France on a low-fat diet

Shellfish and baguettes. Beyond that I got nothing.

I will say that I find the fruit and veg in France to be excellent. But let's face it, minimizing fat consumption pretty much rules out restaurant food everywhere in the world.

I have a similar issue. Provence and the south of France was much easier for food choices for a low fat diet than the northern part of France.

I suppose you always have the option of self catering accommodations. Then you can prepare your own meals and can have all of France at your disposal.

It is very hard to eat low fat in restaurants anywhere. And with pancreas issues it is crucial. We had a child with a form of pancreatitis as a child and she had to be on a very low fat diet -- restaurants were very difficult. She ate a lot of shrimp cocktails.

If I were traveling with this situation I would be booking apartments and mostly eating in. The markets are full of wonderful fruits and vegetables and you can acquire good lean meats like chicken at butcher shops. Most. bakery items are high in fat. but they have a lot of really good and varied breads. Baguettes of course, but there is also a black loaf called a ' baltic' that I buy and have sliced which I eat with soft cheeses for breakfast as I am avoiding sugar. You would of course not use cheese but there area a lot of really lovely jams and honeys available if he can eat sugar.

Salad composees might be a good choice but you have to be wary of olive oils and oils used to preserve the tuna in the nicoise.

I would have a card in French that explains that he had a medical condition requiring low fat diet and thus cannot have oils, cheese, butter etc added to foods. BUT to be safe, planning to cater for yourself is going to work best.

It does sound like self-catering is the way to go, and/or sticking largely to Asian food as we did during our recent trip … which meant missing out on a lot of great French food, mais c’est la vie. We did find a great ramen place in Lyon - so good we ate there 3 times!

Fortunately he can tolerate small amounts of olive oil, so a salade niçoise shouldn’t be a problem.

As for shellfish, the trick is to find some that’s not prepared with butter.

Lunches in cities would be OK, wherever there are offices there are a lot of salad bars or similar these days (Jour, Cojean, etc.).
Seafood platters are everywhere in Paris and in coastal western France. And many fish dishes can be ordered without sauce - but this still leaves the cooking fat. Some Italian food might also be OK?

Let me add that poke (with raw or cooked salmon or tuna) is a healthful low-fat meal that is available at an increasing number of places in France and elsewhere in Europe. I couldn't eat it every day, but could probably find a way to enjoy it several times a week. :o)

If he likes oysters, shrimp, assorted shellfish, then the seafood tower is perfect for someone on a low fat diet.

The problem with restaurants is that there is so much hidden fat in foods and it is fat that makes thing taste good. Thus the card making the issue clear -- the French are not very sympathetic to dietary tastes when it comes to requesting special service -- but more so to a medical issue.

NOTE however that a LOT of French restaurant food is essentially airplane food centrally prepared and heated in the restaurant and thus the huge amounts of hidden fat are not apparent to the staff or modifiable.