Hi erudites and epicures alike !
I’m sure all you geeks have always wanted to keep low on your diet. Well, does that mean eating too much puts your brains down ! Now, that would insult the French. The French are a really curious lot when it comes to their cuisine. French cuisine is a very interesting thing by itself. Ever wondered how and what the french ate !??
Here is the result of a small research I did on the dining habits and cuisine of the french. I found that these are a really cool bunch of guys. They smoke more, booze more, and ingest more cheese than the rest of us, but live longer.
It’s been called the French Paradox: The problem of how a nation of butter-lovers, cheese-eaters, Gallic-cigarette-smokers, croissant-munchers, and red-wine drinkers have lower rates of obesity and a lower incidence of heart problems than most health-conscious North Americans.
The stats don’t lie, I’m afraid. Only 8% of French citizens are overweight, compared to 50% of Americans; while only 7% of the French are obese, compared with a whopping 22% of Americans. The French eat four times as much butter, 60% more cheese and nearly three times as much pork as we do, and they consume more total fat and much more saturated fat. But — and here’s the punch line — according to the British Heart Foundation, in 1999 the French averaged a mere 83 deaths from heart disease per 100,000 males aged 35 to 74 years, compared to a staggering 230 in the U.S. Parts of France are blessed with a beautiful climate and people there generally spend more time than we do outdoors and relaxing along the Mediterranean coast, skiing in the Alps or cruising the streets of its major cities on foot. We, on the other hand, tend to drive everywhere we can and spend our leisure time in front of the TV. How do you expect to burn many calories if you don’t exercise? So, make it a daily routine to take a walk after dinner or on your lunch break at work. Opt for the stairs instead of the elevator, if you can, and if you don’t live far from the corner store and you need milk, walk there.
Bonne chance et a votre santé!
