The French Paradox refers to the curious observation that French people are slim and healthy, suffering from a low risk of coronary artery disease despite a diet extremely high in saturated fat regularly washed down with glasses of wine.
While the long held belief that saturated fat expands your waistline and causes heart disease has long since been disproven with cardiologists now going on record saying how ridiculous such an assertion actually is based on current research, there is clearly something else at play here keeping the French so healthy.
Is it just me or do the French just get it about what it takes to be healthy much better than Americans?
Case in point, while many Americans seem to prefer the latest and greatest silver bullet supplements that empty the wallet with promises of reduced fat, no wrinkles and perfect health yet never come close to measuring up, the French stick with the tried and true that actually works: nutrient dense food.
Check out this video below of a raw milk vending machine in France.
If raw milk was really as dangerous as the CDC and conventional medical authorities in the USA claim, wouldn’t these machines that are popping up all over Europe be causing some serious food borne illness outbreaks by now?
Perhaps the time has come to set aside the shrill warnings about the clear and present “danger” of grassfed raw milk and try some for yourself!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Very interesting to see how easy it is to get raw milk in France. I’m reading an American cookbook from the 1930’s that dedicated a whole section to French cooking. It’s full of fat facts and healthy eating tips that include no snacking and smaller portion sizes that were standard for the day .. including many fatty foods all balanced with nutritious soups as a first course .. even detailing how to make traditional meat stocks … etc. explaining how it aids digestion. (If you’re interested in checking out this age old cookbook, here’s a link to view on line and download a free pdf.)
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7022274M/The_American_woman%27s_cook_book
I love this book! I have it at home and refer to it all the time. I love just pulling it off the shelf and reading it here and there for ‘old-fashioned wisdom’. The recipes I’ve tried are all really good too.
It’s too simplistic to point to just one factor. Keep in mind, the French also walk…A LOT! My nieces gained weight after coming back to the States after living outside of Paris for 3 years. They said that they walked everywhere. Also, people tend to always buy fresh. The idea of going to a store and stocking up for the month or even week, was less prevalent. Small markets are more the norm than large grocery stores that carry all the processed junk.
It’s a whole way of life….not just one thing.
Thanks for posting, how interesting is that machine!
I want one (right near the RedBox at the neighborhood Target would be perfect … I’m NOT kidding!)
Sarah, I thought that the main problem with the French diet was that they tend to eat a lot of processed carbs in breads and pastries and they smoke a lot of cigarettes. How do you explain their health in spite of these more important factors?
My Grandfather smoked 3 packs of Camels/day for decades and drank like a fish and lived to be 97 (on his own .. walking around, driving a car etc). He also ate butter, eggs, and the fat around his steaks like it was going out of style. Traditional fats eaten with abandon are extremely protective other negative factors in the environment and in the diet.
Your grandfather sounds like my kind of guy!
My stepfather smoked since he was 13 yrs. old and later his doctor put him on a low cholesterol diet. Now he has suffered throat cancer and cancer of the tongue which was removed. So he “eats” from a stomach tube and can’t talk anymore. It was the worst surgery I have ever seen, with thigh skin grafted for the end of the stub of his tongue. If you even THINK smoking doesn’t have an effect, then you have to be an idiot!!! It is not worth the risk. Now my stepfather has lost every bit of the life he led… no more law career, no strength to golf and he was a talker… no more conversation. Would the fat have helped him? No. Don’t be ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!
If my Grandfather hadn’t eaten all that fat, he would have been dead decades sooner. The fats were indeed protective. Not to say that smoking doesn’t kill others much sooner but he had no ill effects from it and there is no doubt his diet played a huge positive role.
He would have had blackened lungs and he harmed others with his smoke. I’m disgusted that you even say that smoking didn’t have any ill effects… seriously? There is never any excuse to say smoking isn’t detrimental to people’s health. Take a big whiff of smoke and tell me you are not affected. Yes, fats play a huge protective role but why be an idiot and smoke?! There is never a reason to smoke.
She never said that it was good or ok that he smoked!
Actually that’s not exactly true. High HDL/low LDL is associated with healthy lung function. If the lungs did not purify the oxygen you breathe you’d be dead even w/o smoking anyway. The typical American diet the last 40-50 years has been low on saturated fat which has led to many problems. Fats (saturated) are used in the body to carry toxins out for disposal. No studies were ever done on this AFAIK so to unilaterally state that you cannot smoke and be healthy or that you must contract lung cancer would I think be as irresponsible as saying that you can smoke 3 packs a day and be better for it. The so-called intellectuals constantly get it wrong in our society including foodists who preach water, water fasting and the like are the best way to purify toxins from the body. Apparently fats do it better which no one ever preached while I was growing up nor did all the health faddists(US based). So it’s new territory for many people concerned with health. I wouldn’t smoke 3/packs daily but I have heard enough ancedotal evidence to suggest many older people 90+ have lived their whole lives eating the exact opposite preached by the food scientists and that’s the French paradox. Plus the whole grape/grape seed/pine bark issue. Many say wine doesn’t have the same levels needed to protect the heart, etc, but that’s what the French do in abudance too.
It sounds like the low cholesterol diet was a strong contributer to his decline.
*contributor
Oddly, the non-filtered Camels, Lucky Strikes & Pall Malls of old times do not have the chemicals that saturate filtered cigarettes.
I knew old men smoking these while the younger were dying from the filtered. I thought it an interesting paradox.
The most interesting thing over here is that some types of liver are highly prized and more expensive than a steak.
Yes the French know what kinds of food make the junk in the trunk look like a Ferrari!
I was in France in the late 60s, mostly in Paris. I remember lots of pastries for breakfast. People seemed to walk a lot more there. Maybe more exercise is the difference.
i spend a semester abroad in France and gained a ton of weight eating pain au chocolate every day. it was not cute.
Hit reply to quickly. Just wanted to add that it was probably because I hadn’t eaten such delicious pastries before (raised on PopTarts) that I went out of control. Part of the key for the French has got to be that they have always had it around so it’s not coveted and they don’t go overboard.
I have left France 16 years ago. Every time I go back, I am actually shocked to see how much of it’s food culture it is losing. In the north of France, or at least in my experience of the area where we are from, people tend to use long life pasteurised milk in tetra packs, rather than the fresh milk (still pasteurised) we get in the UK. Young people can’t cook, and can’t get enough fast food. (Young) people’s shapes are changing drastically, especially amongst the poorer classes.
It may be true that some areas are retaining their food culture and traditions, but sadly it is not a France wide observation as far as I can tell. Sad but true.
You’re right, Lilas. I came to France around 25 years ago to marry a native, so I’ve seen the change. You’re getting young girls with the ‘behind spread’ now like you find in the states. Here, there is still no addressing the transfats in foods and coke is piled up in the supermarket caddies that people are checking out.
I laughed once when my French brother-in-law came back from living in the states for a year. He opened up a tetra pack of milk, chugged it down, and then said’, “OH, how great to have REAL milk again!” Meanwhile, someone I know from ENGLAND (country of reputed BAD food) that insists on real cream when they come to France, but it’s a losing battle.
The schools have ‘tasting’ sessions to introduce the younger generation to real food.
Back in the early 90’s, I sat next to a Frenchman on a flight to Chicago. I found out he and his associates were on their way to attend a big food convention in Chicago…..they being from the Monoprix supermarket chain. So I looked at him and said, “Tell me straight – you’re coming to that convention to find out how you can make food cheaper, right?”
To that, he shook his head in agreement.
Okay – but I can’t wrap my head that sugar is evil: what the French do with pastries is
STILL at genius level!
I WANT SOME CREPES!
I love France. I love watching people walk down the streets munching on their baguettes. No stress, no worries about waistlines. Simple enjoying life and enjoying real, quality, fresh food. Clearly they are on to something.
French people are lovely. What’s this deal people say about them not liking Americans? I find the French to be polite, wonderful, open and friendly. Even in Paris they are completely fabulous to interact with.
When I lived in France, I wanted to make American cookies for one of my host families… my mom’s recipe called for shortening, so I asked my host mother for “solid vegetable fat” as I didn’t know the French word for shortening. Needless to say, they had no clue what I was talking about 🙂 I ended up using lard instead, and the cookies were delicious! The French definitely get it.
I used to work for an agency where the big bosses, husband and wife, were tough and rudely demanding. But they would save their vacation time, and go to France for several weeks every year, just to eat.
They would come back happy, healthy, relaxed, efficient, mellow yet focused. After a couple weeks on American factory food they would return to being their usual grumpy, demanding selves.
When one of the bosses was telling me about how wonderful the food was, I asked him if you could get really good food in the US. He sadly shook his head, and said no. He said there was not way to even compare the difference. He looked at me and said – “Food is the most important thing”. This was in the late seventies.
The best food I have eaten anywhere I have ever traveled (been to 5 continents so far) is FRANCE by far!!!!