Healthy French Foods You Should Order To Decrease Your Fat Intake

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French food gets a bad rep as one of the fattiest diets out there. There’s even a term, the French paradox, that calls out how the French stay slim even though their diet is packed with high-fat foods like foie gras and Camembert cheese. Luckily, not all French food tops the charts when it comes to fat. The next time someone invites you to dinner at a French restaurant, here’s how you can order relatively healthily.

Ratatouille

It may never be as perfect as the symmetrical work of art you’ve seen in Disney’s “Ratatouille,” but taste-wise, ratatouille never disappoints. The French dish is a colorful vegetable stew — usually made with eggplant, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, zucchini and garlic — that’s slowly cooked in olive oil. Depending on how much fat or salt is used, ratatouille is considered a healthy, hearty dish.

Mussels

Moules-frites, or mussels with French fries, is a popular French dish of mussels, white wine, shallots, parsley and butter. The mussels are steamed in the fragrant broth for a few minutes until they open up. You’ll see the mussels sprinkled with herbs like thyme or parsley. If you’re trying to be healthy, you can avoid the French fries and go straight for the mussels. Since the broth is the best part, use those empty mussels shells to slurp up extra broth at the end.

Salad Niçoise

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The French salad niçoise is packed with veggies and protein. Red potatoes, green beans, cucumber, radishes, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, olives and olive oil-marinated tuna are drizzled with a salty anchovy and Dijon vinaigrette along with freshly cracked black pepper, sea salt and chopped basil. You get all of your food groups packed into this one colorful dish.

Bouillabaisse

If you like spicy food and you like seafood, bouillabaisse is your go-to healthy French dish. The fish stew is made with tomatoes, onion, garlic, potatoes, fish stock, clams, lobster, mussels and shrimp. Sometimes the broth is flavored with pastis, a licorice-flavored aperitif. Bouillabaisse is a combination of spicy and savory with a rich, natural seafood broth that comes simmering the dish slowly.

Sometimes bouillabaisse comes topped with rouille, a sauce made with cayenne, garlic, breadcrumbs and olive oil. It’s the perfect summer dish for all of your beach bar excursions.

Escargot

Don’t be afraid. Cooked snail meat, or escargot, is a traditional French appetizer. It might take you a minute to get used to the idea, but escargot is a great source of lean protein with 14 grams per serving. You won’t even taste the snail with all of those other bright ingredients going on. The snails are cooked with garlic butter, chicken stock or wine and placed back into their shells with a sauce before serving. Garlic, thyme, parsley and pine nuts are also popular ingredients in escargot.

Aside from the chewy factor, escargot isn’t as scary as most people may think. Give this protein-packed dish a try the next time you’re at a French restaurant.

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