French Get Fatter (?), Blame Americans

The French are getting fatter, a new study claims — and wouldn't you know it, it's mostly Americans who are at fault.

The image of the super-svelte Frenchwoman has taken a battering after a new survey showed more than a third are overweight. In all, the study found that 19.8 million people out of the country's population of 63 million were too fat, and that 5.9 million of them were obese — 2.3 million more than nine years ago. ... The survey revealed that, rather than following in the slender tradition of a young Brigitte Bardot, more than a third of French women are overweight. ...

Last year the bestseller 'French Women Don't Get Fat' 'explained' how a bit of common sense combined with a moderate intake of calorie-filled delicacies could ensure a perfect figure. Its author, Mireille Guiliano, 60, claimed that traditional French ways of choosing and preparing food ensured good health and figure. The reality, however, is that McDonald's and Burger King are now regular features of towns and cities across France. Family meals are being replaced by supermarket ready dinners. Even Miss Guiliano has admitted that her book's title may have to be revised. "Of course some French women get fat," she said. "I find it obscene, frightening, that France has one of the largest number of McDonald's outside America.

First of all, it's erroneous to state that McDonald's and Burger King can be found "in towns and cities across France." Burger King hasn't had a single Gallic presence in almost a decade. But that's the least of it.

More importantly, I'll bet you a chocolate éclair that the findings about the French getting fatter are based on the Body Mass Index, an early-nineteenth-century Belgian invention that, as I've written before, is ridiculously flawed. I've recently also tried to demonstrate that the U.S. government, through the Centers for Disease Control, has been playing fast and loose with the facts when it comes to the alleged prevalence and deadliness of obesity.

Most likely, similar shenanigans are going on in France.

But what primarily gets my goat about the Daily Mail article is the unsavory spectacle of Mademoiselle Guiliano railing against fast-food establishments. American ones, of course.

Maybe the French, like the rest of us, can learn to take responsibility for what they voluntarily shove into their formerly gourmand gobs. Ronald McDonald doesn't force kids at gunpoint to have Happy Meals. People who eat at McDonald's do so because they like the food and it's usually a good deal. With some portion control, even eating there a few times a week has no detrimental effect on a person's health or weight, as plentiful real-world anecdotal evidence has shown.

To be fair, there are scores of Americans, too, who think that McDonald's is a franchise run by the devil. Morgan Spurlock, of Supersize Me fame, is one. You can read here how he habitually twists the facts to support his foregone conclusions.

Another is a colleague of mine who will have to remain nameless. In an online forum, she recently called McDonald's food "swill" and the restaurant's customers "gullible."

Stifling a yawn, I wrote back:

When I go to McDonald's, I see the gamut of the American public — or, as you prefer to call them, gullible swill-eaters. Some are fat, some are lean, and then there are all sizes in between. Would any of them be there if they thought they were being served "swill"? Like me, they really like the food that you pooh-pooh. Like me, they know it isn't as exquisite as what you might get at Le Cirque, and yeah, it's less healthy than the leaf of lettuce with bits of tofu they'll proudly serve you at Zen Palace. And like me, they think, 'So what?' It is what it is. There's no sleight of hand. If you like it, feel free to partake. If you don't, then don't. It's a free country.

Mmm, this post is making me hungry. You can probably guess what I'll be having for lunch.

Comments

[John A]

Yes, study probably based on BMI. I may be exposing my age, but according to BMI one Marilyn Monroe was severely underweight.

In re healthy food, I notice (albeit little mention is made) that the recent lettuce problem is traceable to organic lettuce: possibly the fertilizer[s] they use are unprocessed excrement, thus e coli.

[Rich Banner]

Ya, had the same thing. Got bored with spurlocks "how I ate 5,000 plus calories a day at McDonalds and gained 10 pounds" documentary. Someone said..."McDonalds anyone?" Shut the movie off half way through, went to McDonalds and never did finish it. Luckily, it was a bootleg copy in China that cost only .75 cents, so we could spend the money saved on extra fries.

[Dave]

From the time I got out of the military at age 20 until I was about 39 I was a tech rep for several different HVAC companies. My days were busy to say the least. If I wasn't in a strange city trying for determine why the local reps were having so much trouble I was on the road between strange cities. During those years most of what I ate was fast food. I must have been the best customer McDonalds ever had. I like them because the food was not only good but was relatively cheap as well. It was also consistent, a Big Mac in Charlottesville, VA taste just like one in Birmingham, AL or Atlanta, Ga. I was guy with a healthy appetite that hit the drive thru, ordered 2 Big Macs, a large fry, and a large drink and then ate it in the truck driving. If it wasn't McDonalds it was some other fast food cause I was usually in a hurry. Dinner was often the same cause I could grab a bag of fast food and a 6 pack on the way to the motel. In my early 30's I noticed I had gained 8 or 9 pounds and resolved to do better but I didn't. Yet by the time I was 40 I still had not gained any more weight. I'm 54 now and still weigh the same 168 pounds I did in my early 30's and I still eat fast food. I just finished 2 slices of pizza while writing this. Fast food make you fat? Only if eating is all you ever do. If it was half as bad as the nannies would have us believe I would probably hitting the scales at 260 or so.