The very premise of Eat What You Want Day suggests that you are not doing that the other 364 days of the year. But at D’Artagnan we always eat what we want, don’t you?

This holiday is met with some dismay, because its very existence points out that our eating habits are unbalanced. Eating is supposed to be a pleasure, engaged in three times a day, not a chance to feel guilty about our choices.

Please be sure to enjoy your food every day of the year, not just on May 11th, the food holiday set aside to give us one guilt-free day.

In France they eat foie gras, lots of cheese, red meat, and they drink plenty of wine. They are healthier as a result. And the French even have a phrase: joie de vivre, which roughly translates to “eat what you want, while laughing with family and friends, and drink what you want, too.”  It seems that enjoyment can have a great impact on health. Is how we eat perhaps as important as what we eat?

An article in Psychology Today lists 14 healthy eating habits that the author learned in France. It’s worth reading… and even adopting as many as possible. One of her observations was that in France “people did not deprive themselves of the foods they loved…they just ate smaller portions of those foods.” So go ahead, have a little foie gras.

We can’t resist quoting the most famous American to embrace French cuisine. Julia Child found the food of France a revelation that changed her life, and set her on a new course, which in turn transformed the United States. And we doubt she ever counted a single calorie.