Secrets of her diet that defies age
She has a physique that women half her age would envy. But can it all be down to 10 portions of fruit and veg? Eleanor Steafel reports
She is a grandmother-of-seven who looks better in skinny jeans and a pair of stilettos than most women half her age. As the president’s wife, you might expect Brigitte Macron’s slim figure and ageless beauty to have had a helping hand from a rigid diet of green juices and turmeric lattes in lieu of actual food; daily hot yoga sessions and regular Hydrafacials in her suite at the Élysée Palace. Or maybe not. Because, while Madame Macron’s look is impressively age-defying, it was revealed this weekend that deep down she is a thoroughly old-fashioned girl. Her secret? Ten kinds of fruits and vegetables every day, and a healthy dose of cheese and wine when she fancies.
According to Guillaume Gomez, the head chef at the Élysée, who revealed the secrets of the presidential kitchen in an interview with The
Sunday Telegraph, the Macrons are surprisingly traditional. The couple can, of course, request anything they want of their kitchen staff, but Mr Gomez told how he mainly serves proper French country cooking, using produce from within 100km of Paris and herbs from the palace gardens. His team of 25 cooks still use copper saucepans that were in the kitchens of Napoleon in the early 1800s to whip up comforting dishes such as cordon bleu, one of the president’s favourites.
“We adapt to presidential tastes,” he said, adding that cheese and wine were back on the menu after Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president, took them off. Their only stipulations? Ten fruits and vegetables a day for Mme Macron, and “no junk food” for her husband (her request, not his).
So is it enough to cram your diet with fruit and veg? Or do you have to shell out for a personal trainer and never look at bread or chocolate again to get in shape?
THE BRIGITTE – HOW TO GET THE LOOK The diet
We now know Mme Macron is all about the fruit and veg, but is it enough to have a smoothie in the morning and a mound of salad with your dinner in the evening?
Dr Frankie Phillips, dietitian for the British Dietetic Association, says upping your intake of fruit and veg is one of the best things you can do to stay healthy and stave off the diseases that can come in late life.
“It would be fantastic if people could reach even five portions a day because we’re not even reaching that in Britain,” says Dr Phillips “People who have five portions of fruits and vegetables a day, or 400g equivalent, have a reduced risk of several chronic diseases including heart disease, cancers and premature death.”
But it isn’t enough, she says, to simply put 10 ingredients in a blender and drink them as a smoothie. “If you have a smoothie or pressed juice, then the free sugars are released from the cells of the fruit, which means you can only count that as one portion a day, however many different fruits you’ve got in it,” says Dr Phillips. It is, however, a myth that we are always better off eating fruits and vegetables when they are raw, she explains.
“For instance, one of the antioxidants in tomatoes, called lycopene, and beta carotene in peppers – by cooking these vegetables down, you release these antioxidants more effectively than if you eat them raw. Dried fruit is also a good way of getting an extra portion and it’s a good source of fibre, which we don’t have enough of in this country.”
Dr Phillips suggests another way Mme Macron may be sustaining her lithe physique: “Having lean protein sources, plenty of wholegrains for fibre, and some oily fish. And also just having a healthy active lifestyle.”
The exercise regime
Mme Macron isn’t afraid of showing off her legs and appears slim and strong, without looking gaunt or over sinewy. When visiting Paris recently, Donald Trump commented she looked “in such good shape”. Creepy observations from world leaders aside, Mme Macron does, it has to be said, look to be in incredible shape. So what is she doing? Peter Mac, a personal trainer to the A-list, says her slender frame suggests “a lot of yoga, a lot of power walking and low intensity body sessions. I imagine she probably isn’t looking to bulk up and look too muscular, so she will be wanting workouts that will help keep her slender and toned.
“If I was training someone like her, my routine would be high intensity cardio and body weight exercises.”
‘Ten portions in a smoothie counts as only one, no matter how many fruits’
‘Twelve-inch heels, sleeveless dresses, leather trousers, she dares everything’
Le look
Vogue described her as “turning the tables on the Chic Bobo aesthetic” (slim-cut navy tailoring, low-heeled shoes, shiny-but-not-obviously-coiffed hair) and Delphine de Canecaude, a Paris-based art director, described her as a “mega wonderwoman”. “She’s rock’n’roll,” she told French newspaper L’express. “Not for a second does she say, ‘I’m 63, so I cannot wear short skirts.’ Twelve-inch heels, sleeveless dresses, leather trousers, she dares everything.”
To complete the look, Victoria Hall, The Daily Telegraph’s beauty director, recommends finding a great colourist to perfect that honeyed blonde bob, and going heavy on the bronzer.
“Brigitte has always maintained a rich St Tropez tan from head to toe. A bronzed, sun-kissed complexion gives you a healthy, youthful glow, as Brigitte has proven over the past few months.”