The French Paradox...

MyPathway

I think food marketing and advertising has a major role in obesity epidemic.

Francl27

snowflake954 wrote: »

I'm no expert on France, but the big difference I see in Italy is an emphasis on "quality" not "quantity". Everybody talks about food, how it's raised, where it comes from, etc. There is alot more food knowledge. Cooking something healthy and great tasting is an art and people try to reach that pinacle. I'm American and when I go home that's missing.

I agree there. In France it's more about 'artisan' food than mass produced stuff. And I guess kids are more likely to snack on yogurt or freshly baked goods than a whole bag of goldfish or something.

Obviously though I'm a really bad example - my mom used to take me to the supermarket with her and let me buy what I want, so I ate a lot of prepackaged cookies or puddings too...

Oh a huge difference though that I never see mentioned - school and work meals. When I grew up I could either come home to eat for lunch (there was a 1.5 hour break for lunch - gave kids a LOT of recess time too, compared to here) or eat at school where balanced meals were served - meat, veggies, some bread, a serving of cheese, and a small dessert/fruit. No option either, kid ate that or went hungry - never once did we have chicken nuggets or pizza. Obviously it's been a long time but I still don't think that French people pack lunch for their kids (and really... I pack my kids lunch and convenience is often the main factor, frankly). Point is - LESS PICKY KIDS.

And a lot of companies have cafeterias with healthy options too... Even when they didn't and gave us meal coupons, there were plenty of options around... In general I guess that French people put less toppings on their sandwiches/crepes/pizzas, and sandwiches almost never come with fries. And healthier options are not 3x the price of a burger and fries like here.

But again, I moved here 16 years ago so I'm sure that things have changed since.

fishshark

Francl27 wrote: »

snowflake954 wrote: »

I'm no expert on France, but the big difference I see in Italy is an emphasis on "quality" not "quantity". Everybody talks about food, how it's raised, where it comes from, etc. There is alot more food knowledge. Cooking something healthy and great tasting is an art and people try to reach that pinacle. I'm American and when I go home that's missing.

I agree there. In France it's more about 'artisan' food than mass produced stuff. And I guess kids are more likely to snack on yogurt or freshly baked goods than a whole bag of goldfish or something.

Obviously though I'm a really bad example - my mom used to take me to the supermarket with her and let me buy what I want, so I ate a lot of prepackaged cookies or puddings too...

Oh a huge difference though that I never see mentioned - school and work meals. When I grew up I could either come home to eat for lunch (there was a 1.5 hour break for lunch - gave kids a LOT of recess time too, compared to here) or eat at school where balanced meals were served - meat, veggies, some bread, a serving of cheese, and a small dessert/fruit. No option either, kid ate that or went hungry - never once did we have chicken nuggets or pizza. Obviously it's been a long time but I still don't think that French people pack lunch for their kids (and really... I pack my kids lunch and convenience is often the main factor, frankly). Point is - LESS PICKY KIDS.

And a lot of companies have cafeterias with healthy options too... Even when they didn't and gave us meal coupons, there were plenty of options around... In general I guess that French people put less toppings on their sandwiches/crepes/pizzas, and sandwiches almost never come with fries. And healthier options are not 3x the price of a burger and fries like here.

But again, I moved here 16 years ago so I'm sure that things have changed since.

I was waiting for your response!


For me.. Im the first person born in America (family from Italy) and they hardly ever had anything processed and even now my family there doesn't eat much processed (and by that i don't mean literally i mean packaged foods with additives) they either make for buy fresh breads and pastas that needs to be consumed fast. Also walking walking walking walking. Driving rarely happens at least for my family.

lululapagaille

Francl27 wrote: »

Oh a huge difference though that I never see mentioned - school and work meals. When I grew up I could either come home to eat for lunch (there was a 1.5 hour break for lunch - gave kids a LOT of recess time too, compared to here) or eat at school where balanced meals were served - meat, veggies, some bread, a serving of cheese, and a small dessert/fruit. No option either, kid ate that or went hungry - never once did we have chicken nuggets or pizza. Obviously it's been a long time but I still don't think that French people pack lunch for their kids (and really... I pack my kids lunch and convenience is often the main factor, frankly). Point is - LESS PICKY KIDS.

And a lot of companies have cafeterias with healthy options too...

But again, I moved here 16 years ago so I'm sure that things have changed since.

Hi ! I'm French and a teacher. Things haven't changed from what you saw years ago. Kids aren't allowed to bring a packed lunch into school, so they eat the meal at the canteen : a starter, some meat or fish with veggies and rice or pasta, bread and cheese and a dessert (fruit, yogurt). It's a big, filling meal and indeed it teaches balanced habits. Or they eat at home but most can't as at my school they come from surrounding villages and there are no school buses at lunch time. We have 1 hour and a half for lunch break.

They do bring sweets for their snack though. There is zero obese kid at my school, and I never see obese people in France. Overweight yes definitely. (myself included a few years back).

I was in the UK a couple of weeks ago and did notice that UK teens were way heavier than French teens. But in the UK there's food everywhere and at all times ! So difficult to resist. You can't go buy a magazine without seeing tons of chocolate bars. In France's newsagents there are books, magazines, postcards and that's it. Maybe a couple single serve Haribo packets or chewing gums.
I put on quite a bit of weight when I lived in the UK as a student...

This summer I'm going to the US and I can't wait to discover the differences ! It's so interesting.
I think the key in France is although we do snack ( le goûter as you said), we have this vision of 3 to 4 structured / balanced meals a day and then we get on with our day. We don't have anarchic snacking as in the UK.
Obviously some of us still like eating a bit too much ie why I'm on here ^^.

Oh and I'll just add for the other commenters, I don't smoke and most of my friends and family don't either, and we don't eat duck fat in the north. Less smokers in France nowadays.

Francl27

lululapagaille wrote: »

Francl27 wrote: »

Oh a huge difference though that I never see mentioned - school and work meals. When I grew up I could either come home to eat for lunch (there was a 1.5 hour break for lunch - gave kids a LOT of recess time too, compared to here) or eat at school where balanced meals were served - meat, veggies, some bread, a serving of cheese, and a small dessert/fruit. No option either, kid ate that or went hungry - never once did we have chicken nuggets or pizza. Obviously it's been a long time but I still don't think that French people pack lunch for their kids (and really... I pack my kids lunch and convenience is often the main factor, frankly). Point is - LESS PICKY KIDS.

And a lot of companies have cafeterias with healthy options too...

But again, I moved here 16 years ago so I'm sure that things have changed since.

Hi ! I'm French and a teacher. Things haven't changed from what you saw years ago. Kids aren't allowed to bring a packed lunch into school, so they eat the meal at the canteen : a starter, some meat or fish with veggies and rice or pasta, bread and cheese and a dessert (fruit, yogurt). It's a big, filling meal and indeed it teaches balanced habits. Or they eat at home but most can't as at my school they come from surrounding villages and there are no school buses at lunch time. We have 1 hour and a half for lunch break.

They do bring sweets for their snack though. There is zero obese kid at my school, and I never see obese people in France. Overweight yes definitely. (myself included a few years back).

I was in the UK a couple of weeks ago and did notice that UK teens were way heavier than French teens. But in the UK there's food everywhere and at all times ! So difficult to resist. You can't go buy a magazine without seeing tons of chocolate bars. In France's newsagents there are books, magazines, postcards and that's it. Maybe a couple single serve Haribo packets or chewing gums.
I put on quite a bit of weight when I lived in the UK as a student...

This summer I'm going to the US and I can't wait to discover the differences ! It's so interesting.
I think the key in France is although we do snack ( le goûter as you said), we have this vision of 3 to 4 structured / balanced meals a day and then we get on with our day. We don't have anarchic snacking as in the UK.
Obviously some of us still like eating a bit too much ie why I'm on here ^^.

Oh and I'll just add for the other commenters, I don't smoke and most of my friends and family don't either, and we don't eat duck fat in the north. Less smokers in France nowadays.

Thanks for posting! I admit I don't really ask my sister about how things have changed. Good to hear about the smokers, it was crazy when I grew up.

anamibell

i've almost stopped enjoying the process of 'eating' after thinking after breaking food down into components and counting calories

Really though, I sometimes wish I could go back to being a kid who ran around without thinking of it as an excessive chore and eat when I'm hungry until I'm full