After reading the article about portion distortion making American people fat, I decided to google the french diet because I was bored and had nothing to do. I found a lot of interesting facts. I found out that even though the French people smoke, drink alcohol and eat fattening foods, they are still able to stay slim. The reason for this is that the French eat way smaller portions than the ones served in America. They also take their time eating; dinner can take up to three hours. By eating at a much slower pace, they realize that they are full without consuming massive amounts of food. When they eat, they don't multitask, like watching TV or reading, allowing them to savor every bite. The foods they eat are fresh,wholesome, and have high quality. They usually do not eat processed foods.
Besides eating less, daily exercise contributes to their success of staying slim. In America, you see people exercising vigorously, desperately trying to burn calories, but in France people don't need to go to the gym because they get enough exercise from daily activities. It's easy to be active daily because they walk as a way of transportation instead of relying on cars and people usually don't stay at home to watch TV because French TV is not a very good source of entertainment. People walk to a number of stores to purchase goods; a pastry shop for dessert, a bakery for baguettes, a butcher shop for meat, etc. They are not lazy to take the stairs in the place of elevators and escalators. This French way of life is slowly declining due to the appearance of many more fast food places in France. They are receiving more exposure to the American culture. It is possible that France will soon have higher statistics of obesity.