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Americans, he says, are always painting the picture in extremes. The French, he continues over a piece of grilled fish, pouring me another glass of that medicinal red wine, have a long-evolved culture of eating that emphasizes pleasure -- and order. The French eat comme il faut, "the way it should be done." They may eat whatever they want, but they eat by strict rules: no snacking, no seconds, no skipping meals, no bolting down food, no heading straight for dessert before first filling up on vegetables, salad and meat. They savor their food and eat smaller portions than Americans do.

They also eat a greater diversity of food, which could have something to do with their health, too. And while traditions are loosening in France -- more women are working, and so people are more apt to grab a sandwich at lunch -- a recent survey Fischler took showed that while more people will skip the cheese course or the first course once or twice a week, they still don't skip meals. The French sit down at the table for well-prepared meals, with high-quality foods, and between times they don't eat. Period.

"In France, we eat in a socially controlled and regulated way, but it's pleasant," says Fischler. "Structure is something that constrains you but also supports you." Fischler and a food-loving University of Pennsylvania psychologist, Paul Rozin, say the fact that the French have lower rates of coronary artery disease and are skinnier than Americans doesn't have so much to do with what they eat, but how they eat -- especially their positive attitudes about food. Talk to a French woman about whether she ever feels guilty about what she eats and she will tell you, as one impossibly young-looking 46-year-old dancer told me, "Absolutely not -- I eat exactly what I please."

Then try to find a woman in the U.S. who will answer the same way. There's no magic ingredient that keeps French arteries clear, but instead a whole system of eating that allows them to indulge without overdoing it, and without feeling guilty. Fischler and Rozin say that the biggest predictor of health may not be the content of someone's diet, but how stressed out they are about food, and how relaxed they are about eating. In other words, the more pleasurable it is to eat, the healthier it is for you.

Paradoxically French Wines

In a study published in the October issue of the journal Appetite, Fischler and Rozin surveyed 1,281 French, American, Japanese and Flemish people about their attitudes toward food. Participants were asked how much they worried about food and the healthiness of their diet, whether they bought low-fat and other diet foods and how much importance they placed on food as a positive force in life. Americans, it turned out, were much more likely than the French to worry about what they eat, buy diet foods and still think of themselves as unhealthy eaters. The French and Belgians were at the other extreme, thinking about food as mainly a great pleasure, and feeling fine about how healthy their diet was. In word association tests, given "chocolate cake," the French would say "celebration," and Americans, "guilt." Given "heavy cream," the French said "whipped," while the Americans responded "unhealthy." Says Rozin, "The French are more inclined to think of food as something you eat and experience, and the Americans are thinking about some sort of chemicals that are getting into your body."

Americans have the worst of both worlds, Rozin says -- they have greater concerns about their diets, and they are much more dissatisfied with what they eat. And that sort of stress, he says, can result in a lot of poor eating habits for Americans -- extreme dieting, bingeing, overeating and constantly obsessing about food -- which are ultimately unhealthy. The real paradox, Rozin says, isn't that the French enjoy food and remain thin and heart disease-free. It's that Americans worry so much about food, do so much more to control their weight and end up so much more dissatisfied with their meals.

American researchers are tentative about Fischler and Rozin's pleasure hypothesis. Eric Rimm, a nutritional epidemiologist at Harvard, says a pleasurable way of eating may be part of the puzzle. "There is something to eating patterns that makes a difference to overall health," he says. "It can't just be the total calories you get at the end of the day."

Eating slowly, he points out, may make a difference. And then there are psychosocial effects. "In France they eat with large families and social networks, which may be important to peace of mind, which has been linked to coronary disease." He hesitates. "Maybe there are psychological effects to the way they eat in France, too."

As the French would say, with just a hint of derision, "Mais oui -- but of course." And then, like Claude Fischler and me, they would finish off a long, perfect meal with a couple little spoonfuls of intensely rich chocolate soufflé.
salon.com | Feb. 4, 2000

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