I read a book years ago about a family who went to France and they all lost weight by eating "whole" foods.  They did walk more and didn't eat the American junk food they had been use too.

After I read that book I started drinking whole milk again and eating real butter.  I didn't lose but I didn't gain any more weight either.  When I do leave the sweets alone I do not crave them and I also do not get hungry.  Now if I can only leave the sweets alone...

Finally! Great to hear some inside info. Thank you!

We spent 4 days in France (outside Paris) as part of a 2-week European vacation in September.  While I was gone, I decided to "throw my diet to the wind" and allow myself to taste all of the flavors of Europe - although I did bring my protein shakes and supplements that I take daily with me and continued to take them, but meals we either ate in local restaurants (purposely avoided any American-imported chains) or we walked to shops near our hotels and purchased local food to prepare in our hotel room.  I normally eat high protein, low "white carbs", full fat type meals; I ate more "white carbs" during this trip than I'd had in years, but they were all fresh and local; no "wonder bread" or anything like unto it.  At the end of the two weeks when I got home, I'd lost 10 pounds.  Hmmmm . . . Vicki

England is the most Americanised country in Europe.  A few years ago, a camera crew went out to a French market and showed French housewives some of the most popular tomatoes sold in English supermarkets: perfectly formed, flawless and articifially ripened. They sliced some up and let the ladies try them; they all exclaimed that they were awful, tasted of nothing, etc.  When asked what kind they buy, they showed us ugly, nobbly, blemished, irregular-looking things but I did notice that they were not ripe; they were more than half green.  Still better than our rubbery fake ones, though. Since then, even Tesco has a lot of vine-ripened tomatoes on offer these days but they still don't taste anything like the ones I grow myself.

Another thing I noticed when eating at home with French people is that they serve green salad as a seperate course, after the main (meat) one. May not be throughout France, though?

However, I was a bit surprised when my Francophile husband took me to some of his favourite restaurants in France: they served the identical haricots verts (like string beans but smaller) everywhere we went. Obviously tinned and a suspiciously bright, unnatural green, they were terrible. I never saw anything like that in a French home. (Hubby said it was my fault 'cause I was English, and a 'Francophobe' LOL.)

The quality of food is considered. JUST FOOD .... not chemicals.

They walk more. Stimulates metabolism, massages organs.

They rarely drink soda pop. Nothing but sugar and chemicals!!

The information is available as to why so many industrialized countries have obesity in epidemic rates. The refined sugar and chemicals screw up the endocrine system. Just the way the FOOD MANUFACTURES want, to stimulate your appetite, to make you crave the foods they sell, to make you fat and want even more. Follow the trail .. as usual, it is all about money. Who cares if our children are getting so fat that they have adult diseases? As long as the food industry is getting richer.

Dr. Simeon‘s ... an italian doctor, wrote to protocol and used it with his elite patients for 50 years before he died. I have done the protocol, to correct the hypothalmus, release the fat and toxins and eliminate chemicals and excess sugar from the diet. I eat plenty of fat, dairy, meat, vegtables, fruits and a few breads. All unrefined and organic. I lost the weight, I have kept it off without effort. Anyone can.

http://www.weightlosscureonline.com/ is an ebook that explains, and www.hcgdiet.com is a medical practice that administers. If you are overweight, I encourage you to take a look for yourself.

To HEALTH AND FREEDOM!

Much of this about the French is true however on my many stays in france since childhood, I've been shocked at how many young french women (young teenagers even) who are on very restrictive diets. Older people do tend eat as the article suggests. As a girl, I was consistently unable to put away the same amount of food as my french hosts. The one thing that really came as a shock to me as a young Irish girl was that they treat potatoes as just another vegetable and don't eat them with every meal.

They are far more into their digestive health than certainly we are in Ireland. Enemas and the like seem to be treated as "cure alls". They appear to balance all the white bread with plenty of coffee And, don't be fooled, they love their coca cola and orangina and the children love those sugary syrups that you dilute with water.

Their bread and pastries are divine, though and they really are proud of their food! Can't wait to go back there again soon.

don't forget the butter, plus partially hydrogenate poison is not in france or for that matter most european countries!  I noticed this lack of obesity when I went to Canada a few months ago...Hello US FDA & People (you will make the difference...don't buy the p[oisonous crap)...get the hint?

Again with the negative points! For reporting that French housewives didn't think much of tasteless GM tomatoes?? I wish the negative zappers would say what exactly is wrong with what I said.

Biggs, you are so right: don't BUY the poisonous rubbish! There is tremendous variety available in America, and England, including the good quality foods similar to what the French eat, even if it might not be as fresh.

But you are wrong about one thing: there is plenty of hydrogenated, processed and sugar/chemical laden 'food' in the shops all over Europe. The French just don't buy so much of it (yet) and other European countries do so in varying degrees. In England we buy more of it than the others do and we have the highest obesity and heart disease rates. Not in the same league as the USA but we're getting there.

Don't buy it! Vote with your wallet! And talk to at least one non-believer a week, one person you see with a shopping cart full of Coke, chips, etc. Risk being laughed at and told to mind your own business.

not entirely correct CogSciResearcher, they don't eat massive amounts of unsaturated fat (olive oil), quite the contrary. It's saturated fat they're primarily using (butter, pork, ...) but this gets processed in the liver to become unsaturated fat.

Low-fat diets are what makes us fat (sounds ridiculous though, but it's true), and artificial trans-fat is what brings us heart diseases...

Regarding those who clean their plates multiple times, I believe that's just plain old gluttony, turning food into an addiction just like anything else. The bible, interestingly enough, lumpsand equates gluttony with drunkenness (Prov. 23:2,20-21). And in truth, I would say that gluttony is just as bad (if not worse) for one's health than drunkenness.

But I totally agree with you about low-fat diets. I'm still astounded by the persistence of some who drink diet drinks as if they were water. I'm still trying to figure out why some folks say that water doesn't quench their thirst like a "flavored" beverage does. I find it strange. Personally, I think that leaving all flavored beverages alone, especially soft drinks, would go a long way toward reducing the obesity epidemic in the United States. But I don't think we can hope for Americans to wake up and see that their fast, processed food, fad diets and overeating are killing them. It's like it's ingrained in the vast majority from birth.

I laugh at my cousin because he calls all American buffet places "pig slops" because there are so many obese people that eat there and the food doesn't taste that great.  He can't stand to think of all the germs on the spoons everyone handles as well.

He's got a point.

From my experience (and I've eaten Atkins, French Don't Get Fat style, Flavor Point, Serotonin, you name it I've eaten it) good health starts from sticking with unprocessed whole foods, (organic if you can afford it). I wasn't able to keep the weight off for long until I learned to have some respect for fat intake -- which I didn't have because of long years of the low-carb style of eating. As long as I eat only good fats -- olive oil, organic butter, hemp oil, flax oil etc., -- and keep it below 40-50 gms (70-80 for men) per day, and stay with moderate intake of starches, I stay slim and healthy.

Tonytdyagain, I lived in Amsterdam for 20 years, where they are not so heavily into what they consider the 'bourgondische' gourmand lifestyle of the French and Southern (Walloon) Belgians (who think the Dutch are mean and money-obsessed), but they do value proper food, and don't overeat as much as we (the English) and you lot do. I loved the summer opening hours of some Amsterdam food shops: open at 7am and close by 4pm to better enjoy the long evenings. The butcher had fresh supplies daily and had usually run out of meat by 3.30pm. Visited Belgium and France a lot while I was there of course.

Now back in England, there are plenty of Sunday walks to be found here, too. In a big town just 20 miles from the centre of London I'm also just 10 miles from a wonderful village where they produce organic 'Demeter' food including raw, unhomogenised milk and grass-fed meat, from happy, healthy animals, and fantastic veg. I'd live there if I could.

In La Belgique, you were living in a village - of course it's different from big-town or city life. Is there nowhere to walk within a reasonable drive from where you live? There's so much space in America.

But it's the small community lifestyle, isn't it.  I stayed in a friend's house in Spanish mountain village once. We arrived late at night and the locals knew we were coming; several shopkeepers were alerted. They told us to come on down and they opened up shops for us as they didn't want us to be without food!

You said it all, my friend. We're herded like cattle to and from our tables, even in the more expensive restaurants here in the US.

Lady Pam,

You're making me homesick for country for which I'm not a citizen.  I do so miss the total lifestyle which takes time to enjoy the simple things in life.  

Our yard ran up to a canal, and twice a year the village would raise the bridge and block off the street and throw a block party with a band and all the home cooked food and local beer and wine.  Oh the good ol' days.  We were the only Americans in the village which had 14 pubs, a butcher shop, a vegetable and fruit shop, a chocolatier and a cheese/dairy shop.  We also had a fish monger that would drive through the village on Tuesday and Thursdays, couldn't understand a word she said over the loadspeaker, but at least the fish was fresh.  

The only thing lacking was a bakery, which made me have to stop on my way home from work and pick up a baguette or pon everyday.  It's amazing how good bread tastes without preservatives mixed in, but made for quite the brick of dough in the morning.  But what better way to have toast with breakfast.

Some friends of ours purchased a vineyard and winery in Provence last year, so we are planning on going over on holiday this fall.  Someday when we win the lottery, I'll try and talk my wife into moving back over, but I think she would miss the shopping back here in the states.

Take care

Tony