A few years ago I was walking through the airport and I saw a book called French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano. Intrigued by anything to do with France and food, I bought it and hoped to discover the secret. 260 pages later I was a little disappointed to get the answer – they eat less and move more. When I told my husband this, he was astonished at my disappointment. “What on earth did you think it was going to be?”
Totally unrelated, but borrowing the very successful title formula, Pamela Druckerman has just published French Children Don’t Throw Food: Parenting secrets from Paris. I read it in one evening and it has lots of interesting observations and charm, but I was slightly left with the same feeling: of course, it’s obvious what they do. They have clear rules which they enforce consistently; they aim to strike a balance between the needs of the child and the needs of everyone else; the children are listened to and respected, but are expected to listen and show respect in their turn. Even allowing for gross national stereotypes, it’s valid stuff.
My interest, naturally, zoomed in on the food-related bits. Druckerman explains how lunch is served at her child’s state-run creche, with four courses every day including cheese and fruit. She visits the Commission Menus, where the menu for all the creches in Paris is decided (they debate the merits of foie gras versus duck mousse at Christmas). She describes how vegetables play a much bigger part in the children’s diet right from weaning, how French children don’t have snacks, are expected to taste (if not finish) everything, and go four hours between meals without having a nervous breakdown. And, yes, by taking part in family meals, they get to practise behaving around a table, so that when they go to a restaurant there is some chance they will behave there too.
With all this good stuff going on, you’d expect French children to be the best-nourished and most healthy children in Europe. Yet childhood obesity rates seems to be about the same in France as they are here in the UK, and McDonald’s is at least as popular. What’s going on? You mean that, despite all those vegetables and carefully planned menus, children are still obese?
Druckerman admits that her research focuses exclusively on well-heeled Parisian families who are most likely to eat well anyway. It’s probable that poor and immigrant families, who are more likely to be obese, do not have the time, money or inclination to eat like this. But what I think is interesting is what the French (in Druckerman’s estimation) teach us to expect from children. Children can eat vegetables, sit around a table and take a discerning and informed interest in food from the start. It doesn’t all have to be melamine forks, plain pasta and baked potatoes decorated to look like mice.
At least that’s what I’m hoping.
