French children don't snack
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Mslmesq
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Interesting article on snacking and the difference between cultures.
French Kids Don’t Snack: Surprising Kids’ Food Habits From Abroad
By Karen Le Billon
French kids don’t snack. Hard to believe, but true. They don’t snack at school, or in their cars, or in their strollers. I never saw a single French child rummaging in cupboards or the fridge. This was as true for the French children living in our little village as it was for the girls’ big-city cousins in Paris and Lyon.
“So when do kids snack?” I eventually asked my mother-in-law.
“They don’t snack, of course,” she replied. Her surprised look was a sign that I’d asked, yet again, one of those dumb foreigner questions. Deflated, I dropped the subject. But I kept thinking about her answer. No snacking? Really? At home in North America, any time spent with kids meant time spent feeding them snacks. I did a little research and found out that Sophie and Claire were typical: North American kids snack, on average, three times per day (in addition to their three meals per day). And I was amazed to learn that one out of every five American kids eats up to six snacks per day.
My mother-in-law was right, though. French kids don’t snack. I knew this from watching the families around us in the village. Their children ate four square meals per day, on a set schedule: breakfast in the morning, lunch at around 12:30, the goûter at around 4:30 p.m., and dinner between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. That was it. Virginie confirmed my impressions. She even sent me France’s official food guide, which emphatically recommends no snacking. It doesn’t seem as if this advice is really necessary, anyway. For most French parents and children, this eating schedule is an ingrained, unquestioned habit. And it’s not that they are constantly struggling to avoid a secret raid on the pantry. Rather, eating at other times of the day simply would rarely occur to them. Just in case anyone strays, snack food ads on French TV carry a large white banner (like the warnings on cigarette packages) bluntly stating: “For your health, avoid snacking in between meals.”
“For most French parents and children, this eating schedule is an ingrained, unquestioned habit.”
Why are French kids raised this way? Partly because French kids (like kids anywhere) are adults in training. And French adults, for the most part, don’t snack — at least not in public. They don’t walk down the street munching on muffins or sipping coffee. They don’t keep snack foods in their purses or pockets (or at least they’re not supposed to). When snacks are eaten regularly, and publicly, this is sufficiently out of the ordinary as to merit public comment. I remembered one anecdote about a well-known French politician: even before he made international headlines, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (former Minister of Finance, and then Director of the International Monetary Fund in Washington) was slightly infamous for regularly indulging in a tartelette — a sort of miniature pie — for his late-afternoon treat.
Still, I couldn’t quite believe that French adults didn’t snack. “But what about all of those cafés in Paris?” I asked Véronique on the phone one afternoon.
“It’s true that Parisians love to go out to the café, to wander the city,” she told me. (She used the word flâner, which roughly translates as “strolling slowly, aimlessly, while enjoying whatever there is to look at.”) “But watch the people sitting in cafés, and after a while you’ll realize something: Most of the people eating outside of mealtimes are tourists. The French customers might be having an espresso, but that’s usually it.”
Even the words that they used to describe snacking were revealing. Virginie talked about an en cas (which translates as “just in case,” implying a once-in-a-while deviation from your ordinary routine) and grignotage (from grignoter, which means to nibble or gnaw). The implication is that it is both unusual, and somehow deplorable, to snack. In fact, Virginie explained, it was only when researchers started doing food diaries a few years earlier that the French realized that adults snacked at all. This news of a “snacking epidemic” caused something of a scandal in France, with politicians and experts bemoaning the decline of healthy eating. She sent me some newspaper clippings, and I had to laugh when I read the catastrophic headlines. I found it hard to imagine what the French would say about the fact that 98% of American adults snack every day, and nearly half of American adults snack three times per day. And I doubted that Americans were eating what French people ate at snacktime: fruit and tea or coffee topped the list, followed by yogurt, and bread and butter.
So the reason that French kids don’t snack is simple: They are just like their parents. And the no-snacking rule has some clear advantages for their parents. Their kids’ car seats and strollers are not covered in crumbs (fresh white baguette, one of our family favorites, is also one of the world’s best crumb-making devices) or sticky juice residue (an excellent adhesive for crumbs). Their purses are not secret storehouses of goodies that send their kids into whining low blood sugar–inspired tantrums (and that leak disastrously onto keys, brushes, and credit cards). One astonishing observation that I made in our first few weeks in France just about sums it up: Strollers made in France don’t have cup-holders and neither (at least traditionally) do French cars.
This means that snacking is one of the many things to which un-written food rules apply in France. No snacks are served at school — with the rare exception of three- and four-year-old kindergarteners in some schools (and pressure is mounting in France to ban this somewhat controversial practice altogether). And no French parent expects food to be made available at any event outside the home, except a birthday party (which will be scheduled to coincide with the timing of the traditional afternoon goûter). In fact, offering a snack to a child at the “wrong” time is definitely a major food faux pas. I had been reminded of this the week before when we were visiting my mother-in- law’s house. We’d been there longer than expected, and I was rushing to leave at 6:00 p.m. when I stopped to offer a snack to Sophie, as I knew she was feeling desperately hungry (mostly because I was feeling the same way).
“It’s nearly dinnertime,” my mother-in-law protested. “You’ll spoil her appetite!” And before my unbelieving eyes, she removed the cookies from Sophie’s hands, holding firm despite the wailing protests that followed. Sophie would simply have to wait to eat. Tight-lipped, I gave in, and hauled Sophie to the car. “You’re right! Of course she’ll have to wait,” was all I said to Janine. And wait she did, but not for long; as soon as the car was out of the driveway, I slipped her a baguette in the backseat. “Grignote all you like!” I told her, feeling defiant.
This incident was one of many. Since we had arrived, snacking had gradually become a major source of tension in our family. Yet it was about to become one of the food routines that we would successfully change.
We have since returned to Vancouver after our year in France. Our family eventually stopped snacking and began to follow the French eating routine (three meals per day, and one afternoon snack) with success. On the weekends, our children follow the French routine and snack only once per day (in the afternoon). But on weekdays, our kids still have a morning snack at school, like the other children — which follows the French approach to healthy eating, based on the principle of ‘moderation, not deprivation’! My daughters no longer eat in the car, or on the run; we have decided to make daily family meals a priority, and no longer participate in after-school activities that would prevent us from sitting down for dinner, usually at 6:30. The compromise is, we feel, a good one: We’re preserving the positive aspects of the French approach, while adapting it to life here at home.
Source: http://www.babble.com/best-recipes/french-kids-dont-snack/
French Kids Don’t Snack: Surprising Kids’ Food Habits From Abroad
By Karen Le Billon
French kids don’t snack. Hard to believe, but true. They don’t snack at school, or in their cars, or in their strollers. I never saw a single French child rummaging in cupboards or the fridge. This was as true for the French children living in our little village as it was for the girls’ big-city cousins in Paris and Lyon.
“So when do kids snack?” I eventually asked my mother-in-law.
“They don’t snack, of course,” she replied. Her surprised look was a sign that I’d asked, yet again, one of those dumb foreigner questions. Deflated, I dropped the subject. But I kept thinking about her answer. No snacking? Really? At home in North America, any time spent with kids meant time spent feeding them snacks. I did a little research and found out that Sophie and Claire were typical: North American kids snack, on average, three times per day (in addition to their three meals per day). And I was amazed to learn that one out of every five American kids eats up to six snacks per day.
My mother-in-law was right, though. French kids don’t snack. I knew this from watching the families around us in the village. Their children ate four square meals per day, on a set schedule: breakfast in the morning, lunch at around 12:30, the goûter at around 4:30 p.m., and dinner between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. That was it. Virginie confirmed my impressions. She even sent me France’s official food guide, which emphatically recommends no snacking. It doesn’t seem as if this advice is really necessary, anyway. For most French parents and children, this eating schedule is an ingrained, unquestioned habit. And it’s not that they are constantly struggling to avoid a secret raid on the pantry. Rather, eating at other times of the day simply would rarely occur to them. Just in case anyone strays, snack food ads on French TV carry a large white banner (like the warnings on cigarette packages) bluntly stating: “For your health, avoid snacking in between meals.”
“For most French parents and children, this eating schedule is an ingrained, unquestioned habit.”
Why are French kids raised this way? Partly because French kids (like kids anywhere) are adults in training. And French adults, for the most part, don’t snack — at least not in public. They don’t walk down the street munching on muffins or sipping coffee. They don’t keep snack foods in their purses or pockets (or at least they’re not supposed to). When snacks are eaten regularly, and publicly, this is sufficiently out of the ordinary as to merit public comment. I remembered one anecdote about a well-known French politician: even before he made international headlines, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (former Minister of Finance, and then Director of the International Monetary Fund in Washington) was slightly infamous for regularly indulging in a tartelette — a sort of miniature pie — for his late-afternoon treat.
Still, I couldn’t quite believe that French adults didn’t snack. “But what about all of those cafés in Paris?” I asked Véronique on the phone one afternoon.
“It’s true that Parisians love to go out to the café, to wander the city,” she told me. (She used the word flâner, which roughly translates as “strolling slowly, aimlessly, while enjoying whatever there is to look at.”) “But watch the people sitting in cafés, and after a while you’ll realize something: Most of the people eating outside of mealtimes are tourists. The French customers might be having an espresso, but that’s usually it.”
Even the words that they used to describe snacking were revealing. Virginie talked about an en cas (which translates as “just in case,” implying a once-in-a-while deviation from your ordinary routine) and grignotage (from grignoter, which means to nibble or gnaw). The implication is that it is both unusual, and somehow deplorable, to snack. In fact, Virginie explained, it was only when researchers started doing food diaries a few years earlier that the French realized that adults snacked at all. This news of a “snacking epidemic” caused something of a scandal in France, with politicians and experts bemoaning the decline of healthy eating. She sent me some newspaper clippings, and I had to laugh when I read the catastrophic headlines. I found it hard to imagine what the French would say about the fact that 98% of American adults snack every day, and nearly half of American adults snack three times per day. And I doubted that Americans were eating what French people ate at snacktime: fruit and tea or coffee topped the list, followed by yogurt, and bread and butter.
So the reason that French kids don’t snack is simple: They are just like their parents. And the no-snacking rule has some clear advantages for their parents. Their kids’ car seats and strollers are not covered in crumbs (fresh white baguette, one of our family favorites, is also one of the world’s best crumb-making devices) or sticky juice residue (an excellent adhesive for crumbs). Their purses are not secret storehouses of goodies that send their kids into whining low blood sugar–inspired tantrums (and that leak disastrously onto keys, brushes, and credit cards). One astonishing observation that I made in our first few weeks in France just about sums it up: Strollers made in France don’t have cup-holders and neither (at least traditionally) do French cars.
This means that snacking is one of the many things to which un-written food rules apply in France. No snacks are served at school — with the rare exception of three- and four-year-old kindergarteners in some schools (and pressure is mounting in France to ban this somewhat controversial practice altogether). And no French parent expects food to be made available at any event outside the home, except a birthday party (which will be scheduled to coincide with the timing of the traditional afternoon goûter). In fact, offering a snack to a child at the “wrong” time is definitely a major food faux pas. I had been reminded of this the week before when we were visiting my mother-in- law’s house. We’d been there longer than expected, and I was rushing to leave at 6:00 p.m. when I stopped to offer a snack to Sophie, as I knew she was feeling desperately hungry (mostly because I was feeling the same way).
“It’s nearly dinnertime,” my mother-in-law protested. “You’ll spoil her appetite!” And before my unbelieving eyes, she removed the cookies from Sophie’s hands, holding firm despite the wailing protests that followed. Sophie would simply have to wait to eat. Tight-lipped, I gave in, and hauled Sophie to the car. “You’re right! Of course she’ll have to wait,” was all I said to Janine. And wait she did, but not for long; as soon as the car was out of the driveway, I slipped her a baguette in the backseat. “Grignote all you like!” I told her, feeling defiant.
This incident was one of many. Since we had arrived, snacking had gradually become a major source of tension in our family. Yet it was about to become one of the food routines that we would successfully change.
We have since returned to Vancouver after our year in France. Our family eventually stopped snacking and began to follow the French eating routine (three meals per day, and one afternoon snack) with success. On the weekends, our children follow the French routine and snack only once per day (in the afternoon). But on weekdays, our kids still have a morning snack at school, like the other children — which follows the French approach to healthy eating, based on the principle of ‘moderation, not deprivation’! My daughters no longer eat in the car, or on the run; we have decided to make daily family meals a priority, and no longer participate in after-school activities that would prevent us from sitting down for dinner, usually at 6:30. The compromise is, we feel, a good one: We’re preserving the positive aspects of the French approach, while adapting it to life here at home.
Source: http://www.babble.com/best-recipes/french-kids-dont-snack/
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Replies
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I have French friends, this is true, for them anyway. I asked my friend why all Parisiens are slim: 'We don't eat cereal', she said.
I was once in a café in Paris, having a croissant and coffee and then I asked for another croissant. 'Another?' said the waitress, shook her head and looked at me like I was INSANE. :-D0 -
This is interesting, and it obviously works. However. . . it's a sustainable practice within the culture. I wonder how this factors into work life.0
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This is really interesting. Makes me wonder if this is why so many American kids are overweight. Thanks for sharing.0
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Nothing like generalisations........0
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Nothing like generalisations........
Lol. Yup, you brits never generalize when it comes to those frenchies.
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Very interesting. Giving up snacks is one of the key points
in the weight loss advice I give. But I had no idea that eating
snacks is a cultural thing, and that in some cultures -- at least
in France -- snacking is very minimal. Does anyone here know
of other cultures in which snacking is not customary?0 -
Very interesting. Giving up snacks is one of the key points
in the weight loss advice I give. But I had no idea that eating
snacks is a cultural thing, and that in some cultures -- at least
in France -- snacking is very minimal. Does anyone here know
of other cultures in which snacking is not customary?
I am not positive, but I believe this also holds true for some other european mediterenean countries like spain and italy. Also, I believe some asian countries, like japan. Please jump in though to verify or correct me though.0 -
Neither do Italians! And actually, Americans really didn't either when I was young.. I kind of prefer it...I feel sometimes like my kids are looking for food every other minute!0
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Found this:
Obesity in schoolchildren aged 10-16, defined by BMI (2002)
1. Malta 25%
2. USA
3. Wales
4. Canada 19%
5. Spain
6. England
7. Italy
8. Greece
9. Scotland
10. Finland 14%
11. Ireland
12. Hungary
13. Austria
14. Croatia
15. France
16. Germany
17. Sweden
18. Israel
19. Czech Rep. 10%
20. Switzerland
21. Poland
22. Netherlands
23. Russia
24. Lithuania 10%0 -
I almost never snack, but my daughter snacks all. the. time! It drives me crazy because it's relatively out of my control. Kids here get snacks at school, then lunch, then another snack after school in daycare, then dinner, then she wants dessert. If it weren't so ingrained in our culture, I wouldn't let her snack, but I don't want to make her the outcast of the group when everyone else is doing it, so I insist, for the most part, on healthier snacks. She's pretty good about choosing fruit over cookies and that sort of thing. I can't wait until she's older and not constantly surrounded by food.
I know I could be strict about it and keep her from snacking, but then I worry she'll feel compelled to hide it from me, and I don't want to set her up for disordered eating either. Gah! Maybe we should move to France!0 -
Interesting. I definitely find that I, personally, gravitate towards 4 solid meals daily. I only grab a snack if I know I'll be forced to go longer between meals than I'd like.0
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I am French and I live in Canada. Kids are supposed to bring snacks for the morning break and afternoon break. Mine don't bring anything because I don't find it usefull ... I got a few side glances from the administration like I was starving my poor kids :bigsmile:
in a classroom of 24-25 kids, 2 kids other than mine are drinking water, all of the other kids are drinking fruit juices. I was told by a friend I should make sure my kids had juice in their lunchbox because otherwise they wouldn't be drinking a proper amount of liquid as ` water is so boring `:sad:
I gained weight because I forgot what my mother patiently told me years after years : 3 meals , everybody eating together, no snacking ...0 -
Interesting... I read elsewhere in a Huffington Post article about the differences between American culture re: child rearing versus other cultures, and while it encompassed more than food, I do remember reading about how, for example, in Japan, they do not snack- they have defined meal periods in which the focus is on family partaking in a meal together. Or, how in Switzerland it is not uncommon to let small children out of ones sight on their bikes or up in trees, but I digress from the food/snacking issue.
My toddler daughter (18mo) loves food, and despite my pretty rigid schedule of breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner, EVERY TIME I or my husband walk into the kitchen, whether it's to throw something in the garbage, clean up or start prep for dinner, she's on our heels "mmmmmm"-ing and begging for food. I sometimes wonder if it's because my MIL lets her graze pretty much all day long when she's at their house (which I HATE and have protested against).0 -
This made me think back to my childhood (early 80s in the midwest US) and we really didn't snack between meals. There weren't any snack foods in the pantry or fridge to raid. If I was really hungry, my mom would give me an apple, maybe, depending on how close we were to mealtime. If I recall, there also weren't a lot of processed snack foods available back then (hence they weren't in our home). Hmmmm, look at the emergence of processed foods over the last few decades in the US *and* look at the obesity rates (both adult and child) in the same population, and there you go. "Lightbulb" moment. Why are we doing this to ourselves???0
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Very interesting article and thank you for sharing. I always like to learn about others cultures way of living. What is also interesting is that my husband never allowed the kids to eat/snack in the car because he hated to have the interior dirty.
I usually don't snack either, at least not as much as compared with the snacking habits here in the US, and especially between breakfast and lunch. I do have a cup of coffee around 3PM with some protein snack, before going to the gym, and a protein smoothie when I get back because I don't have dinner until close to 8PM.
My husband is a "snacker,” he is always munching on nuts, Stacys or cheese; that is why I don't serve him bigger portions at meal time. Maybe that is one of the reasons why he can't lose weight.0 -
IMO there's only snacking since the advent of snack food and the relentless advertising message that people need something to 'tide them over' until the next meal.
I grew up in the UK in the 70s and even back then in my circle it was fairly uncommon to snack. By the 80s it seemed that there was more advertising around snacks - I remember "I Finger of Fudge is just enough until it's time to eat" (as though eating the chocolate wasn't actually eating) and Milky Way was "The sweet you can eat between meals". These days you'd think kids would implode without snacks which is ironic because they're probably more sedentary than kids of previous generations who weren't doing so much snacking.0 -
I love snacking. I eat all day long. Those poor Frenchies never knowing the joy of the constant feast.0
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Certainly what has changed since I was a child is that I see friend's children no longer ask if they can have something... They just go into the kitchen, open a cupboard, take a bag of crisps or whatever and go upstairs.
I was expected to ask if I could have anything between meals and if it was too close to a proper meal the answer would usually be no. And "no" meant no! It would have been completely unacceptable and rude just to take something without asking.
There were only 2 fat girls in a class of 30 when I was in school, and I guess by today's standards they wouldn't be considered fat.0 -
When I was in France, my French friends told me that I needed training to eat more.0
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I feel sorry for French children.
I snacked the entire time growing up. I remember a time in my teens when I drank a gallon of whole milk a day. I became overweight during a brief period in my 30s. The only things that I changed after that are how much I eat and how much I move.
The relentless comparison of national habits and diets is getting to the point of absurdity. We already know what causes obesity. We already know what a healthy diet looks like. There are many roads to Rome. Pick one.0
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