Did you know that McDonald's is more profitable in France than any other European country? With over 1
million French men and women eating there every day, it is hardly surprising. It also is not surprising that the
"French paradox," the term applied to the idea that the French are famous for eating rich and fatty foods
without gaining a significant amount of weight, is falling by the "weigh"-side.
According to the New York Times, the adult obesity rate in France is rising steadily at about 6% per year, but the children's obesity rate is nearly triple that rate. With the nation currently reporting 42% of its population as overweight or obese - compared to 65% of the US population - France may meet or exceed the US rates in as few as 10 years.
Now, France is looking to the US to stop their collective weight gain, enacting legislation to ban sodas and junk foods from public schools and even making attempts to force restaurants to display the nutritional information of their menu items. The New York Times reports that not only have such measures met with resistance from the food industry, but there is a lack of political drive to push such measure into effect. This is a reflection of the population's belief that obesity is not as prevalent a problem as is actually is.Doctors and health professionals, like those in the United States, point fingers at modern, sedentary lifestyles and the lure of fast foods. Evidence indicates that the French tradition of long, slow meals is falling by the wayside as well, with studies revealing that, in the last 25 years, the average meal time in France has dropped from 88 minutes to 38 minutes, time which is often spent watching TV as well as eating. The French public is also quick to point the finger of blame at mothers, for failing to shop at local markets and cook for their families every night. Men in France, apparently, cannot cook.
2-06-2006 @8:17PM betty said... To the girl who says "It's your fault your fat": I said that when I was a teenager, but now I'm fat. You're wrong. By the way, I lived in France for six years and lost weight without trying. The secret is fresh ingredients and real ingredients - no fake fat or fake this or fake that. Also, consistency is important, especially for kids. They need to know that there will be a meal, a real meal, for them at every meal time. These days, parents are so tired, they complain about cooking then order pizza or grab a tasteless frozen something and microwave it. One last thing - never put a young kid on a diet. All my brothers were fat in elementary school, then shot up, and today are slim and trim.
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2-06-2006 @8:21PM Rusty said... It's not bad enough people (Americans & French) don't want to take responsibility for what they eat, but the French want to blame it on the Mothers! Like kids aren't influenced by the media and friends and bombarded with choices of what they eat while they are out. Education, starting with the children, and adults setting examples and limits, would likely work much better. Even children can learn personal responsibility; adults can certainly apply it.
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2-06-2006 @8:22PM james said... Sugar is the cause of obesity, if you want to loose weight avoid food and drinks that contain sugar, you should eat lean meats and vegetables, your body will turn that into sugar and use as fuel, eating outside sugars causes your body to store fat. Juices and sodas are the worst things you can eat, and eating fast food along with sugar filled sodas is a big mistake. You should read a book called "Sugar Busters"
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2-06-2006 @8:24PM james said... Sugar is the cause of obesity, if you want to loose weight avoid food and drinks that contain sugar, you should eat lean meats and vegetables, your body will turn that into sugar and use as fuel, eating outside sugars causes your body to store fat. Juices and sodas are the worst things you can eat, and eating fast food along with sugar filled sodas is a big mistake. You should read a book called "Sugar Busters"
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2-06-2006 @8:27PM Mychal said... Yes, there is too much fast food in America. The real problem, though, is laziness. People just want to be told that something is healthy, and eat eat eat. Not one of these postings spoke of EXERCIsE. Maybe exercising while watching talevision is the key to America's problem. People need to realize that if their job does not reguire physical activity, they need to activate themselves!
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2-06-2006 @8:34PM Lee Bredeaux said... If YOU are fat it's YOUR own fault - not McDonalds - not Coke and YES there are fat people ALL OVER THE WORLD not just in America. I have NEVER seen so many fat people as I did in Germany with all their schnitzel and beer - they make McDonalds and Coke look like diet food.
FAT PEOPLE ARE FAT BECAUSE THEY CAN'T STOP EATING- PERIOD
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2-06-2006 @8:39PM Betty said... Food and money are now too plentiful compared of yesteryear when meals were cooked at home and eating out was a treat. Portion sizes have become double in restaurants resulting in take home boxes. Our fast paste way of life when less meals are cooked at home and fast food is ready with no wait anytime. What happend to the old way of cooking everything on the weekend for ready meals during the week. We have microwaves now. What happened to brown bag lunches.
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2-06-2006 @8:39PM Betty said... Food and money are now too plentiful compared of yesteryear when meals were cooked at home and eating out was a treat. Portion sizes have become double in restaurants resulting in take home boxes. Our fast paste way of life when less meals are cooked at home and fast food is ready with no wait anytime. What happend to the old way of cooking everything on the weekend for ready meals during the week. We have microwaves now. What happened to brown bag lunches.
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2-06-2006 @8:45PM barbara said... Rent the video SUPER SIZE IT. And watch what eating mcdonalds does to a very healthy man.
mcdonalds and all of the fast food places are digusting they market children which are now fat and have diabetes at young ages. Rent the movie !
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2-06-2006 @9:15PM Connie said... The problem is not fast or slow food. The problem is CARBS: All sweeteners (of every kind including "diet" sweeteners) and all starches. You can get carbs at McDonalds just as easily as you can get carbs by eating a "healthy home-made" spaghetti dinner. Drop the carbs out of your diet, (cereal, corn, breads, chips) as much as you can (check lables for carbs, and don't believe it when they say they have lo or no-carb sweeteners--there is no such thing!!!) Avoid as many carbs and sweeteners as you can, beer and wine included, and the weight just falls off. Meats with (lo or no carb) salads are the Science of Dieting. Chicken Caesar salad, Cobb salad, Chef salad. [Science=repeatable results.] Drink water, or the new unsweetened carbonated flavored waters---no sweeteners! NO Caffeine...the body uses it as easy fuel, bypassing the fuels it should be burning, like your own fat cells. Put that garlic bread down, Chubby, and stop blaming McDonalds!!!
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2-06-2006 @9:31PM Janet said... I drink no soda or alcohol, eat no white bread or junk food at all, and eat a diet rich in colorful fruits and vegetables. I eat red meat about once every two weeks. I exercise five days a week. I have been wearing sunblock since I was in my twenties. I am a 48 year-old woman and am 5'6" and weigh 130 pounds. I don't have wrinkles or need a facelift. I am a size 6 or 8. You don't need a French diet, a Japanese diet, or an Armenian diet. You just need to treat your body well. You will love the results.
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2-06-2006 @9:43PM Barbara said... If you think you can have a regular diet of McDonald's and stay healthy, just see the movie Supersize Me. See what happens to your body in one short month. That tells it all.
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2-06-2006 @10:11PM janey said... it's not the food as much as the children don't do physcail activites .they lay around and eat and watch tv ,play vedio games and talk on the phone
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2-06-2006 @10:16PM mikie said... fat is where its at baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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2-06-2006 @10:48PM Mr Ed. said... I am thinking of a big mac right now. I am a 5 foot and nine ince fellow that weighs about 165 pounds. I feel I about five pounds too fat, but all this talk about micky D's has me real hungry........Mr.ed.
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2-06-2006 @11:00PM hope said... Here's a tip: don't drink sodas or any drinks containing sugar (unless it's fresh fruit juice, and keep the amount low)and don't eat processed foods. I've been doing this since I was sixteen, and I have never gained a significant amount of weight (except when pregnant, and I lost my pregnancy weight without dieting, too). I eat and drink whatever I want in moderation--and that includes butter, cocktails and desserts!
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2-06-2006 @11:09PM K said... McDonald's and soda manufacturers are not solely to blame, anymore than big tobacco is solely to blame for teens who smoke. However, big tobacco was forced to stop targeting its advertising to young kids, and perhaps the fast food industry ought to at least do the same. For instance, why we would allow Pepsi and Pizza Hut in our elementary and high schools, by contract, to serve school lunches, is beyond me. I went to high school in the 1970s and I can recall with great fondness the ONE day a month (or perhaps less) when it was Frozen Ice Day. A thick italian popsicle could be purchased for 25 cents. That was a rare treat, as was a tray of brownies in the careteria line. Anymore, we don't make treats "a treat." We make them part of an ordinary diet. Cookies, soda, pizza, candy ... these items which were at one time occasional indulgences, have become the norm. If we permit them to become the norm in school, in place of a carton of milk, an apple, and a sandwich, can we really be suprised our children are obese? Remember....it used to be called "milk money." Not "Pepsi money." Fix the problem at that level and hopefully we can head off at least some of the obesity in children. Next, we'd have to take on the bigger struggle -- that poor food choices are often less expensive than healthy food choices. Obesity isn't solely from overeating. It's also from poor choices, on a regular basis, some of which is not by choice, but by economy.
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2-06-2006 @11:12PM K said... McDonald's and soda manufacturers are not solely to blame, anymore than big tobacco is solely to blame for teens who smoke. However, big tobacco was forced to stop targeting its advertising to young kids, and perhaps the fast food industry ought to at least do the same. For instance, why we would allow Pepsi and Pizza Hut in our elementary and high schools, by contract, to serve school lunches, is beyond me. I went to high school in the 1970s and I can recall with great fondness the ONE day a month (or perhaps less) when it was Frozen Ice Day. A thick italian popsicle could be purchased for 25 cents. That was a rare treat, as was a tray of brownies in the careteria line. Anymore, we don't make treats "a treat." We make them part of an ordinary diet. Cookies, soda, pizza, candy ... these items which were at one time occasional indulgences, have become the norm. If we permit them to become the norm in school, in place of a carton of milk, an apple, and a sandwich, can we really be suprised our children are obese? Remember....it used to be called "milk money." Not "Pepsi money." Fix the problem at that level and hopefully we can head off at least some of the obesity in children. Next, we'd have to take on the bigger struggle -- that poor food choices are often less expensive than healthy food choices. Obesity isn't solely from overeating. It's also from poor choices, on a regular basis, some of which is not by choice, but by economy.
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2-06-2006 @11:13PM K said... McDonald's and soda manufacturers are not solely to blame, anymore than big tobacco is solely to blame for teens who smoke. However, big tobacco was forced to stop targeting its advertising to young kids, and perhaps the fast food industry ought to at least do the same. For instance, why we would allow Pepsi and Pizza Hut in our elementary and high schools, by contract, to serve school lunches, is beyond me. I went to high school in the 1970s and I can recall with great fondness the ONE day a month (or perhaps less) when it was Frozen Ice Day. A thick italian popsicle could be purchased for 25 cents. That was a rare treat, as was a tray of brownies in the careteria line. Anymore, we don't make treats "a treat." We make them part of an ordinary diet. Cookies, soda, pizza, candy ... these items which were at one time occasional indulgences, have become the norm. If we permit them to become the norm in school, in place of a carton of milk, an apple, and a sandwich, can we really be suprised our children are obese? Remember....it used to be called "milk money." Not "Pepsi money." Fix the problem at that level and hopefully we can head off at least some of the obesity in children. Next, we'd have to take on the bigger struggle -- that poor food choices are often less expensive than healthy food choices. Obesity isn't solely from overeating. It's also from poor choices, on a regular basis, some of which is not by choice, but by economy.
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2-06-2006 @11:13PM Brian said... If you are fat or unhealthy then you are. I frankly don't care. All this blamings on fast food restaurants won't do any good for you all. Be more responsible to maintain a healthy diet and watch your intake amount of food. If I can maintain a healthy diet with all those fast food out there, you all can too. It all depends on you.
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