萨科奇为保持身材拒食奶酪

It is an admission that is verging¹ on sacrilegious for a French president. But Nicolas Sarkozy's top chef has revealed that the French head of state has banned cheese from the table at the Elysée Palace.

尼古拉•萨科奇的御用大厨透露，这位法国总统将奶酪逐出了爱丽舍宫的餐桌，这对于一名法国总统来说，几乎是冒天下之大不韪。

Charles de Gaulle once famously declared: "How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?"

The fitness mad Mr Sarkozy has chosen to remove the source of De Gaulle's angst（焦虑，担心） from his sight, according to presidential chef Bernard Vaussion, who is cooking for his fifth French head of state.

The French were famously dubbed² "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" by irate³（生气的） US Republicans when they failed to support the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

But Mr Sarkozy has done away with the high-fat stuff altogether after meals, his chef explained, as "it was too much" for him.

His cheese aversion（厌恶） even threatened to spark a diplomatic incident last October, when he offended Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor⁴, by telling another EU leader that over dinner "she says she is on a diet and then helps herself to a second helping⁵ of cheese".

The health-conscious leader opts⁶ instead for "light, balanced meals and poultry⁷ to red meat", his chef said, in a clear break with his predecessors⁸ who were not afraid of heartier⁹ fare, even at lunchtime.

The French had already found it hard to swallow the fact that their leader drinks no wine, a source of great national pride. The latest revelation risks striking another symbolic¹⁰ blow to the leader's credentials¹¹ as a flag-bearer of French gastronomy¹²（烹饪法） .

On the advice of his former supermodel wife, Carla, 13 years his junior, the one-time chocoholic president has been on a draconian¹³ fitness and nutrition programme for most of his presidency¹⁴, served a frugal¹⁵ diet of fish, vegetables, salads and sorbets. Cottage cheese, it is believed, still makes the grade.

Some blamed the low-calorie diet on Mr Sarkozy collapsing¹⁶ in 2009 during one of his gruelling（折磨人的） daily jogs.