The French Paradox Or, how to eat well to stay well

[vbritton 0]

I can't think of a topic more worthy of discussion than health. The correlation between what you put in your body and the subsequent effect cannot be ignored. After all - if you don't have your health, well, you know the rest. But I'm digressing already.I just finished reading a very entertaining book entitled, "French Women Don't Get Fat." Don't worry guys, the basic premise of this book applies to you too. It seems publishers assume most men aren't as interested in health as women, but I think the pendulum is swinging in the other direction on this one. Women are getting wrapped up in the work-a-day world and ignoring their health just as much men are these days, and they have the heart attack statistics to prove it.The thing that impressed me most with this book was the focus on eating MORE rather than depriving oneself of life's little pleasures. That infernal word, “diet,” is never mentioned in it’s usual, awful context. Chocolate, for example, is to be relished as long it's quality cocoa and not the cheap Hershey's crap you buy at Walmart. Cheap doesn’t refer to price alone, as I buy quality chocolate that actually costs less than Hershey’s. Things are changing – you can even find the good stuff at WallyWorld now. There was a time when Hershey's and the like were not loaded with the garbage they are now. But through the years manufactures have found ways to silently poison the populace with ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, aspartame and rancid canola oil. Now, going grocery shopping is almost a defensive act. One must be constantly on guard against chemical onslaught. Maybe I'll offer a defensive grocery shopping course. Apparently, things haven’t gotten quite this bad in France. The focus is on quality rather than quantity (kind of like this forum!). French farmers are actually given government kick-backs based on the quality of their produce – not how many bushels of they produce per day. People take time to walk (focus on walk) to the market every day and buy fresh produce and freshly baked bread. Lunch is the big meal of the day, and is usually accompanied by a bottle of wine as folks linger over their food. Speaking of wine, it must be produced according to strict guidelines that protect the consumer against an inferior and potentially unhealthy product.The French also focus on eating foods in season. I have to admit, strawberries just don’t taste that great in February. The premise is, if you can only enjoy a food during certain times, your sense of pleasure in that food is heightened. Hence, you will slow down and take more delight in the subtleties of that perfect little strawberry you can only savor a few months of the year.The moral of the story is, when you eat quality food, you will be satisfied with less of it. You will also be avoiding the toxins the body doesn't know what to do with. These toxins to disease, weitht gain, or both. If you want chocolate, go ahead and eat it, but try to find dark chocolate with a high cocoa content, the higher the better. And when you do eat it, slow down and enjoy it’s fine qualities, preferably with a nice cabernet!

[Takumi-san 0]

This topic has made me more aware of my surroundings, seriously. I should lead that kind of life. Everybody should. That is really great, that would mean that people would eat less of what they like because they get more taste and enjoy it more. If that was the case this would would have a ton of surplus. The only problem is that people are greedy; though not all of them, a lot are in which the case is then shifting the ecomony to price healthier foods more because all of the junk foods would fall from dropping rates. All in all it is better, but it would be better with gradual changes. Where did you find the book?

[Markymark2 0]

I would like to add its not just a Fench thing..us Europeans just tend to look after ourselves a bit more and really watch what we eat..its very easy in most Euro countries to see exactly whats in the food from labels on the front..not tiny ones hidden on the back..The UK has even systems of stars and rosettes on the front of food stating how much salt/sugar/ etc is in the food..so at a glance looking at different products on the shelf you can see RED stars for high salt content and Green stars for more healthy foods..This should really start to make the producers of food think more how they can make foods healthier because maybe thier competitors in that range will have a "healthy" product..Marky)

[Takumi-san 0]

I see. If only they did this around the world. It would be a lot easier to find healthy foods. Quite unlike those juices that say they are made from 100% juice but aren't.

[Markymark2 0]

Indeed like that Minute Maid drink...I think it says whole juice..but is not and has 9 teaspoons of sugar in there!!

[vbritton 0]

Where did you find the book?

Sorry for the late reply, Takumi-san. I'm usually hovering over at Trap 17 because that's where I'm hosted. Anyway, I won the book from a local radio station. I like it when I don't have to pay for stuff! There's a sequel now too called, "French Women for All Seasons." I checked Amazon.com and they carry both titles. Your local book store most likely carries them. If they don't, they can order them for you. Happy reading!

[Grafitti 0]

That was a good post. agree that in general Europeans are more concerned about eating healthy than lots of other countries. of course there's a growing problem with obesity, but it's minute compared to the states. Even the fruit juice though can be misleading. Nestle here sells orange juice that is actually (or so we hope) 100% juice. but then they print "100% pure" on their grape juice, "100% clear" on their apple juice, and "100% fresh" on the pineapple juice. And those things actually contain a lot of added sugar. I guess it's not as bad as Ribena though. Wasn't it just in the news last week that two schoolgirls in NZ proved Ribena didn't contain nearly as much vitamin c, and in fact contained more sugar than coke. The Consumer Association there successfully sued them for misleading claims. So even defensive shopping won't work unless you've verified it through other sources. And parents need to also be proactive in helping their children appreciate healthier eating habits. What's his name, that celebrity chef in London, who's been trying to change school lunch menus to consist of healthy nutritious food, and parents still pass burgers to their kids or sell them through the bars.