So I live in a French area, when you are in the city of Quebec, it is really no different than being in Paris at times.

This Christmas was my first one out here. It was amazing to see. Women really do follow the principles of "French Women Don't Get Fat" -> they drink red wine, they have all the gourmet cheeses, breads, desserts, butter, cream yadda yadda and dinner was at 7:30pm and lasted for 2 hours. A few bites here & there of everything, but it was a complete 180 from Christmas back home in western Canada.

And nobody was fat. No guilt association with food whatsoever. No talk of Christmas pounds. No talk of calories. The idea of counting & weighing food, outside of perfecting a recipe, was bizarre. The gym was hilarious. Most of all, holiday food/pounds was NOT 'the enemy' as so many people have ingrained in their minds.

It was a really pleasant experience and I think I'd like to try and adopt this way of thinking!

I think this is the healthiest approach to eating - unfortunately with rampant health problems, food addiction, and unhealthy foods served in preposterous portions, I don't think the rest of North America (barring big cities) is ready to make the switch.

For myself, I'm working on simply living my life - eating a balanced diet so that I never have to feel guilty or deprived, indulging on special occasions, cutting back when I feel a little chubby in my own skin, etc.

^ This? I think it's thee biggest problem moreso than anything else.

Portions are HUGE in this country. 32oz of soda? Triple double cheeseburgers? King sized, jumbo, extra extra large? Cripes, a large is now a small and small no longer exists in many places. We've 'biggied' ourselves right into obesity. Totally ridiculous. The only way restaurants and the like will reduce the portion sizes is if people who purchase that food stop buying it or start asking for half-sized portions or make it a point to give feed-back to the restaurants. If enough folks do this, and if it affects the restaurant's bottom line, they'll do something about it.

The other problem is lack of movement. The technology boom has rendered so many people immobile. My God, they had to invent video games that made people get up off their butts! The obesity rate in kids is climbing everyday . . . personally I believe it's because parents are too busy being their kid's friend vs. parenting them. Easier to be buddies than to say no.

I agree that portion servings are outrageous but do keep in mind, I'm talking about a massive Christmas dinner - they will serve the same size portions but the women (and men of course) will not even eat 1/2 of what is served. Desserts can sit on a family table for 3 days and they won't touch it.
Food portions here in Canada are just as bad - sorry to clarify, I am talking about French Canada, not even France. It's French culture/attitude to food in an (North) American environment (ie same foods at the grocery store, same restaurants)

Part of the problem is WHY people don't shovel down the food. They stop. Others don't. Why?

I think in a lot of cultures, being fat isn't even an option - you're simply expected to be thin and to stop eating if you start gaining.

True. Being fat is much more unacceptable & also not as common.

It's funny---I lived on a French island and I found it to be just the opposite: Women were very conscious of their figures. I noticed that people ate extremely light lunches (melon w/ prosciutto) and even went to the gym (yeah--on an island). It really dispelled my idea of the effortlessly thin French woman. Of the people we met, even the men were conscious of watching their weight. I've also read that the French culture is changing and that they are adopting many bad American food habits (e.g., eating on the go). That's not what you found in Quebec, but according to what I've read, it's what is happening in France.

I read French Women Don't Get Fat, and I like the approach, but it would not work for me because I've already been too corrupted by the uber-awareness of food and dieting in our culture. My relationship with food is too screwed up to ever eat normally effortlessly. That's why I have two choices: Somehow keep track of my food intake and activity output or be overweight.

Lin, thanks. I think that women are still concussions of their figures for sure but it seemed to be a different mindgame - one where they did not fear fat/carbs, mostly! If that makes sense? They don't have the same "diet" ideas - it seems women in most anglophone North America culture will try 50,000 diets to lose weight rather than just stop eating as much, which is common here (and as Krampus says).

People here are adopting the 'bad habits' too - but it's slow to change, being such a close-knit society trying to repel anglophone influences, old habits still remain.

I guess I'm more open to this now that I'm here permanently and so very very tired of counting calories after 8 years

i live near a french island, well two really, and i dont find them any thinner than us but i guess our bad habits probably rolled onto them since they are closer to nfld than france.

I'd also like to point out that French women DO get fat, just a lot less of them. The overweight/obesity rate there (France) is around 13%, which is much less than our (U.S.) 66%, but is still pretty significant. The rate for overweight/obesity there has remained constant around 10-15% in France for the past several decades. So, maybe all of the fat French people are in hiding because their thin counterparts are very scary to them. Maybe they have been banned from being seen in public in order to preserve the thin image of the French people . But, they do exist just in much fewer numbers than the U.S.

Sorry I don't mean to imply all French people are skinny, I am well aware of this, that's a worldwide phenomenon, I'm just referring to the principles in the book

most european countries in general have a much lower obesity rate than north american places, its not just the numbers of fat ppl alone either, there are in general far fewer ppl in europe that hit 300,400,500,600,700,800 lbs like you see in n.a. not saying theres none in europe but there are far fewer. i lived in both us and nfld as well as in mainland canada, there were ppl in the us so big i didnt even realise it was possible for a human to be that big. i saw some in mainland canada that big too, but less so than us, but my bf tells me in the province he works in hes seen ppl pushing 500-600lbs as well. nflders are big but generally around the 180-300 mark. definetly some pushing past that, but ive only seen two ppl here pushing 400-500. i guess the obesity epidemic is on diff scales everywhere you go.

Sacha, I grew up in Montreal. If I remember correctly there were always lots of patates frites, Pepsis, and people who could stand to loose a pound or two.

Well first of all.. I believe that alot of it has to do with how things are in Europe.. People eat more natural, preservatives and hormones in food isnt as abundant.. and also how they have grown up eating.. small and in control. And even the foods that they find enjoyment in, are considered healthy foods to us Americans.

when i lived in the states i found all the food tasted funny like oily or something and the fastfood was like toxic. it seemed alot of ppl there grew up in a culture heavy on consuming. what i mean is it wasnt a big deal to have fastfood twice a day , the portion sizes were really large, everything had to be up sized or free up sizing, it wasnt odd to see ppl eating what looked to be 4-5000 calories a day and still say they are hungry. i was also in texas so that may have added to it. the us restaurants do know how to cook red meat tho i must say, but the portion sizes were far too large. i guess its just their culture i dont know lol just my observations