EATING: HOW TO BE SLIM LIKE A FRENCH

A few years ago – in 2004 – a book written by a French women, Mireille Guiliano, and called French Women Don’t Get Fat turned American women upside down.

It was not long before I went to the US and people kept asking me whether it was true French women did not get fat. I had never heard of the book, and was shocked by this nonsensical stereotype.

1. The French paradox

Well, I did not read the book since then, but given what I’ve read about it online I don’t think this is so nonsensical anymore. After all, the French paradox is a reality. The French paradox is this fact that French people eat a lot of fat stuff (butter pastries, chocolate dessert, bread, cheese…) but weirdly enough, without getting very obese. For example, a normal dinner at my dad’s would include a champignon salad with olive oil and garlic, duck filet, fried popatoes, salad with olive oil dressing and garlic, 100% fat cheese made out of raw milk with 4 pieces of bread. And none of us is fat in the family. (Well, ok, my dad is fat, but he denies it.)

Reading around studies about the French eating habits, I found this study carried in 2011, showing that the Americans and the French get the same daily amount of calories. I repeat in king size : the French eat as much as the Americans. Yes Roger, the same amount of daily calories in average (2095 kcal for France vs 2073 for the US, that study, p60-61 we’ll talk about it again later)!!

And yet, in spite of this and as you can see on the chart below, the obesity rates of the two countries are very different. In 2009, 11% of the French were fat, compared to 34% of the Americans. Why such a descripency? 

DECIPHERING FRENCH FOOD CUSTOMS IN 8 POINTS

French cuisine is praised all over the world for its refinement. But there is more to French food than just food. Food belongs to a culture like a language does, it expresses a vision of the world, values, rules, in a word: codes. Wanna know what is hidden behind French food? Decipher French food in 8 points.

1. You can read French history in its food…
2. There is a French eating model
3. The French think their eating model is the best
4. French food practices are strict
5. “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are”
6. Food is an education
7. Meals are ultimate sociable moments
8. For the French, food is above all pleasure

Let’s get started!

LOVE AND FOOD: MARRY A FRENCH MEN, MARRY HIS FOOD

God knows being a multicultural couple is not easy. In her article entitled “Mastering French Cuisine, Espousing French Identity, The Transformation Narratives of American Wives of Frenchmen“, anthropologist Christy Shield-Argelès investigates on the role of food in the relationships of two French-American couples.

In this article, Beth and Linda, married to French dudes, evoke the American and the French mentalities regarding food and how they adapted to the French culture – or not. Click the link!

QUICK HISTORY OF FRENCH FOOD CULTURE

« Really, what’s so special about French food ? » asked my boyfriend. After all, they have wonderful bread in Germany, there are a lot of tasty cheeses and wines all around the world, Korean/ Mexican/ Italian/ Chinese/ Lebanese/…/ food is delicious, so why does French food seem to be such a big deal ? I’ve found myself quite unable to answer this question. « The French must be good at marketing » is my boyfriend’s hypothesis to this issue – and I laughed a great deal in front of his very rational mindset.

One of the first things I can say is that I am myself discovering what French food is. The food I eat at home is for me quite normal, ok, it’s good, but it doesn’t seem very special to me. But as I am growing up and starting to earn money, I have also started to spend it in real restaurants, including French ones. And I must say that another world is opening before my eyes – this is only the beginning of my culinary journey, through which I am well decided to include my boyfriend.

But French food is not only about its gastronomic performance. Food is a whole culture in France. The French have habits and behaviours towards food that are typical to them, and this is the first characteristic of the French food culture : a certain homogeneity of practices. Three meals a day, structured in 3 to 5 courses and nothing between meals, this is the French food model. This model did not arise by chance. It is the result of political and social changes that appeared throughout history, an evolution which I will quickly introduce you to.

We will first see that before the 20th century, no homogeneity of practices could be witnessed in France concerning food. People ate different things in a different order at different times depending on their social classes.

But starting the 18th century, the manners of the aristocracy started to spread, copied by the bourgeoisie, and, in the 19th, the French Revolution engendered new equalitarian values, while in the 20th century the French Republic flourished and contributed, by its institutions, to the homogenization of the French eating practices.

FRENCH: THE LANGUAGE OF FOOD – Bring your strawberry my little cabbage!

This great illustration is a courtesy of Lucile; here’s is her Etsy shop, and her blog. Merci beaucoup Lucile :)!!

The French are obsessed with food. Proof? Their language!!

{…} During almost four years living in Strasbourg, Toulouse and the island of Corsica, I saw how the French passion for eating and discussing food flavored the language in tasty and unusual ways, though some expressions are unique to different regions or generations.

It began to make sense that endearing French metaphors are often rooted in the pleasures of taste. “What a nice person” is served up in French as “c’est une crème!” – what cream, while “la crème de la crème,” the cream of creams is the best of all. And “you are so energetic” takes on a carb boost in French: you have the French fry (tu as la frite). To be in high spirits also can come from the fruit family, as in you have the peach (tu as la pêche), while having a banana (avoir la banane) is to have a big smile. And, of course, there’s the affectionate “mon petit chou,” my little cabbage.

Allusions to food also season the language of love. A broken-hearted UC Berkeley student of mine from Marseille described her flirtatious boyfriend as aDon Juan with the heart of an artichoke, “quelqu’un qui a un cœur d’artichaut,” offering each of his lovers a leaf from his heart. He was skilled at making romantic advances or as my student put it: serving up a dish, “faire du plat à quelqu’un,” a prelude to going off to the strawberries, “aller aux fraises,” to enjoy an erotic interlude.

PROUST’S LITTLE MADELEINE AND RATATOUILLE

Lately, I stumbled upon the word « Proustian ». In French,”proustien” simply refers to Proust, French writer of the late 19th-early 20th century; we talk about a « style proustien », «atmosphère proustienne », « personnage proustien » maybe.

1. The meaning of “proustian”

But in English, the term is much more interesting than that as it has more meanings than in French :

1. A kind of reverie, recollection or memory triggered by something in the present.

2. Writing in a way that many might think long-winded, indulgent, even a little rambling… but which would more charitably be seen as the kind of writing which is unhurried and patient, that has time for details and digressions, and that is characteristic of a more relaxed and literate era.

3. It can be used perjoratively, to convey negative connotations of being arty, highbrow, supposely intellectual but actually rather tedious, e.g. ‘He bored us all to tears, wittering on in his usual Proustian way…’