Magical Leek Soup Fast: from French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano

I have just completed a two-day Magical Leek Soup adventure with my mother.  I learned about it and was inspired by Mireille Guiliano in her bestselling book from several years ago, French Women Don’t Get Fat.  Since then, she has put out several other books in that vein, and I’ve pre-ordered the next one, French Women Don’t Get Facelifts.  I will say that I found her first book by far the most charming and useful, but she has made herself dear to my heart and I will likely continue to purchase her books as long as she writes them!  (Mireille’s pronounced Meer-ay, by the way; think opposite vowel order of ‘Mary’.)

The experience of the weekend has inspired me to rename her first book, in the spirit of her latest publication, ‘French Women Don’t Get Their Stomachs Stapled!”  Though she doesn’t really explain it this way, I believe the point of the ‘leek soup fast’ is to shrink your stomach naturally, so that you can moderate your food intake more easily afterwards.  The fast itself is not meant to cause much weight loss via calorie reduction, though it doesn’t hurt anything.  Much like getting your tummy stapled, but you can repeat it without hurting yourself, as needed.  And, by the way, the stapled tummies also often do stretch out over time, as folks gradually increase food consumption.   

So, I went into the ‘fast’ with much trepidation.  I had the whim, planned it with my mother, then made secondary and tertiary plans in case of failure!  My thought was something like, “Neither of us has any tolerance of discomfort, and I can’t go for more than a few hours without food.”  For example, the night before we began our ‘fast’, my sister called to let me know that dinner was going to be delayed by at least an hour.  So, instead of waiting to eat dinner with her, as we’d planned, I am starving and go ahead and eat something at my house, only an hour before dinner!  And this is the night before I think I’m going to start ‘fasting’! 

My mother is at least as impulsive as me about food.  And we both eat in quantity.  I’ve been concerned about her health as much as mine, and I know that checking our weight is pivotal in improving our health.  I’ve always assumed that my mother would live to be as old as her mother, but, in lieu of certain problems she’s begun to have, I have come to realize that she does not have the same lifestyle as my grandmother, who actively gardened into her 80’s and ate fresh, local, organic food most of her life.  My mother is from the ‘instant’ foods generation.

As much as we needed to get a grip on our diets, however, I simply didn’t know if we could follow through on Mireille’s rather strict plan (as I saw it then).  I had back-up ideas, so we wouldn’t just give up completely.  They involved consuming a variety of fresh, nonstarchy veggies, perhaps some dressing, and, if really pressed, an egg.  I wasn’t even sure we could manage that, to be honest—and I suspect that the raw veggies may have upset our stomachs.  But I figured we’d start with Mireille’s ‘Magical Leek Soup’ and go from there. 

In her book, Mireille talks about eating ‘in balance’, disparaging fad diets and all sorts of extremism.  I laughed at her, because, in my view, eating nothing but leek soup for a weekend seemed rather extreme.  Okay, not quite the whole weekend—you do get a real dinner the second day.

However, I have to take it back.  Mireille is my hero right now.  I had no real intention of following through on the leek soup weekend, as I knew that the first real hunger pangs would be answered.  I thought of her concept as sort of a jumping-off point, and my own additions were just a matter of time, to coincide with the hunger pangs. 

They never did set in.  For either of us.  It really is a magical, miracle plan.  Leeks are amazing!  Yes, I became tired and spacey, but I didn’t suffer at all and there was no digestive upset.  We just sorta took it easy; we took a couple of easy walks, played Scrabble, and I wrote and read a little bit.  My mother had more energy than me, actually. 

Now, what exactly did we eat?  The leek soup is simply chopped leeks (rinsed clean) that are boiled in water.  At mealtimes, we ate about a ½ cup of the boiled leeks topped with parsley, and several times during the day we drank a cup of the broth.  We added fresh lemon juice, Himalayan sea salt, and cracked pepper to both.  We also allowed ourselves to have unsweetened black tea throughout the day, and we drank a cinnamon and black hot tea several times (cinnamon is thought to help blood sugar balance).  I also drank chamomile tea and mint tea, just once each.  I figured calorie-free natural teas were alright, but that was my addition.  We never did drizzle the leeks with olive oil, though Mireille says that’s fine.  I also took my regular supplements (pills/tablets), and my mother took her medicines.

When dinner time arrives on the second day, Mireille recommends a small portion of fish and two veggies.  Being vegetarian, I altered it to two eggs and a salad, and I was surprised that my stomach ached after eating all of it!  I truly had too much, and the salad wasn’t even all that large.  It’s noon the next day, and I’ve had a few nuts and some coffee with honey and soymilk (oh, how I missed my coffee!).  A lentil soup is on the stove, but I’m feeling a bit concerned about feeling uncomfortable with eating ‘too much’ again.  Will have to go slowly!  The point is, though—this is GOOD.  This is why people pay to have their stomachs stapled!  But instead of recuperating from surgery, I feel refreshed, detoxed, cleansed, and bonded with my mother! 

Oh, I do have two recommendations.  Unless you have an iron will, I'd suggest that you go somewhere away from other food preparation/consumption.  There is some food in the pantry here at my grandparents’ old home, but no one else was with us the entire time, so it was never in our faces.  Also, try to invite someone to participate (if you think he/she’s a follow-through kind of person, generally).  It’s a great bonding experience; the support of the other person, plus your desire not to undo their efforts, makes it much easier to stick with the plan.  I think these two reasons are why those ‘fat camps’ and ‘weight-loss spas’ tend to be so effective.  The temptation is absent, and the support system is there.

Now, I imagine that it will be easier for my stomach to re-stretch than those who have had surgery, but I can repeat my leek soup weekend at will.  I believe that it has additional detox benefits, too.  My mother felt much better on day 2—her eyes sparkling, her pain less.  We plan to do this again, perhaps even seasonally—but the springtime seems especially appropriate.

Mireille, who is my mother’s age, shares that she was prescribed the ‘Magical Leek Soup Weekend’ by her aged family doctor to jump start the weight control process.  I suspect he may have known about the detox benefits, as well.  Just wanted to mention that, because I feel rather thrilled that she's passed on some 'lost' natural medicine, here.  Maybe not so lost, now, thanks to her book. 

Virtual fasting without discomfort?  Amazing for those of us who don’t have fabulous blood sugar control and experience with that sort of thing.

Why don’t our doctors tell us about this?  Honestly, they don’t know.  They don’t learn about food at all, really.  They’re simply trained to use pharmaceuticals.  And as for this ‘trick’, I never heard of it in naturopathic medical school.  We talked about fasting, a little, but I wish I had known about this ages ago…

A word of caution about fasting, though.  Fasting can reduce your metabolism a bit.  The best method of weight loss is simple portion control and exercise, generally (so long as your thyroid is working).  But less than two days of fasting, for a detox and tummy shrinkage?  I feel refreshed and now have a greatly reduced appetite.  I will report if I change my mind about it later, but Mireille claims that she still does this leek soup weekend to ‘reset’ herself every once in a while, and I have every intention of following suit.