Why french women don't get fat

[Heswall]

Please somebody tell me the leek soup thing works, I may throw up soon and am starving.
TIA

too right- it was meant to be

and it's true.

Actually no, it wasn't mean to be inflammatory at all. I t was meant o be provocative. And I said most women , not all.

It's a culture thing. French and Italian women do take more care of themselves, certainly when they are young.

Yes, but why ? Do they have greater or less self respect? On the one hand one thinks wow they realy look after themselves, they must value themselves to make the time. Then as others on here have said are they less confident in themselves that they have aspire to some ideal of male perfection ?

I've been living in the South of France for over a decade now, and can safely say that French women care much more for their appearance.

Also, cooking/eating habits are quite different here (= in the South of France. I can't say if this is the case all over France) There are very fried foods in the French cuisine. Butter is seldom used and most foods are cooked with olive oil. Most plates have no sauce. Bread isn't eaten much at all. Portions are much smaller than in the UK.

"Not confident"? That is a strange deduction from "better groomed".

It is a culture thing. Every other woman has make-up, done hair, heels, matching colors and close fitting clothes on a slim body, so none wish to be the scruffy one.

Also, a French woman getting dead drunk and vomiting on the streets and falling on people would be a very rare bird. I have never seen one. I have, however, seen LOADS of such women in the UK. French women just care much more about how they are seen.

Exactly azure. Not giving a shit is very liberating.Conformity is ahuge deal in French society IMO

Qualifies, I had a mispent youth in Northern France.

If conforming means being drunk, not safe and not pretty in the street then I pray my daughters do not conform to British standards at all.

Load of shit. There are loads of French fatties.

I often walk down the street and think the Brits (well, the ones local to me) are conforming in their own way:
tragic sportswear
totally overweight and lumpen
mousy greasy hair dragged off their faces (blond ends optional)
hatchet faced
you know the look

It's not that french women don't get fat, the vast majority of women in the world don't get fat. Getting really fat is an English speaking phenomenon. For the sake of our nation's health, we should switch to speaking chinese forthwith

I think worrying about being pretty does more harm than good tbh

Ooooh it's all getting heated now! It's just a culture thing.there are some great things about French women (their classic,classy dressing) but British women are great too ( more edgey fashion,experimental,relaxed).
However when I am in my 70s I want to look like my (fr) mother, not my (eng) MIL!

Even though I don't think it's very helpful to generalise about an entire nation in this way 'French women don't get fat' or French children don't throw food' It's true that you don't see so many hugely obese people here and lots of french women do smoke.
I think it's also partly because ready made meals and convenience foods are so poor quality and expensive it's easier to cook from stratch.There are no quality supermarkets like M+S or Waitrose. And their biscuits are crap.

Oh Barbie I disagree. I think French treats are so much nicer than those in theuk. Cheese, wine,choclate youname it. I always bring French biscuits back thy are yummy esp bretton gallettes mmmm

Really, naughtymummy? So a woman who cares about her appearance is simply submitting to the demands of patriarchy etc etc?

While the one that lets herself get fat and wears track bottoms everyday is the liberated one?

wildfig love your theory about the jardinier/dh cycling with the onions . I work a lot in France and there are some very large ladies in my paris office, along with some very thin ones who smoke a lot, so much the same as others perceptions. I find that when I want to lose a few pounds it is easiest to
a) drink less wine - sorry but true
b)drink more water
c) have a lot of soup and protein
d) lunch of cooked vegetable with a bit of cheese on is remarkably filling
e) no puddings - no need - empty calories

I can't speak for all women in France, obv., but the difference I see in women of amy acquaintance is also in the fact that there isn't a huge take away culture. No huge portions of Chinese/fish and chips followed by ice cream and Coke. Women do eat, but maybe a salad and yoghurt for lunch and then a proper dinner. Most of them will have a pudding at some point, but they will not sit on the sofa munching their way through the whole packet of chocolate biscuits.

Sitting here reading this in France (and hiding packet of chocolate biscuits). I think when I go back to London the dress sense is much more interesting and original. Also having just trawled round Paris with my daughter the chic elegant frenchwoman is a bit of a myth there are all sorts. I do however notice that the British who holiday here are more overweight and there are quite a few who appear as anxious describes. Having lived here many years I can now spot the British holiday makers from the British expats who are almost never overweight and don't smoke either - so something in the french diet must have rubbed off!!

I've read that book, and to be fair she does say the title is not to be taken literally - of course there are plenty of fat French women (and men), if not quite as many as in the UK/US!

It was more about living by what she claims are the traditional French values with respect to food - quality not quantity, meals as a social time with family/friends, stopping eating when you're satisfied, no snacking between meals, no big greasy takeaways etc. Don't know enough about French culture/history to say if it's 'authentic' or not, but what she proposes sounds a fairly sensible and healthy attitude to food.

I won't be doing the leek soup diet though, don't think that's necessary! She does recommend it only for a day though, I think, not as a routine thing.

What is this leek soup that everyone is talking about? I have never seen it in France. I would have loved to eat it - love leeks & cook them often (with onions & tomatoes - yum!) much to the dismay of DH.

It is literally Leeks boiled up in water.

Whenever we visit family, I notice that there is very little snacking, no biscuits, smaller portions, lunch and dinner are always three or more courses. The main course is often meat or fish with two veg (no potato/pasta/rice), the cheeseboard is big but people just have a nibble not a big wedge.

Cakes and chocoloates are a treat rather than daily fare.

Wine is consumed with every cooked meal but is usually just a small glass each, my English friends usually finish a bottle between the two of them in an evening.

Salads are often starters and never heavy with dressing.

If I add all this up, it amounts to a lot of calories.

I've noticed that in certain UK cities and districts - Cambridge, Bath- there appear to be virtually no obese people. Perhaps I'm imagining it, but I don't think so.

Anxious fewer hatchet-faces on the streets, too.