Secrets of a French Diet
A lot of people think the French are snobs when it comes to eating, that they still eat seven course dinners and drink red wine at every meal. While they do drink a lot more wine than Americans do, and they do like to eat big lunches, for the most part they are adapting their eating habits to the fast paced world that we all live in. One thing that is comforting to know is that there are many who will always demand and expect the best France has to offer. France still has the best cheese, wine, bread, pastries, and pâtés to offer and many who prepare meals lovingly in the traditional, homecooked way continue to use only the best ingredients, keeping the demand for quality high.
Typical eating habits:
Breakfast usually consists of nothing more than coffee, hot chocolate or juice. A pastry or toast and sometimes a yogurt with or without jam or fruit. Croissants of course being the most well known French breakfast treat. I have also known my French friends to eat eggs and bacon, cold cereal and oatmeal for breakfast. It is just what you like, but in general the French do not eat "hearty" breakfasts.
Lunch is the most important meal for a French person. It is the main meal, the equivalent to our dinner and for older generations it means taking time to eat slowly, to talk with family about the day, to take a little nap before returning to work or school. In lots of small villages and towns throughout France you will still see most businesses and schools close down from noon to 2:00 to allow for this tradition. It is one I would readily welcome in my life, how about you?
Dinner is still a valued meal, but not as large as the lunch hour. Usually consisting of a lighter entrée like fish and a course of soup or salad is common. It is a good time to invite friends over for "les aperitifs" which translates literally into "appetizers" but most times you end up eating dinner if the cook is prepared and eager.
The French Paradox
The concept of the " French Paradox " emerged in the North America via the media, in the early 1990’s, following a Sixty Minutes report in November 1991.
The argument is that French people live healthier, if not longer lives, thanks to a Mediterranean diet. The main features of Mediterranean diets have been summarized as follows: " a large intake of cereals, and diverse, fresh, vegetables and fruits ; a low intake of red meat (but some mutton) with a rather large intake of fish and seafood ; almost no milk nor butter, but cheeses and/or yogurt ; visible fat as olive oil, and a moderate amount of red wine during meals ".
Midetteranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet differs from the so-called French Paradox, another highly publicized nutritional notion that spurred sales of red wine when the television program "60 Minutes" broadcast a story about it in 1992. They both identify health benefits for moderate wine drinkers, but only a tangential connection links the two descriptions.
The French Paradox refers to the fact that people in France suffer relatively few heart attacks even though they consume a diet high in saturated fat; widespread red wine consumption was the suggested explanation. The Mediterranean diet includes wine in a model that reflects the eating patterns of healthy people in countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, a model that also embraces olive oil and whole foods.
Now Dr. Serge Renaud, whose research at INSERM in France led to the discovery of the French Paradox, has been taking an interest in the Mediterranean diet. Renaud is co-author of a study encompassing 605 patients recovering from heart attacks. Half were given the standard American Heart Association post-heart attack diet (low fat, low cholesterol). Half were given the Mediterranean diet. The group on the Mediterranean diet had 70 percent fewer heart problems in the 27-month follow-up study, even though both groups consumed about the same amount of fat and alcohol.
"These protective effects were not related to ... cholesterol," Renaud reported last year in Lancet, the British medical journal. "In contrast, protective effects were related to changes observed in plasma fatty acids." In plain English, substituting olive oil and chemically similar canola oil for standard salad and cooking oils made a huge difference.
In the study, the Mediterranean diet subjects were given "Six Dietary Commandments": (1) more bread, (2) more vegetables and legumes, (3) more fish, (4) less meat, which was replaced by poultry, (5) no day without fruit and (6) no more butter and cream. Moderate alcohol consumption, mostly red wine, was encouraged. Four years after the study started, the subjects on the Mediterranean diet were still eating less meat and delicatessen products than the control group, as well as more olive oil and less polyunsaturated vegetable oils and margarine.