Investigative Report on Why French People Are Skinny

My friend, Emily, tasked me with the goal of uncovering the secret behind the skinny French women (and men for that matter). I had several theories floating around and perhaps still have some more detective work to do, but have made significant progress. The stereotype is very true. French women are skinny and oftentimes the men are even skinnier. Which leads to theory #1.

#1 French women are skinny because they have to be or they would always feel fat next to their men.

#2 has been confirmed as fact. French people do not snack. There's breakfast (petit dejeuner), lunch (dejeuner), and dinner (diner). That's it. This point was fully proven last Thursday during more introductions with more students and they asked me about Super-Size Me the movie. Unfortunately I've never seen it, though I've wanted to. Turns out vending machines are banned from all French schools. To top it off, French students are not allowed to bring sack lunches - supposedly for sanitary reasons although that seems far-fetched. What that means is no one eats except in the cafeteria. Wow! Culture shock. Though I have to say, I love that idea. Very healthy. Honestly, I never saw ANY food the whole day, before school, in between classes, at break, after school... except in the cafeteria. Nothing! And there was no coffeecake or brownies in the teacher's lounge either :-) There were quite a few puffs of smoke and cigarette butts amongst the students outside at break however. And no teachers cared. Wowsers! Oh, but that's theory #3.

#3 French people are skinny because they smoke instead of eating. Very likely!

#4 is still a theory. Because French food is delicious and oftentimes fatty, yet balanced, the French don't crave food all day and binge, or overeat. Let me disclose my first meal in the French high school cafeteria. Duck! avec pomme frites (french fries), a veggie of choice (salad), a fruit of choice (grapes), a demi-baguette, and a choice of cheese (camembert). No soda or juice was available. But there were caraffes of water on every table. It was pretty decent. And I've noticed a typical after-dinner treat is yogurt. Plain, natural yogurt. As for me acclimating to this new cuisine, aside from the chocolate splurge one day, I don't think I've been going pastry or confiture crazy here. It's actually pretty heaven-like in the food department.

#5 might depend on location. Everyone walks a lot. Granted, I'm close to Paris and the public transportation is simple, convenient, and fairly reliable. But I think this is true. I love walking cities!

I close with my hopes and dreams for America. It might start with schools - since that's a good beginning.

Eliminate this:

Aim for this:

Stronger would be fine too, but notice the lack of fat rolls!