story snacks - The French are overweight

[jackn]

In Lyon, France, where I live, a local magazine did a cover story on food.
It reported a poll according to which in 2009 already, people her took 20 minutes on the average to have lunch. This stood in stark contrast to the leisurely 90 minutes the French would take as recently as the 90's, the reporter said.

A few years ago, the national statistics institute reported a 50% rate of overweight among the French population.

When I tell my high school students about the 2/3 rate in America, and ask them to guess the local rate, guesses range around 15%.

During lunch break, the students eat at the local eateries, the same disastrous fare as elsewhere. They are young, and they don't see any immediate consequences. At school, vending machines all over cater to their sweet tooth.
It's all 'normal'.

Food outlets are just all over the place, from groceries to restaurants, and they keep popping up.
On main street, you find mainly banks, apparel shops, pharmacies and food outlets.

I sometimes think that you get ill on the food, exacerbate your illness and dependence on the system with the drugs, and cover it all with the latest rags.

[Merry]

A few years ago, the national statistics institute reported a 50% rate of overweight among the French population.

That's surprising. Here in the US, we still hear how thin the French are. Interesting how habits are changing.

[jackn]

Precisely, Merry.
And thanx.

Indeed, I see signs of tradition around, say, the, usually older people whom I regularly see at the farmers' market. They can cook... They think of a meal as something you make...

Then, there are signs of what is perhaps tradition, I wouldn't know for sure.I I've seen twice in all its glory.
In both cases, it involved aged women.
In both cases, they were impeccably-dressed, seemed to hold themselves with great dignity and looked svelt. I even got to chat with one of them, and it felt like an education in the art of conversation. It was interesting, in any case.
Finally, in both cases, the food was a treat: a slice of cake in one case, and a serving of ice cream in another.
They sat there, seeming to relish every minute. The woman I was talking to, I saw inquiring about the size of the cake slice.
In the ice-cream case, it was just my impression, given how the woman was sitting on her own in the cafe, taking her time, seeming to savour the experience... And I guess her looks. My hunch was that she could both enjoy the experience and set boundaries to it.

I'd like to learn...

[jackn]

Here are stats from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_France):

Based on World Health Organisation (WHO) data published in 2014, 23.9% of French adults (age 18+) were clinically obese with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. The data showed the incidence of obesity in French women in 2014 was 24.0% and among French men 23.8%. Overall adult obesity rates in France were significantly ahead of the Netherlands at 19.8%, Germany at 20.1% and Italy at 21.0%, but behind the United Kingdom and the United States at 28.1% and 33.7% respectively.[1]

Based on 2014 WHO data, France was ranked as the 122nd fattest country in terms of mean BMI for adults of both sexes, with a mean BMI score of 25.3.

Note that

• * It's about rates of obesity, not overweight;
  * France beats famous bad boy Germany;
  * Shockingly, France is very low in an international BMI ranking. You can only imagine the state of the globe.

In 2012, a government-sponsored census found a 32.3% overweight rate, and - in addition to the previous category - a 15% rate of obesity. That makes for an overall rate of overweight, including, that is, anyone over a BMI of 25, of slightly higher than 47%.
Mind you, this is 2012.
It is 2016.
The above conclusion barely requires any command of French to read in the original: http://www.roche.fr/content/dam/roche_f ... i_2012.pdf
The findings were of course picked up, and not without glee, in the popular press, notably the British Daily Telegraph:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... llion.html

The above WHO 2014 findings concerned obesity only (at least as reported in Wikipedia).
If you assume a similar proportion of overweight to obese people as in the 2012 research, this works out to an overall rate of overweight of around (24+48=) 72%, namely roughly that observed in the US, though not with the same breakdown.

Clearly, what matters is the big picture, not a few percent this way or that.

I'd add that National Medical Insurance here is constantly in the red, a perennial political concern.

[Merry]

My hunch was that she could both enjoy the experience and set boundaries to it.

I'd like to learn...

YES! I think it's a lost art for many of us, but I agree--I want to learn the art of enjoying the experience and setting boundaries to it. I'm starting.

And, I look forward with hope to the day when I'm not part of the obesity statistics, and hopefully to the day when I'm not part of the overweight statistics either! I hope that won't prove out of reach for me, but if it does, I do believe the other goal--enjoying the experience within boundaries--is attainable and worthwhile, and a good accomplishment.

[jackn]

I hope that won't prove out of reach for me, but if it does, I do believe the other goal--enjoying the experience within boundaries--is attainable and worthwhile, and a good accomplishment.

Great to chat, Merry.
As long as we're on a path...

Good luck to you and to us all.

[oolala53]

Wow, I'd heard that our US export (maybe Britain's, too) of permasnacking and big meals had made an inroad in France, but I didn't realize it was that fast. Although, the obesity rate has risen only 4% since I read about it. Still, at that rate...

I hate to sound mean, because I support the theory of universal health care, but I fear, and somewhat resent a little, the idea of paying for problems that are actually very much controlled by people's habits. "You want me to pay for your doctor visits and meds because you want to keep being able to eat cream puffs?" And that the complex of industries get to grow rich without having to pay their share of the responsibility. Aack! It's too big!

I'll repeat the story told about how researchers asked American women what word they associated with chocolate cake: guilt. For French women, the word was pleasure. I think the difference used to be in France that getting pleasure from a food was not considered a good reason to eat a lot more of it. I hear that even now French desserts are much less sweet than Americans'. Is that true, would you say, jacn?

And of course, the previous foods themselves were not engineered to surpass the shut off valve, even though they were very delicious.

If I can't hold the French up as an example of moderate eating, especially of much lower sugar consumption, what now? I guess No S-ers just have to keep referring to "traditional cultures," which are now starting to sound like unicorns.

[jackn]

I hear that even now French desserts are much less sweet than Americans'. Is that true, would you say?

My impression is they are plenty sugary, oollala, but I don't go for that stuff, nor did I used to back in the States, so not an authority.

[jackn]

"The True Story Of How McDonald's Conquered France":http://www.businessinsider.com/how-mcdo ... 014-8?IR=T (in response to a post by Joasia).

One take-home:

France is the suburban Chicago-based chain's most profitable country outside the U.S.

So much for the French halo of old.

Some more choice, eh, tidbits:

There are now more than 1,200 locations, including ones at the Louvre and Sorbonne

Petit recently told an audience that besides school, McDonald's was now the most important source of socialization in France.

Demonstrators recently protested against a local town that had barred the construction of a McDonald's.

Yet, tradition dies hard:

France's dining-out frequency, at one in seven meals, remains far below the U.K.'s one in three and America's one in two. French people average only about 60 fast-food trips a year, compared with 150 for Americans.

[Merry]

France's dining-out frequency, at one in seven meals, remains far below the U.K.'s one in three and America's one in two. French people average only about 60 fast-food trips a year, compared with 150 for Americans.

Americans eat 1 in 2 meals out? How can that be? I don't know anyone who eats out anywhere near that much! Or does it mean that 1 out of 2 meals eaten out is eaten at a McDonald's?

[jackn]

Hi Merry.

Thanx for the heads-up.
Swallowed it gullibly myself...

The quotation means what you took it to mean, as shown by the previous sentence in the story, that McDonalds accounts for only an 1/8 of overall dining-out in France.

Yes, does look odd that Americans should eat out so frequently.
BusinessInsider didn't grovide a source.

[Ray E]

I spent a week in Paris a few weeks ago visiting my daughter who's studying there and it was striking to me just how thin people are compared to the US. It was the same in Belgium and Amsterdam. I don't have any statistics, but it was obvious based on the eyeball method!

What was even more shocking was going through customs on our return to the US! The problem here is so many people are overweight, that's the new normal.

[Merry]

The quotation means what you took it to mean, as shown by the previous sentence in the story, that McDonalds accounts for only an 1/8 of overall dining-out in France.

Okay, that seems more believable to me--1 in 2 meals that Americans eat out, they eat at McDonald's. That's still quite the startling statistic! (And kinda sad...) I didn't think it could possibly be that the average American eats 1 out of every 2 meals out! I know some people eat out a lot though.

[Merry]

What was even more shocking was going through customs on our return to the US! The problem here is so many people are overweight, that's the new normal.

Yes.

[jackn]

Sorry, Merry, I guess I wasn't clear.

The article does say that Americans eat out every other time, and that the French do so once every seven.

That's my understanding.