It's an AMAZING testament to No S. Even if you don't have kids, check it out for its connection to No S. According to this book, the French are insanely adamant about the no snacking rule. Having said that, the no sweets and seconds are not quite as obvious but are taken care of as a side effect. Their portions are often served in courses but much smaller and treats are only occasionally (maybe a couple times a week, with dessert often including fruit as a last course). There is no change to this on the weekend. It's every day, day in, day out, because it helps derive PLEASURE from food. The quote we use here "hunger is the best sauce" is mentioned in some french form.
It's astounding how passionate the French are about this pattern of eating. It's like gospel to them. I think it was Anoulie who mentioned on this board about the commercial with the caption about snacking being bad for your health when advertising snack foods - yup, it's true - the author talks about this commercial.
They are not super strict necessarily in the sense of, say, a very late dinner (if they usually eat between 7:30-8pm and this particular dinner will be well after 9pm) they will have a small snack. Kids have a gouter (small meal/snack) after school so they eat 4 times a day. Adults usually skip that. Those cafes you see full of Parisians eating baguette...no....those are typically tourists or foreigners
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I feel a little overwhelmed at times reading this because it is very hard to implement in our culture (me being Canadian). We don't have the 2 hour stretch for lunch, our daycares do not teach food etiquette and table manners and slow eating etc nevermind having three course meals for toddlers. (The French consider food a social equalizer because EVERYBODY has access to the same thing and no matter what education you have you could easily keep up at a 5 star restaurant). But, I figure even if we just teach our kids to try everything, encourage variety and no snacking that is a loooong way from the current fishy crackers and pasta every darn day.
I could go on and on. Borrow the book from your library - it's a great read.