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quote:
ORIGINAL: NorthernGent
quote:
ORIGINAL: lusciouslips19
Why do the french eat rich foods and are not fat? What do you think it is abut the American Mentality that makes us have such an obesity epidemic?
I have a theory....and it's fantastic as per usual....
We, the English, have an obesity problem, too. Brace yourself....
The French are far too intellectual to eat too much food. They want to pontificate (they will kill you for an idea, too.....there's loads of 'em buried in Paris in some Rue De Commune? thing...and they're proud of it) and drink coffee. That's their tradition: ideas, violence associated with ideas, militant politics etc. I mean, in the hundreds of years that we've had a parlimentary democracy, they've had 3 revolutions. In England, intellectualism is viewed with suspicion; in France, it is held in high regard.
The point is this:
The French have big ideas, they're fought countless wars with their neighbours, suffered invasions, are partial to extreme politics, and tend to operate far above the level of gorging on food (they've had far greater concerns over the years).
The English, on the other hand, are a more peaceful, docile, less miltant, more orderly, more stable (haven't been invaded since 1066) people. Basically, life has been so certain and constant for the English over the centuries, that our main concern is whether or not the fridge is full with food and beer.
It's cultural. Stable and content societies gorge themselves (in the same way man and wife become content, then portly and grow old together as happy as pigs in shit).
Interesting you bring up the French. At community college a couple years back I interviewed the teacher or chef for the schools bakery and cooking department. He's traveled and eaten in France and I recall him stating that in France there is not a big cultural emphasis on eating everything on your plate like there is in the U.S. He thought the U.S. emphasis of eating everything on your plate and the increased size of servings had a lot to do with United Statesians bulging at the belt.
I do know that the old timers in the U.S. won't waist food. This is especially so with Black-Americans but also common among elderly White-Americans that lived through the Great Depression.
Personally I think the issue is less to do with consumption per se than its relation to sedentary lifestyle. Everyone is pro-Darwinian until it comes to things that question their comfort e.g. animals were and are meant to move and not sit behind a steering wheel and desk all day.
Years ago I read a history book on the building of the transcontinental railroad in the U.S. The labor that the Black-Americans, Chinese, Irish, Mormons, and former Civil War veterans put into completing the thing is amazing. One thing I recall with surprise is the amount of food they consumed - and I mean these men ate hardy. But given the labor they put in which burned calories fast, I'm sure few became obese, but many strong and built constitutionally well.
Old Black Bahia fishermen in Brazil, and old White Midwestern farmers have well defined, strong, muscular bodies shone brilliant under sweat and sun.
The French are also the people that have given us the athletic art form (and body culture philosophy) of Parkour. And outstanding form of exercise. I plan on one day taking it up myself. But that's more true to the Homo sapien sapien being part of kingdom animal than moving from a car to a desk and sitting all day.
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RE: Why do Americans need such excess? - 
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I was surprised they eat so much for breakfast actually. I can't remember where in this Bourdain episode they show the massive breakfast though. 
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