We didn’t lose any weight on our 3 week French holiday, in fact we put on a few pounds, but we often ate both lunch and evening meal at restaurants and we didn’t take as much exercise as we do at home. Some mornings we felt a bit less bright than usual in the way you might do if on a calorie restricted diet that has tipped your body over into ketoacidotic metabolism because all glucose/glycogen stores have been depleted. This set us pondering about the balance of carbohydrates, fat and protein in the French diet.
We noticed that in restaurants the portions of everything were smaller than in the UK which we regard as a very good thing since the UK seems to have become obsessed with larger and larger portions and produces horrible competitive advertising challenging consumers to eat the largest possible size. We also noticed that the carbohydrate components of the meals were generally much smaller than the UK, potatoes were never presented as a mound in a bowl for self-service but as carefully prepared small portions already on the plate. Bread was freely available with all the savoury courses but we noticed that we would only eat a couple of small slices at a meal. At the end of each meal we felt very satisfied, presumably as a result of the fat and protein in the meal and the relatively long time taken to eat it, but we didn’t feel ‘stuffed’ as one can do after a UK meal.
Perhaps this is the ‘secret’ of the general lack of obesity amongst French – portion control and relatively few carbohydrates?
Posted by foodmatters 
Food Matters 