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How is France dodging the global obesity trend?

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Re: How is France dodging the global obesity trend?

#21

Post by rightbyte »

cjrp wrote: post #12
b3ing wrote: post #10

Many “skinnier” countries use natural foods and cook all their meals. And that means no shortcuts with canned food, few spice bottles, etc. I think that is part of it, plus their plates have more vegetables. A lot of our meats in the US have hormones these days. Plus almost everything boxed, canned or packaged has sugar, fructose, corn syrup or the fake sugar for zero calories- none of which are good.

I also wonder if work/life balance is a contributing factor. If your work ends promptly at 5pm, you have more time and energy to cook a real meal, rather than pick up something like fast food.

The length of the work day is probably really important. 8h days are way to long to have the energy to do house keeping in my experience. You need atleast one at home working part time...

Re: How is France dodging the global obesity trend?

#22

Post by Der_Einzige »

DrBenCarson wrote: post #18

Intense but ultimately effective “fat people are ugly” culture

This is also the source of why much of SE/east asia is super thin despite a heavily rice based diet. It's not because the food is uniquely healthy, it's that being overweight is a social death sentence there.

Fat shaming has amazing ROI from a public health perspective. Luckily we invented Ozempic, which gives us a way out from the wallmart scooter obese hellscape that the USA is in - but the social "restigmatization" of obesity may be necessary because - like it or not - it's better to have been bullied into living to be 80, than it is to be "happy-go-lucky" into an early grave (after the diabetes induced amputations). Certainly this is true for the kids of these folks, anyway. We've normalized a society of dying young and dying from preventable stuff that was ultimately induced from metabolic syndrome

Re: How is France dodging the global obesity trend?

#23

Post by [deleted] »

seabird wrote: post #20
TheNewsIsHere wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> food desert There are absolutely places, at least here in the U.S., where food deserts really are a thing though. I live in the south and there are places here where you can't buy fresh produce for miles. I don't live in such a place but I've been to these kinds of places.

You'd find a way regardless of your fresh produce situation if everybody called you a lardass every day. We're not talking about being healthy, we're talking about not being obese. You can absolutely lose weight eating awful shit every day; I'm doing it right now. In a fucked up way, it's easy . Look at calories in the drive-thru/on the wrapper and just stay below your target. That's what multiple people are saying i…

[deleted]

Re: How is France dodging the global obesity trend?

#24

Post by Ylpertnodi »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #22
DrBenCarson wrote: post #18

Intense but ultimately effective “fat people are ugly” culture

This is also the source of why much of SE/east asia is super thin despite a heavily rice based diet. It's not because the food is uniquely healthy, it's that being overweight is a social death sentence there. Fat shaming has amazing ROI from a public health perspective. Luckily we invented Ozempic, which gives us a way out from the wallmart scooter obese hellscape that the USA is in - but the social "restigmatization…

>....why much of SE/east asia is super thin despite a heavily rice based diet.

I would say: ....why much of SE/east asia is super thin because of a heavily rice based diet.

Re: How is France dodging the global obesity trend?

#25

Post by Der_Einzige »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #7

I have a lot of family in france, I have citizenship and lived there for about a decade earlier in my life. Not really as a french person but not quite as an expat either. The thing that struck me wasn't so much about the quality of the food per se but just how much weight of ritual there was around it. I would see average working class families sit down for an hour+ dinner with appetizer, salad, cheese course every…

[flagged]

Re: How is France dodging the global obesity trend?

#26

Post by silverquiet »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #22
DrBenCarson wrote: post #18

Intense but ultimately effective “fat people are ugly” culture

This is also the source of why much of SE/east asia is super thin despite a heavily rice based diet. It's not because the food is uniquely healthy, it's that being overweight is a social death sentence there. Fat shaming has amazing ROI from a public health perspective. Luckily we invented Ozempic, which gives us a way out from the wallmart scooter obese hellscape that the USA is in - but the social "restigmatization…

> it's that being overweight is a social death sentence there

The US isn't really all different. There's a veneer of acceptance, but it's just that.

Re: How is France dodging the global obesity trend?

#27

Post by gpsx »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #7

I have a lot of family in france, I have citizenship and lived there for about a decade earlier in my life. Not really as a french person but not quite as an expat either. The thing that struck me wasn't so much about the quality of the food per se but just how much weight of ritual there was around it. I would see average working class families sit down for an hour+ dinner with appetizer, salad, cheese course every…

I think you right. Oddly, celebrating food will keep you from getting fat, as the alternative is putting crap in your body.

Re: How is France dodging the global obesity trend?

#28

Post by Der_Einzige »

silverquiet wrote: post #26
Der_Einzige wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also the source of why much of SE/east asia is super thin despite a heavily rice based diet. It's not because the food is uniquely healthy, it's that being overweight is a social death sentence there. Fat shaming has amazing ROI from a public health perspective. Luckily we invented Ozempic, which gives us a way out from the wallmart scooter obese hellscape that the USA is in - but the social "restigmatization…

> it's that being overweight is a social death sentence there The US isn't really all different. There's a veneer of acceptance, but it's just that.

Have you seen the Deep South? At some point the majority literally "outweighs" and forces it into acceptability despite it's abhorrence. Similar to how accepted circumcision is despite how fucked it is when one thinks about it.

Re: How is France dodging the global obesity trend?

#29

Post by sofixa »

As someone living in France, there's something which doesn't get enough attention.

Everyone in France (okay, almost everyone) "does sport". It's drilled into kids that they need to have some sort of physical activity, and it's one of the things people getting to know each other ask one another - what sort of sport do you take a part in. There are "hype" sports like wall climbing, quite popular in some of the big cities; there are more communal (football/basketball/etc.) ones; there's swimming etc etc. But it's normal and expected that you do something.

IMO this is more important contributor than the cuisine, which although quite "natural", includes lots of meat, cheese, sauces (not American style sauce with sugar + corn syrup + a bunch of chemicals, more like blue cheese-based sauces) etc. which aren't the most calorie light foods.

Re: How is France dodging the global obesity trend?

#30

Post by TheCoelacanth »

fakedang wrote: post #3
jajko wrote: post #2

Well look at French culture and history - always focus on quality of the cuisine, the taste experience, quality of ingredients, preparing meal is often a family/friends social ritual. Anybody who ever went through proper Michelin * experience can tell stories. Naturally you put healthier stuff inside compared to some cheap quick to make fast food stuff. And if +- whole nation is having this sort of mindset, you see r…

India is dodging the obesity trend? India has one of the fastest growing rated of diabetes and obesity, as observed with economies where incomes are rising across the board. Not to mention Indian food being extremely unhealthy in general across the board (save for some vegetarian cuisines). China is also seeing an uptick in obesity rates and diabetes, etc as more folks move from rice carbs to sugars, and from veggies…

> Not to mention Indian food being extremely unhealthy in general across the board (save for some vegetarian cuisines)

So, except for the majority of it? A lot of Indians are strict vegetarians and even among the meat eaters, they still generally eat a lot of non-meat dishes.

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