To the French, the purpose of food extends beyond a simple energy source to being an art of its own. Public schools in the country alone serve multiple courses of nearly-gourmet meals to students in the cafeteria, saving their parents plenty of time and money to pack their lunchboxes. French gastronomy is seemingly ironic in a country that, despite their chronic tobacco use, is in relatively healthy shape: the country boasts the lowest levels of obesity while the rest of Europe is hitting peak levels waist sizes and scale readings. We often claim to be fat because we love food, but the French really love food and don’t get fat. What gives?
While healthy vegetables and fruits are a staple, French cuisine doesn’t skimp on ingredients we (cringingly) like to call “naughty” in dishes that need it. Pastries and soups call for the whole-fat dairy and are not substituted for healthier alternatives. That’s what makes these dishes so delicious and coveted, and the French way of meal preparation is conscientious in that its means to an end relies less on quantity and more on quality. A well-prepared croissant’s rich and buttery flavor should be enough to satisfy and satiate, because after all, just one isn’t going to clog your arteries. The French find foods like these enjoyable and totally fine—in moderation. That same tasty croissant is not an everyday breakfast and, even if it is, it certainly won’t be the size of your head.
Huge portions of “comfort” foods, like those we see here in American restaurants, made sense historically. When our ancestors were more physically laborious, taste mattered less than quality when it came to what they ate. The working class, which could only afford simple but plentiful ingredients, loaded up on the carbs to keep them fueled for the day. Spending hours on farms and in factories meant coming home to big meals to refuel them from a long day’s work.
In fact, the common ground for cuisine in almost every country is that meal time was, up until recently, almost always communal. People were able to reserve plenty of time to eat together and enjoy the flavor of their food, even during work. Many places in Europe still practice this, and in France itself, it’s customary to spend ample time for breakfast, lunch and dinner with very frugal snacking. In places like the United States, students and many working class workers are often given thirty minutes to sit and eat at most. Pair that with the rise in food production, and we have a culture where food is faster, cheaper, and requires no extra work besides a microwave (sometimes.) This is food that is plentiful, but not satiating, and truly taking the time for it is next to impossible.
People in France are doing it right because their food culture is ideal: they eat just enough food (which, in our more sedentary world, is generally less than what our ancestors needed) by knowing how to enjoy it. The United States, a country home to a myriad of noteworthy regional dishes, struggles with this. Many Americans have never cooked anything beyond Kraft macaroni and cheese and our rising BMIs have caused us to have unhealthy views of food in one way or another; so we overeat, we blame all the wrong foods for all the wrong reasons, and chocolate cake becomes evil instead of a delicious, occasional treat. We are prone to over-consume when we eat for the pleasure of eating and not for the pleasure of food, and that is even easier when processed foods with added sugars take up more of the grocery store than fruits and veggies.
What should America do about its obesity epidemic? One way to tackle it is by starting with our food problem. We should reframe our mindsets when it comes to “restricting” foods and instead embrace “moderation.” We can let ourselves have great meals that are satiating because of their flavor, not portions. We can encourage ourselves (and kids!) to start cooking from scratch, taking the time to learn the art of spices and herbs and know where to look for the good stuff (hint: ethnic food stores). Doing all that, plus taking the time out for food whenever we can, will help us to reframe our mindset about how we should eat. Most importantly, food should never be taken for granted—it exists to nourish just as much as it exists to be enjoyed.
