14 Nov 2004
Let them eat cake

This entry goes in the Ag section because it's all about attitudes towards food. And it makes some very interesting points:

Despite a diet stuffed with cream, butter, cheese and meat, just 10 per cent of French adults are obese, compared with our 22 per cent, and America's colossal 33 per cent. The French live longer too, and have lower death rates from coronary heart disease - in spite of those artery-clogging feasts of cholesterol and saturated fat.

Turns out that the best guess for the answer to the 'French paradox' is the attitude towards food:

They savour their food. They are passionate about food. They have a national heritage devoted to and founded upon food. France is, after all, the home of the great chefs...

Meals are slower, portion sizes are smaller and they eat fresh foods prepared at home more often that denizens of other Western nations.

French food is real food - prepared in the kitchen, with time taken to choose, buy and prepare meals. In other words, there's space for food in the daily routine.

Eating in France is a social activity. There are several but small courses, with plenty of time between courses for the physiological feedback to kick in.

This is definitely food for thought.

They don't diet and they don't spend hours panting round the gym. So how can French women put away as much ice-cream, rich pastries and steak frites as they want and yet stay so slim? Mimi Spencer gets her teeth into the 'French paradox', which has baffled the world's best scientific brains for a decade

(link) [Guardian Unlimited: Observer]

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