This is the first in an occasional series on the French diet/lifestyle, and the reasons that the French are trim and healthy. 
Photo: The French do it better. A little statue spotted in an Italian restaurant.
If you live in France, you will quickly learn that there are things the French do very well (public transportation, wine, bakeries) and things they do so badly they will make you crazy (bureaucracy, customer service). The thing they may do best of all–and they have much to teach us here– is eating for maximum pleasure, while at the same time for maximum health.
To begin to understand how the French stay thin, stop by a French café mid-afternoon and see what the French are drinking and eating. The most common drink on the table will be a Perrier with lemon. Or a small expresso, no cream. You’ll see the occasional beer, in a tiny bottle that holds not much more than that expresso cup. A soda, which also comes in a miniature bottle, will be very rare indeed. If there’s ice cream, it will be dished out with a scoop that Americans would consider a mere spoonful.
Portion size is only one of the many differences in French eating and American over-eating (the Brits seem to have joined the US party as well). Living here, it’s easy to see the huge differences between the French and the Anglos in eating habits, attitudes toward food and pleasure, lifestyle, and, it must be said, discipline.
The Americans I’ve known who’ve moved here—and this includes yours truly—invariably put on weight when they first get here. All those pastries! The wine and food! The restaurants! The cheese! We jump right in without a thought to restraint. At some point reality hits: We must eat like the French, or we will be enormous.
It's been fascinating to view food and diet through the eyes of the French. They are obsessed with food: they love to discuss it, analyze it, and debate it, but out of pure pleasure. They are the original foodies, and they practiced Slow Food long before it was a movement. Photo: The French revel in the pleasures of the table, but they keep a balance.
I finally understood the famous French aversion to snacking, for example, when I saw how they treat each and every meal as a splendid occasion to look forward to. It’s not that they don’t like snacks; they simply have a horror of destroying their appetite, of sitting down to a meal without being properly and deliciously hungry. They won’t even drink coffee within two hours of a meal; it might lessen their pleasure à table. They will nibble on nuts but they wouldn’t eat cheese and crackers with their pre-dinner wine. Quel horreur, they might commence a meal without that glow of anticipation that hunger brings. And they wouldn’t waste a calorie on something that wasn’t delicious. That “automatic” eating so common in America (mindless munching in front of the TV, or eating way past the point of being full) is not practiced here.
You won’t hear the French carping about carbs, counting calories, or discussing the latest fad diets. And yet, they adhere to a regime that is intelligent, thoughtful, disciplined, perhaps even rigid; but governed by the pleasure of eating well, to feed body and soul. We've made an attempt to soak up their habits.
Here is an interesting phenomena, true for us and for other Americans we know here. Now that we’ve all carefully adopted the French rhythm of eating, the tables have turned on us. Despite living in the region that is the gastronomic capital of France–and being in a group of foodie friends where wine, dining out and entertaining is a major preoccupation– when we go back to the states for a short OR an extended stay, we always gain weight!
And now, Dear Readers, what are your observations on those skinny French?
Next in this series: The Daily Dozen: 12 ways the French Stay Trim and Healthy
Since we’re speaking of healthy eating, here’s a French meringue cookie that’s a nice light dessert.
RECIPE: Chocolate Pecan Meringue Cookies
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- pinch salt
- 2 oz. (56 gr) semi-sweet chocolate
- 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
- 3 egg whites at room temperature
Pre-heat oven to 225F (100 C). In small bowl, combine dry ingredients, except nuts. Melt chocolate and set aside to cool.
In medium bowl, beat egg whites until they just enter the very soft peaks stage. Slowly and steadily add dry ingredients, taking about a half a minute to add them. Beat until mixture is glossy and peaks are very stiff. Gently fold in chocolate and nuts
Drop by teaspoonfuls (or pipe them) onto a cookie sheet (greased, on parchment paper, or a Silpat), you’ll have about three dozen. Bake for an hour in center of oven. Turn off oven and leave them there for another hour with the door closed. Remove from oven and cool.
PHOTO: What’s that we’re reading with those chocolate meringues? Burning
In the Comments this past week: Thanks for your comments on our friends who "call the world their neighborhood", as Mark says. A big welcome to Dee, who lives in the northern part of Burgundy, and to Zee and Mary Jane. And to a very OLD friend, Clyde.
Get your French fix! We add new Favorite Reads every week.
17 thoughts on “Those Annoying French: How DO They Stay So Trim?”
I do not have the will power NOT to eat the amazing foods in France, but you are so right – not eating in between meals and portion control is the secret. That is why I like cupcakes. They are cakes made into pretty portion controlled sizes. But the cheese, oh, cheese, breads, fruits and wine are my downfall! Good thing I live in Rhode Island where Trader Joe’s 45 minutes away is the only place to get decent cheeses that aren’t labeled KRAFT.
Nice post as usual. I always knew that, apart our bureaucracy, France in many respects was a nice place to live in
I agree. When I was in Paris, I ate Croque Madame’s everyday and had crossiants for breakfast and a whole baguette with jambone and fromage, A WHOLE LOAF OF BREAD, I’d never do that in the States. Thank god I was only there for a week.
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I always lose weight when I’m in France because I adapt to their lifestyle, which includes walking a lot as well.
When the meal is delicious you eat slowly, you savor every mouthful, you focus. You want to, you expect to. A small portion is satisfying because you savor it, likewise a small meal (small by Anglo standards).
My fellow Americans eat like machines, filling the next forkful while neglecting to notice the forkful they are chewing. A friend once made a movie of himself and a fellow Peace Corps volunteer eating couscous with their hosts, a Moroccan family. The Moroccans sat upright, reaching now and then to the common platter,while the two young Americans sat hunched over their edge of the platter, relaying couscous from platter to mouth without a pause, oblivious.
I think the walking and eating only the freshest of foods are key. When I spent 12 days in Paris, I didn’t gain weight. I ate a bigger and healthier breakfast (included with our hotel), a small lunch, and a typical French dinner with wine, no dessert. Little things make a difference, for ex., the yogurt – so much better than what we get in the USA, and very low-sugar. The eggs tasted like fresh from the farm, as did the butter and cheese. We walked all over Paris, only riding the Metro twice and riding once on the batobus.
I swear a lot of it has to do with preservatives in the food in the US. When we first moved to France, I threw away so much food because it went bad so much more quickly than in the US. And you are right, when we go back to the US, we always gain weight. We also get sick a lot too- so much grease in the food that we have gotten used to not eating here. But oh, I can’t resist heading straight to Chick-fil-A when our plane lands in the US! 🙂
…..donuts, burgers, carbs and sugar all the time. Strange coffee with flavours (vanilla in coffee?) and creams (is it even REAL cream?), jellies and syrups and grease and white breads???? Breaded this and deep-fried thats……The States has the climate and conditions for quality food – why do they serve such hideous, murderous non-food? And the HUGE portions! No one with a normal sized stomach can really eat such large amounts….Streeeeetch stomachs, floppy stomachs, stomachs hanging down to knees – no problem, we just pay for a lap-banding…….or a liposuction…there’s always a follow-up. AND the sight of overly obese people doesn’t shock after a while…..they seem to be in the majority!!
Hi Lynne…..I just sent this to my daughter who is a vegetarian but LOVES to graze. She comes home from university on the weekends, opens the fridge and just seems to “hoover” out it ( although usually all the fruit, veggies, cheese and yoghurt)!
Mmmm….now a little restraint might save a few morsels for dinner…. 🙂
Lucky she loves the gym!
I absolutely agree with portion size! My husband has finally come to agree with that, too, and he has lost 10 pounds in the last month without feeling deprived. (he also cut out sugar) I know that even a small plate of food one has served oneself while standing suddenly looks much bigger when you sit down in front of it! It’s the strangest thing. Try it!
When in France I either lose weight or at the very least maintain weight because I eat like the French do and stop snagging unless it’s wonderful, fresh fruit from the market. I’m even able to eat the marvelous pastries and ice cream without doing damage. I never feel deprived (except for missing good Mexican food). However, I still can’t manage the self-control of a good French friend who will only allow herself one good piece of brioche in the morning and then no more bread the rest of the day.
Everything that has been said about why they stay so slim is on target. One other I’d like to add, though, is the pace of life encourages eating healthy. When I return home to the crazy, car-filled, pace of American life I start gaining weight because I’m eating on the run or under stress or at odd hours. I try to maintain the leisurely French pace I just left, but it’s like swimming against the tide.
I meant “snacking,” not “snagging.” Does anyone know how we edit our original posts?
Now if the French quit smoking then I will believe they are healthy! Thin and smoking –I’ll take my extra pounds as I devour their small portions of divine food!! And walk a lot besides.
Had a lovely visit with your mother this past week. So glad she is part of my life! Am enjoying your blog.
I love the statue, Lynn.
I’m with the French, so much of the pleasure of eating for me is in the anticipation, and I was never served large portions of anything growing up – so that became my norm. In all my grown-up years since (and to this day), I’m teased mercilessly about eating like a bird (by comparison). But, I’m full and satisfied and have denied myself nothing. (I have also been a size 6 my entire adult life.) I find this a much more rewarding way to live. I believe the primary soutce of this approach to food in the family was my grandmother who spent a great deal of time on her grandfather’s farm in Charnay, France growing up and later in Yvetot, as a nurse, during WWI. I can still hear her saying, “We are so fortunate to eat the food we that we do.” I’ve never forgotten that and say it often to my small family.
From Gerard in France, who is Dutch:
I enjoyed reading your blog . This is indeed how the French keep their weight under control , but you did not gave advice for those who have a combination of English-, French- and American friends. In my case I seem to adopt with great enthusiasm
every bad eating habit of each nationality and afterwards I am wondering why I put on weight. But I found out that there is just a one small specific angle, when I look in the mirror ,that it does not look that bad.
Nice post! By far my favorite line -“We must eat like the French, or we will be enormous”. I fell victim to pastry-overload when I first arrived and put on more than a few kilos . Now trying to eat more like the French, but have a hard time staying away from my American snacking habits…& of course trying not to over-indulge all the delicious cheese!
Found that a few olives…& a small glass of wine go a long way before meals 🙂
Looking forward to the next installment!