Comment by taxicabjesus | Hacker News Reader

Comment by taxicabjesus | Hacker News Reader

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> During the 1990s, scientists became interested in the French paradox – the now discredited observation that heart disease rates were low in France despite a national diet high in saturated fats.

I joined a local Toastmasters club over a year ago. Last week we had a speech from a member who grew up in France, found his way to an engineering university in Florida, and now lives in Arizona. His latest speech told of how he's lived "the French Paradox". A few years ago he went home to visit family. His aunt squeezed his cheek and sweetly said, "You've become a fat American." The rest of the speech was about how this motivated him to return to his old French eating habits -- 5-course meals, small entrees, dairy, desert. He lost 50 pounds. One of the key points he raised was how he makes an effort to avoid most unsaturated oils.

There is no French paradox, because the French are correct to take food more seriously than Americans. That some scientists think there is a "French paradox" just shows how confused they are. IMHO, Ancel Keys' work was really just junk science [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancel_Keys

French here. I think there are several points in the way we approach food here in France.

There is a long tradition of gastronomy. Not saying we are the only country in the world with a good gastronomy, of course not, but it's in our genes. I think we are one of little peoples that are talking about food when eating. When you eat with other people, there is always a moment when you start talking about a restaurant, or a time, where/when you had a great meal.

We are also obsessed with our traditional meals or food. For example, close to each dairy farm have its sort of cheese. A lot of them will never cross the US border:-) There are moe than 1200 sort of cheese [1] and even protected ones, meaning the recipes and origin are protected by 'law' [2].

And that's also true for ham, delicatessen (and we love those), meat, poultry, and everything coming from unindustrialized farms (or not too much).

That's something we really care about. And because those foods taste something, there is no need to add sugar or other in it.

Of course, that's for the tradition picture. But we also eat junk food, microwaved food (even more since the 70's crisis where working or finding work became harder and harder each year). We just went 3-4 decades eating bad, especially in cities, and the obesity epidemy is somthing real in France too.

Fortunatly there was a wake up call in the middle of the 2000's and more and more people try to come back to less industrialized processed food.

And in conclusion, there's something true for French : we LOVE to eat !

[1] List in French : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_de_fromages_fran%C3%A7ai... [2] Short list in English : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_French_cheeses

What is delicatessen? In USA that just means cold cuts of meat.

Delicatessen means the same thing.

"Meat" in Europe, we learnt while we were there, doesn't really mean what it means in the Anglosphere. For us, "meat" groups up and basically means any animal flesh. For them (or at least: France, Spain, Italy), meat, poultry, delicatessen are all different classifications. Push the term "meat" down a layer in your ontology :).

Well I used Google Translate, but I guess it's something like that. The french word is Charcuterie.

I haven't found a website in English, but here some pictures and classification (in french)

http://www.cuisinealafrancaise.com/fr/produits/boucherie-cha...

Searching was also the occasion for me to remember that french gastronomy is since 2010 "Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" :-)

http://us.france.fr/en/information/gastronomic-meal-french-5

We use the French word in the states.

Oh ok ! Learned something, thanks.

I mean, to be fair you’ll also see antipasto, deli tray, meat & cheese board or even in some German influenced communities “vespers”.

But if you say charcuterie you’ll be understood.

Interesting to see Vesper (pronounced Feshper where I live). That's a distinctly southern German term that not even most Germans will use.

I’ve seen it used mostly in small towns in the Midwest that were strongly German immigrant communities.

If you go to the upper Midwest you will similar odd uses of Scandinavian words.

It would not surprise me at all to learn that these communities are using archaic or even incorrect words.

It's correct and not archaic, it's just something very localized in Germany, which I wouldn't necessarily expect a mixed immigrant community to adopt.

The literal translation (from German delikat essen) is 'delicious food'

Gastronomy is undeniably part of the French culture but I think it is seriously declining. France has one of the highest density of Mac Donald's in the world (they are always packed!) and junk food is extremely popular. More than 50% of French people are overweight or obese, and the associated diseases are on the raise.

We have been embracing the US diet in France and we are witnessing the same outcome. However, I would say that French people (and continental Europeans in general) are still more conscious of the food they consume, compared to Brits or Americans. This is personal anecdote (so probably worthless), but I've been surprised in the US to witness "educated" families routinely feed their kids with sodas and chocolate bars. Many French parents would treat those as poison.

The McDonald's are always packed by locals or tourists though? McDonald's across Europe are often hotspots for tourists for the wifi.

They are consistently popular, even in remote places which don't see any tourists. Actually, in some areas, there are very few options to eat out after 9-10pm. I have to admit they are very convenient.

Eating slowly (making a meal an event instead of swallowing as much as possible in 15 minutes before satiation kicks in) and smoking cigarettes are the two easy forms of caloric reduction /appetite suppression. Both are common in France.

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