Myth Buster: Don’t French Women Get Fat?

Myth: French Women Don’t Get Fat

Facts: Oh yes they do! They’re not as fat, on average, as American women. Or British women. Or Mexican women for that matter. But some French women do get fat.

And along with the rest of the French population, they’re getting fatter. One survey found that between 2003 and 2006 obesity rates among women in France increased from 11.9 to 13.6 percent. In 2006, more than 31 percent of French women and 42 percent of French men were either overweight or obese. Among French children, the obesity rate jumped from 5 percent in 1980 to 15 percent in 2000.

Those are far healthier statistics than the ones we see here. More than 67 percent of Americans were overweight or obese in 2006. But if the weight gain continues apace in the land of foie gras and profiteroles, France will be as fat as the United States by 2020.

The French government has responded with alarm, devising a plan to promote healthy nutrition nationwide, banning soda and candy from school vending machines and requiring food advertisements to urge consumers to exercise more and snack less.

The oft-cited culprit for France’s expanding waistline is the “Americanization” of French food culture. Just a generation ago, sitting down two or three times a day with family or friends to eat freshly prepared meals was the national norm. But today, citizens of France—as throughout the industrialized world—reserve less time for their meals, eating on the run or relying on packaged foods. Indeed, France is now McDonald’s second-biggest market after the United States, and all manner of prepared and frozen foods, from cream puffs to filet de sole amandine, fill French supermarket cases.

The irony seems to be that the less time the French, or any of us, spend preparing and eating food, the fatter we get.

Siobhan Roth is a writer based in Washington, D.C.