Once upon a time a fairy burst into the bookstores of America, danced around a bit, and left behind copies of French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure.

"Oh ho, hot stuff," said the fairy.

Soon all America knew French ladies were svelte, which made large American ladies rather self-conscious. Everywhere people in America began eating La vache qui rit and croque aux poires to diminish themselves to the proportions of the lesser French.

But fairies tell fairy tales.

JE NE SUIS PAS GROSSE, JE SUIS FRANÇAIS !
Weight Loss Trick: Finish Off With A French Mint!

FRENCH WOMEN DO TOO GET FAT
What The Best Seller Neglects To Mention.

February 23, 2005 (Slate) - Today, thanks to globalization, the French are starting to eat, and look, more like us: According to a recent article in the Times of London, the traditional French meal is eaten by only 20 percent of the population. Instead, they increasingly favor the abbreviated, on-the-go meals of Americans. The national rate of obesity is rising fast. While only 6 percent of the population was obese in 1990, today the proportion is 11.3 percent. That is still well behind the same figure for the United States (22 percent) but on track to match our levels by 2020. The French are not happy about it. In a parliamentary report last spring highlighting the dramatic increase in obesity, legislators proposed launching a new government agency to fight weight gain, to be funded by a tax on high-calorie or high-fat foods.

... The essence of Guiliano's book is the claim that women can trick themselves into experiencing what is actually self-denial as a kind of pleasure. She never questions that most women, if they wish to be attractively thin, will have to play some mental games. But such games are, as Guiliano acknowledges, something that the French generally value. They think of themselves as an old culture, skilled in the arts of irony, hypocrisy, and nuance. We Americans may be innocent, artless, and nuance-allergic, but we are sharp enough to recognize that French women's advantage over us is simply that they are thinner—not that they have better, saner, less complicated attitudes about food. "The useful art of self-deception"? Let 'em have it.

In addition to "self-deception", the French dampen their appetites by smoking (~25%-30% of the population). With the advent of France's public smoking ban, expect to see more French with broader beams. Oh, and drugs. The French take lots of drugs.

NEARLY A THIRD OF FRENCH PEOPLE ARE FAT: STUDY
PARIS September 19, 2006 (AFP)

FATTY FOOD TAKES ITS TOLL OF THE FRENCH

PARIS September 20, 2006 (Telegraph)- The carefully cultivated image of the French as a nation that eats well but stays slim suffered a serious setback yesterday when a study showed that nearly 20 million people were overweight or obese.

The appeal of American-style fast food, snacks between meals and a sedentary way of life has led to young women piling on the pounds even more quickly than men, the study said. It showed that almost a third of the population had weight problems.

Ten per cent of women born between 1966 and 1972 are obese, on average 20 years earlier than their mothers' generation. Men, especially those in high income professions, are more likely to take care to keep their weight down.

The study, called ObEpi 2006, in an abbreviation of the World Health Organisation's judgment that obesity is an international epidemic, shows that France, with a population of about 63 million, has 2.3 million more obese people than nine years ago.

Yes, there you are, one final fairy tale: Fat France, America's fault.

PFFT (What is this?): Great big France 3 | Rayonnement français 0

Bonjour,

Il y a une raison à cela.
L 'introduction massive de la sous-bouffe yanks chez nous.
Des lois sont en préparation pour lutter contre cette peste qui a fait des ravages aux USA et qui maintenant force nos portes.
De plus en plus de Français comprennent que l ' origine de bien de leurs maux est à rechercher dans des élites qui ont abandonné les traditions de la France , pour adopter la sous-civilisation yankee...
Un totalitarisme , le yankisme fait la loi chez nous , mais plus pour longtemps.Les USA sont maintenant totalement déconsidérés dans le Monde et leur "soft power" est en train de rejoindre les poubelles de l ' Histoire....

Good luck to your country in Irak !

www.resisters.ca

Yes, M. AB/AY, you are correct. The French are fat because they cannot resist American "sous-bouffe", whatever that is, and mal bouffe. The French have no will power and are ready at the drop of a pin to abandon their culture for American snacks and sweeties. The French cannot resist American culture and find it infinitely more attractive than their own.

Yes, yes, America is responsible for everything wrong in France -- because the French are owned. Your compatriots have surrendered to American cultural hegemony. They have deposited their souls at McDonalds and Starbucks and the Gap. France has become a nation of tubby zombies, mindlessly buying and consuming American products as instructed from America's secret Zombie Central.

What can we say. You are absolutely correct.

It is so rare for us to find ourselves in agreement with you. Best mark this day in the journal.

Regards,
DGB