French develop taste for U.S. diet
May 2, 2004 - The Star-Ledger
PARIS - It’s one of their most irritating hallmarks. Along with a reputation for rude waiters and a penchant to be politically exasperating, the French are so annoyingly skinny.
Not for long.
The French paradox, a largely unexplained cultural phenomenon that seemingly allows the French to smoke like chimneys, while scarfing down cheese, goose liver and wine yet remain in relatively good health may be in jeopardy.
A recently released French government report says that unless the French act fast, by the year 2020, they’ll be as obese as Americans.
The parliamentary report, written by French senator Claude Saunier for a science and technology committee, looks at how France is slowly adopting what it calls the “American model” in its rise of obesity levels and looks to create a national agency to combat the problem.
“The United States gathers together all of the known causes of being overweight and obese,” the report states, citing a list that includes (among others) foods high in calories, huge portions, sitting in front of the TV and low levels of exercise.
French dietician Bridgitte Cabrol quickly dispatches the paradox. “We used to have a certain gastronomy,” she says, “but that’s history.”
“Now,” she adds, “we’re eating big quantities of food with few vegetables and accompanying it with sugary drinks.”
She is also quick to point out that the paradox focuses more on the tangentially related effects of diet on people’s cardiovascular systems but concedes that a nation of fat French men and women wouldn’t leave much reason for bringing it up anymore.
Last summer, findings from a joint study between the University of Pennsylvania and the French national scientific research institute, CNRS, revealed that though the French eat a higher percentage of fat in their diet, much of the paradox is due to smaller portion sizes. Now, however, gastric bypass surgery, once considered a terribly foreign concept, has reached French shores.
With an office in central Paris and one in the middle-class Parisian suburb of Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, Cabrol sees a variety of patients and refutes the idea that obesity afflicts a certain class of people in France. “People do, however, have slightly more money than they used to, allowing them to eat quickly or eat (heavier) prepared foods.
Her patients, who either arrive on a doctor’s recommendation or by word of mouth, come looking to learn one of two things: how to get skinnier or how to eat better.
One of the major changes the dietician cites leading to the expansion of waists is the loss of know- how in the kitchen. “The tendency now is for people to leave school and get a job without ever really learning how to cook,” she says. As a result, “we’ve forgotten how to eat well.”
The near-ubiquitous Parisian pharmacy seemed to be the first to jump on the diet product bandwagon and now it’s hard to find one that hasn’t given much prime front window space to weight loss pills, creams and tonics. One Parisian pharmacy worker even refers to what she calls an “overwhelming” number of new diet products arriving in the past year.
What has changed in the last 20 years? Some think globalization, or to put a finer point on it, Americanization. McDonald’s, for example, first opened its doors in France in Strasbourg in 1979; now there are 1,009 fast-food restaurants across the country, more than half of which have opened in the past 10 years.
With or without what the French call “Mac-Do,” more and more people are doing what only tourists used to do by eating on the go. In addition, the prepackaged microwave food market has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years.
People, especially those outside Paris, now grocery shop at “hypermarkets” - giant stores that are a hybrid of a supermarket and Wal-Mart. As a result, the quaint open-air market has received an unanticipated bump in status, now attracting customers who want to make something special.
Dietician Cabrol says many Parisians make weekend trips to the suburbs to stock up (and economize) on a week’s worth of food, “but then when Friday night rolls around and their tiny fridge is empty, they pull out a frozen pizza.”
Along with a rise in public awareness, a call for legislation against vending machines in schools has not gone unnoticed by the food industry. Agitated vending machine companies fought back with the creation of a group called “Touche pas à mon gouter!” or, roughly translated, “Hands off my snack!”
The companies, which rely on school-based vending machines for about 10 percent of their revenue, defend themselves by saying that they are testing new products such as fruit and milk-based drinks they’re looking to offer in their machines.
Schools, according to Cabrol, are key elements in the fight against obesity. “Right now, what we’re doing is more reaction than prevention,” she says. “Teaching nutrition in school is where this could change, but it’s not on the docket yet.
“Obesity,” she says with some irony, “has a promising future here.”
PHOTOS BY JOE RAY: Dietitian Bridgitte Cabrol says, “Now, we’re eating big quantities of food with few vegetables and accompanying it with sugary drinks.” At right, a pharmacy in Paris advertises a growing number of weight-loss products.
