Women who won’t eat

I had a milestone birthday this summer and so I took a long hard look at myself and my life as one tends to do at such times and I don’t know whether it was hypersensitivity to those around me or just me confidently taking a new path, but I realised that I seemed to be spending a lot of time with women who won’t eat. An epiphany occurred whilst eating a plate of warm octopus and potato mashed in truffle oil at the Restaurant de La Plage d’Argent in Corsica. I was in rhapsodies over this dish until I looked up and saw the other women of the party. One was smoking over her half eaten plate and the other miserably pushed a salad around hers. Granted they were both enviably thin but I vowed then not to become a non-eater in order to attain a weight which is unrealistic on an older woman and besides we’re a very long time dead and I’m not going to be half-dead when I get there.

Oh and please if you are one of those rude people who refuse to eat birthday cake with a horrific shrug and a no, couldn’t possibly, well all I can say is you need to spend a Saturday morning in Geneva’s soup kitchens to learn to be more appreciative.

In certain circles there is social pressure on women not to eat in public or at least not to appear to be hungry in public. A friend who runs a restaurant informed me that she was often visited in the kitchens by starving women hoping to recuperate the left-overs from their plates.

In defiance of such attitudes I am pleased to announce that this summer I have happily put on a couple of kilos and I enjoyed every mouthful of great seafood and every glass of chilled chardonnay. I’m not talking about a couple of kilos gained from the fridge at 10 o’clock at night, I’m talking great food eaten at a table with a knife and fork. Pasta shells stuffed with gorgonzola and walnuts, that extra glass of rosé in the garden on a summer’s evening, sun-dried tomato bread from that little place in Rolle, summer pudding, late breakfasts of blueberry pancakes with my kids. Food worth eating the calories for whether at home or in a restaurant.

So I have an extra layer around my middle but my motto is Eat it, Enjoy it then Move It. The Chics with Sticks are back soon and it may come off or it may not but I’ll still be fit and won’t embarrass my kids by looking like some would-be teenager at the school gates chewing gum to stave off the hunger pangs.

So if you see a daft woman pushing her food around in a restaurant you will know it is not me. I’ll be the one with the sparkle in her eye harassing the waiter for extra bread to soak up the truffle oil. Must dash there’s a porcini risotto awaiting my attention in the kitchen.

For Heaven’s Sake Eat to Enjoy…Exercise to Stay Healthy.

Copyright Jules Ritter 2007