French Paradox? No Snacks.

[reinhard]

http://www.webmd.com/content/pages/10/1671_51408

Some highlights:

the study found that the French participants didn't snack, generally defined as consuming one to two between-meal foods, such as a handful of peanuts and a glass of orange juice. "The French ate less than one snack a day. Here in the U.S., we have about three snacks a day," says R. Curtis Ellison, MD, professor of preventive medicine and epidemiology at Boston University School of Medicine and the study's lead researcher.

Their substantial lunch and dinner often usurps the need for a snack. As a result, "snacking is simply not part of the culture," says Annie Jacquet-Bentley, a Parisian restaurant consultant currently based in Birchrunville, Pa. Her eating habits remain fiercely snack-free despite having lived in the snack-filled U.S. for more than 20 years.

Alas, the culture is changing:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/03/news/obese.php

PARIS Doctors here are perplexed by the runaway success in the United States of the best-selling advice book "French Women Don't Get Fat."

"Oh, but they do!" said Dr. France Bellisle, a prominent obesity researcher here. "I work in a nutrition department where we see lots of people who are overweight. And I can tell you that French women are getting obese - and some massively obese - these days."

In fact, in France, as in much of the world, the culprit is changing eating habits, experts said, as France's powerful culture of traditional meals has given way to the pressures of modern life. The French now eat fewer formal meals than they did just a decade ago and they snack more.

Reinhard

[Jaxhil]

That's really interesting, Reinhard-and it doesn't surprise me a bit When I was growing up, we got to have a couple of small cookies when we got home from school, but other than that, no snacks. And we were all thin. What a surprise, huh? LOL. We did have occasional treats-homemade popcorn with a little soda while we watched a movie. But they were the exception rather than the rule.

Its nice to know what worked when I was growing up will work now too . It's funny; when I was thin, I never, EVER thought about what I ate. I ate what I wanted when I was hungry. I stopped eating when I was full-which never took much for me, LOL. That all changed when I decided I should lose a few pounds. The first diet I went on, when low-fat was all the rage, I gained 22 pounds I remember I was constantly HUNGRY! You'd think I would've learned!! It only took close to twenty years-ugh.

I am soo glad to have found No-S. At last, something I CAN do I can stick with and it's working, slowly but surely. Peace, at last! Thanks Reinhard, for bringing so many of us back to our senses

[paulrone]

I can attest to this. Loren and Gania, a couple from France, are very good friends of ours. Gania is lithe and trim, and Loren definitely fits the male adjective of svelte.
They hosted a holiday recital in their home and all of our children participated, along with several other families. Gania knocked herself out with all sorts of foods for us to eat after the recital. All of them fit the category of "definitely NOT diet food". This was emphasized to me when someone asked her if the fruit salad was low-fat, to which she responded, "Why, are you allergic to fat?"
Later, one of her children asked when they would be eating dinner. She responded, "What do you think all of this food is for - an Americana snack?" The room went a little silent as we all absorbed this comment. You know how they say the French are blunt to the point of rudeness? Yeah, there you go.
Several of us began asking about food habits in her native region of Southern France. The article sums it up nicely. Enjoy what you eat at your meals, eat enough, eat well, then stop eating. Snacking just doesn't happen in her culture.

[jiggapayne]

In addition to the parts about snacks, the article also says lunch and dinner typically include a starter of raw vegetables, and a salad.

They are (or were) slim because they don't snack, eat small meals with lots of vegetables, eat higher quality food, eat slowly, and walk everywhere. It's basically No S + Urban Ranger + vegetables. Reinhard FTW.

[paulrone]

I agree with the idea of raw veggies before (or during) the meal. My family does this regularly and we try to eat a form of raw fruit or vegetable with every meal.
The only time time this doesn't work that well is in winter when most fruits and vegetables are out of season. That's when we break out the soup. It's a great way to use frozen or canned food without boredom. A simple chicken stock with some herbs and veggies is a great way to start dinner in the winter.

[zoolina]

While I agree that the French, in general, have some great attitudes towards what and when to eat, I would never want to eat like a French person. Whenever we stay with our French friends I feel awful. Breakfast: Coffee; Lunch: a green salad; Dinner: appitizers and drinks, salad and drinks, huge, tasty but gooy sauce/cheese covered way too much of it meal with drinks, cheese and port, desert and apertif, and heartburn all night long. Blegh.

On the other hand, all of the dozen or so French eaters I have known share a kind of cultural discipline about eating that we Americans have to create for ourselves (with something like No-S, for example). Just as we would never pick our nose in public (I mean, that's just gross), the French people I have known feel that way about eating outside of mealtimes. You just don't do that. You just don't.

In my struggle to adopt rules for myself around eating, I notice that this is what causes me to fail: a sense that it is simply culturally (and deep in my own personal culture) ok to snack, even to binge occasionally. "Lots of people do it and it's just not that big a deal." Making it a big deal for myself has been really hard, even with the support of the people on this board. Unlike the French, I just don't believe in my heart that snacking is as gross as picking my nose.

Zoolina

[paulrone]

I don't know about that, zoolina. Have you ever really watched someone eat a twinkie? I'd say they're about on an even plane in my book.

Seriously, though, it's all a cultural thing. To the French, eating between meals isn't acceptable. Unless you decide to expatriate to France, you will probably never feel as strongly about this as they do. On the other hand, snacking wasn't a cultural norm in our country until about 40 years ago.

As for your friends who tried to smother you at dinner, it's important to realize that the sort of meal you described is not the everyday menu in most of France. As a matter of fact, drinking more than one glass of wine before the entree is considered excessive. Or English. Or both.

[Blondie]

I was thinking a similar thing. When my sister lived in Italy and I went to visit, I ate a lot less than I did when in the US. Seems odd, right? The food was WONDERFUL and I ate and didn't diet or deprive myself, but the portions of pasta were small, there was no snacking, etc.

But what Zoo and Paul are talking about is true, too--when we went to my sis's in-laws, they went all out with course after course and STUFFED us. But I noticed that, while I felt I had to try everything to be polite (and felt awful and stuffed afterwards), each course was small...AND the other people at the table (the non-guests) just skipped the courses they didn't feel like eating. No one else but the guests tried every course.

[zoolina]

Oh, I'm pretty sure our friends don't go quite so all-out when we're not there, but what I'm saying is not so much about what that particular family eats, but that there are not just habits that prevent them from snacking, but actual taboos. And that seems to be something that goes across the board for all the French people I know.

The French Paradox is no paradox at all: they are just super strict about thier eating rules. And yes, they do tend to enjoy long, luxurious meals, and don't have quite the guilt Americans tend to have about eating, but show me a French woman who isn't obsessed about staying thin..

I can't help wondering how I, too, can cultivate such internal, knee jerk reactions about eating habits. Example: I feel so terribly uncomfortable with eating dinner that has no veggies. But lunch can be a sandwitch. What is the difference there? IS it just habit? It seems like there is a deeper voice that says: Thou shalt eat veggies at dinnertime. And I do not argue with that voice.

Now, unfortunately, I grew up in a family that was always dissolving and I had to make dinner for the rest of us at an early age. Many, many of those meals did not include veggies and I certainly didn't learn the habit/compulsion from my parents. So HOW did I learn it? How can I

[mimi]

I don't know zoolina, but it's a much better compulsion than what I learned from my parents about belonging to the clean plate club - eat every scrap and do not waste food! After all, there are all those "starving" little children in China or wherever. I never did get the connection as a child of how my eating was going to help them, but I did it anyway!
mimi

[kccc]

I don't know zoolina, but it's a much better compulsion than what I learned from my parents about belonging to the clean plate club - eat every scrap and do not waste food! After all, there are all those "starving" little children in China or wherever. I never did get the connection as a child of how my eating was going to help them, but I did it anyway!
mimi

I remember once telling my mom "Give me a box, I'll mail this stuff to them, and we'll all be happy!"

Needless to say, I was in BIG trouble for such a smart-alecky response.

Seemed quite logical to me at the time - and still does!

[wosnes]

I just met a young man (high school age) who had just returned from an exchange program in Spain. He really enjoyed it, including the food
except for the small portions and no snacking.