can anyone tell me...

[pipee_pl]

why the french are so damn skinny when all they seem to eat is bread and wine???
i was in france this past week end, it is impossible to stay on atkins, the entire country is not low carb friendly, but i really got me thinking. why are french people so thin and healthy looking when it seems that the eat and extremely high carb diet.
any insight????

[bilowi]

Re: can anyone tell me...

Funny, we just had this discussion in my office the other day.
What about all the cheese and foie gras??? (Not sure if I spelled that right). I'm sure cheese and foie gras alone do not make a vacation in France.
Don't the French eat much smaller portions and buy their food fresh almost every day? Oh, and they walk a lot too don't they? I guess it depends on where in France you are too.

[cleochatra]

Re: can anyone tell me...

All I can figure is that they must have the total kick-butt metabolism, coupled with small apetites.

[jcapulet]

Re: can anyone tell me...

why the french are so damn skinny when all they seem to eat is bread and wine???
i was in france this past week end, it is impossible to stay on atkins, the entire country is not low carb friendly, but i really got me thinking. why are french people so thin and healthy looking when it seems that the eat and extremely high carb diet.
any insight????

I have some insights from the South Beach diet. Red wine slows digestion, as does fat. This includes dipping breads in olive oil, etc. Slowed digestion means carbs enter the bloodstream slower, leading to less insulin production and reduced appetite.s Anyway, that's what I understand from it. Not that all French people do the South Beach diet, but those are some insights from what I read about wine and fats.

[ttdriver]

Re: can anyone tell me...

I'm guessing they eat smaller portions .. unlike America where portions are "supersized"..........

Betty

[Miss Phode]

Re: can anyone tell me...

I guess it's the same reason that New Yorker's living in the city are also thin. They walk everywhere. When I was in NYC, the only fat people seemed to be tourists.

[G-Mom]

Re: can anyone tell me...

Exercise is key. Another situation where the folks are for the most part thin, but eat a high carb, high fat diet, are the Amish people. In order to thrive, they have to put in hours and hours of physical labor everyday, but they eat very rich, old-fashioned diets.

[2big4mysize]

Re: can anyone tell me...

actually the French as skinny is a myth! They just has a news report about this and 46$ of the french population is overweight. we only see the skinny french modles and the movie omage of the skinny french folk.

[G-Mom]

Re: can anyone tell me...

2big, if I could just edit your posts, the evil little perfectionist in me would be so happy.

[sadie147]

Re: can anyone tell me...

I also believe that they view food differently than we do, which i think is the premise for the book French Women don't get fat

[sallyseachange]

Re: can anyone tell me...

Exercise, fresh foods, smaller portions.... all contribute imho. Same as here in Italy where they all eat pasta and pizza regularly (like every day) yet are really quite slim on the whole.

As for doing Atkins in these latin countries...yes it is undoubtedly harder, but not impossible. At the beginning I thought I would only last a short while, living where I do (Italy) but it got easier as I went along and the veggies here are totally awesome. Olive oil is another boon. Now, I don't have a problem avoiding the refined floury things and sugars.

[pipee_pl]

Re: can anyone tell me...

actually the French as skinny is a myth! They just has a news report about this and 46$ of the french population is overweight. we only see the skinny french modles and the movie omage of the skinny french folk.

well none of the 46% is in Paris! I remember reading something about the French population starting to increase in size, but they don't live in Paris.

[not2late]

Re: can anyone tell me...

Smaller portions and exercise. Sally could possibly confirm this, but according to Italian cookbooks I've read, in Italy, pasta is a part of the meal, rather than the whole meal itself. Also the portion size is smaller than the American portion.

I've found on my OWL that if I eat high quality food that is properly cooked and properly seasoned, I don't have to eat as much of it to be satisfied. By high quality, I mean minimally processed foods, not the pre-packaged, instant, heat and eat stuff.

I spent most of yesterday out. I had a choice to eat a hotdog (without the bun) or to spend a few dollars more for a piece of roasted salmon and a cup of butternnut squash soup. I had the salmon and soup. That stuck with me throughout the entire day of sightseeing. And it was more wholesome than the hotdog.

[matawguro]

Re: can anyone tell me...

From Anthony Colpo's article which I posted here...
http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...ad.php?t=26176

A diet low in saturated fat is purportedly a major factor in the low rates of CHD observed in Southern European countries. Just one wee problem: France, the Mediterranean country with the lowest CHD rates of all, is also the Mediterranean country with the highest saturated fat intake!

Oops!

Health 'experts' have tried to brush off this embarrassing observation as a 'paradox' (orthodoxy loves applying the 'paradox' label to uncomfortable contradictions) by claiming that red wine explains this difference. If that were true, then the Italians, who drink a similar amount of red wine, should have CHD rates even lower than France. But they don't; their CHD rates are similar to those of other Southern European countries where far less red wine is consumed(102).

As anyone on this WoE knows, you eat fat to be thin.

[higgies]

Re: can anyone tell me...

Definitely smaller portiosn mized with more exercise. They walk everywhere and don't suck down supersized Big Macs. You can see the weight issue slowing growing over Europe as the fast food thing does too. I used to work in europe a lot when I was bigger and felt so self-conscious!