and you are ready to chow down like a discerning French woman. And don't worry, just because you're being virtuous for breakfast doesn't mean you have to ban your favorite foods. "It's okay to have a glass of wine, good bread, or a few bites of dessert," Guiliano says. "It's about how you pick your moment." French Women Don't Get Facelifts, the author's follow up to the best-selling French Women Don't Get Fat, goes on sale Monday.

Photo: Joslyn Blair

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