The French have changed their lifestyle recently. Although they are known for their hostility towards the American influence, they have recently been imitating their lifestyle. In the past they shopped mainly at markets, green grocers and butchers and they prepared two leisurely, formal meals a day. They used to drink wine and water with their dishes, now there are soft drinks and sweet fruit juices more commonly served.
The rich and the educated have less of a tendency to get fat in any culture. They can afford to buy the right food and know precisely what kind of food is the best for them. This unhealthy lifestyle has mainly spread in the big cities and reaches rather poorer social groups. They do not have enough time for the family, hour long dinners, and they do not have the money for healthy food, tennis, swimming or jogging before or after work. Instead of that they prefer watching television (with hundreds of commercials of fast food, sweets and soft drinks) or sitting at the computer screen. Dr. Cohen said the French family meal was punctuated by television and time on the phone, often with only one shared course. After that, each person would rush off for "self-service desserts" like yoghurt or ice-cream, rather than remaining together for fruit or cheese, as it used to be.
Their changed lifestyle is not the only reason of the obesity among the French. They snack more and eat prepared items. The ingredients in this kind of food are more often maleficent than nutritious. Usually there is no information about contents on a package. Customers often do not know that manufacturers gradually put more salt into their products compared to the past. It improves the taste of bread and meat, but - what seems to be the most important issue - it increases the weight of the product. Besides salt causes thirstiness, which improves the sale of drinks.
Obesity is the largest health problem in all developed societies. Although it is widely known that problems with weight might be the reason of heart diseases, hypertension and to shorten the average length of life, the number of obese people increases every year. This is by far the biggest health problem of the American nation; a few European countries must deal with similar issues: Germany, England and more recently, France.
The French politicians are treating the matter seriously. Two years ago a Parisian politician and Socialist Member of Parliament, Jean-Marie Le Guen started to promote a healthy lifestyle among his countrymen. As a doctor he wrote a book "Obesity, the New French Disease" and published it last spring. As his main platform as a politician he has chosen "the war against obesity". He demands from producers' solid information about nutritive value in their products, a call to remove vending machines with sweets and soft drinks from schools and extending the amount of sporting activity in schools up to at least 30 minutes a day.
If French society wants to avoid an obesity epidemic, it will have to consider all the facts seriously. Dr. France Bellisle, a prominent researcher told the International Herald Tribune: "I work in a nutrition department where we see lots of people who are overweight. And I can tell you that French women are getting obese - and some massively obese - these days."
It should sound like an alarm in the country which used to be the capital of world fashion and was famous for the most delicious and healthiest cuisine in Europe.
In 1978 the average French meal lasted an hour and 22 minutes. Today it takes about 38 minutes. Instead of eating traditional French dishes, drinking wine and water, people in France choose McDonald's, KFC and frozen pizzas for their formal meals. This is probably the reason why in a country which has never had problem with obesity, 11.3 percent of the French are obese and nearly 40 percent overweight. It has caused great alarm in society, so the French authorities are trying to find the best solution to confront a new major public health problem.
