Journal: News & Comment

Who knew it could be so simple?

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To overgeneralize, people in France eat a fatty foods, do not diet, and do not exercise. But far fewer of them are obese than in the U.K. and North America. The reason? While the French take longer to eat their meals, in the end they simply eat less food:

The figures—both physically and statistically—back this up. Mean portion size in Philadelphia was about 25 per cent greater than in Paris. Philadelphia's Chinese restaurants served 72 per cent more than the Parisian ones. A supermarket soft drink in the U.S. was 52 per cent larger, a hotdog 63 per cent larger, a carton of yoghurt 82 per cent larger.

More pointedly, the French usually eat three set meals, more often at home or shared at a table with others, and those meals are made from fresher ingredients. They also don't usually eat snacks.

(From my West Coast perspective, the comments from some of the interviewees at the bottom of the article were fascinating. "Most French women smoke instead of eating," for instance. Or "In France, there's no culture of going out to get drunk.")

Anyway: less food = less weight gain. QED.

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