Spend any time in France and you quickly notice that they seem to break every single food ‘rule’ we hear about how to stay slim, fit and healthy. Bread accompanies breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack. Wine most days. Dairy galore with cheese and croissants.
Long termed the French Paradox, just how do they maintain their health and weight?
Spend a little longer in France and you start to realise that whilst the average French person is far from gluten, dairy, alcohol and sugar free, they do one thing incredibly well, consistently. They take what seems like a frustratingly long time, to enjoy a healthy lunch.
When we moved to France over 10 years ago, one of the first differences we were struck by was the insistence on at least 1 hour for the epic lunch occasion. Longer for children at school. A time when literally everything closed and there was nothing else to do but eat!!
It took us a while to adapt, before we accepted that whilst this may not have been the exact reason we moved, overall it was part of it. There was something about this country’s culture that embraced the joy of food and eating ‘en famille’ that was far healthier than the hurried sandwich version we’d grabbed back in the UK.
So we embraced it too. Our children came home to eat lunch until they were about 10 years old. Whilst I grumbled many a time about how it interfered with my busy day, I’ve no doubt it contributed towards their healthy relationship with food.
I first fell in love with France when I spent my gap year here in a ski resort and reflected the other day around how French food had affected my 17 year old self.
Interestingly it is the only time in my life (other than being pregnant) that I’d put on weight. Despite having skied, ran or exercised almost every day (that’s another definitely in their favour, the French do move!) the weight had crept on.
Exercise is clearly not the full story
The one habit I hadn’t embraced as a cash short student, was, once again, the long healthy lunch. I opted for the good old cheap cheese baguette as I rushed out to the ski slopes during the sacred lunch hour to enjoy the empty slopes. It’s also highly possible that I may have gone a little over board with the croissants at breakfast and the beer for après ski (without food) most evenings!
I wasn’t particularly food conscious at the time and didn’t noticed that the locals simply didn’t eat this way. Oh hindsight is a wonderful thing. Thankfully I wasn’t advising anyone on health, weight loss or lifestyle at that point in my life!
Ahhh…the joy and health benefits of a long lunch #Frenchstyle.
To this day I rarely have a sandwich lunch - it clearly doesn’t suit my body. Having worked with hundreds of women to help them lose weight over the years, lunch time habits are clearly far from the only solution or consideration. However it’s one of those primary examples on our quest for body balance and maintaining an ideal weight, that it’s far more complex an equation than pure calories consumed.
With teens who are now at school all day (with time cut out in their school day for a 3 course lunch, bien sûr), these days I do often take a quicker lunch. However, having a wholesome lunch, with the lighter meal in the evening, has literally become second nature.
I only recently learned that UNESCO features the French gastronomic meal in it’s World Intangible Heritage list. With good reason I believe. A healthy, joyful relationship with food seems to be very precious in our time short and quickly distracted world.