Diet in Latin language speaking countries of Europe

a.p.a.m.   Mon Jul 24, 2006 1:58 pm GMT
There's another major difference between French and Italians. You mentioned that the French have a greater taste for wine. The French also prefer to have a snob chef to prepare their meals for them. Italians prefer to have their mothers or grandmothers do the cooking. It makes much more sense. By the way, much of French cuisine is derived from Italian cuisine via the Medici family.
fuocco   Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:22 pm GMT
no, during the CPE controversy, many Mc Donalds have been destroyed (symbol of liberalism).


At list, the machines where you buy some Mars, Twix...are unallowed in french schools.

Many energy drinks are also unallowed.

They will do the same with the crisps.

As you can notice, France is the list overweight country with Swiss.
Guest   Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:55 pm GMT
http://www.e-sante.fr/magazine/article.asp?idArticle=846&idRubrique=4

"L'obésité en France : +17% en trois ans !
L'obésité en France ne cesse d'augmenter....
La proportion de sujets présentant un surpoids ou une obésité est passée de 37% à 39%, soit actuellement 17 millions de Français !"
nun ,es   Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:09 pm GMT
"Despite all the butter and cheese and heavy sauces, France has the lowest rates of overweight and obesity in Europe--25 percent--according to the International Obesity Task Force. The United States, by contrast, suffers with a 64 percent obesity rate."
http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:yEca_DTwSxwJ:goeurope.about.com/od/france/a/france_esntls.htm+the+less+overweight+country+in+europe+france&hl=fr&gl=fr&ct=clnk&cd=4



"17 millions de Français !" LOL LOL LOL Are you sure you have ever been in Paris, let me laugh.

I never said, there was not, according to recent studies the most overweight contry in Europe is UK, the less France and Swiss.

And of coursei am not talking about the winner: "USA"

My scottish friends who came last week were surprised to not see anobody overweighted in Lyon.


Mc Donald is where the american tourists are. Some recent stidies have shown that the french children like the toy but not the food. My son does not like it, my nephew doesn't like it...

Anyway you are wrong and you won't admit it.
LAA   Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:59 pm GMT
No, it's just that most French restraunts which I've experienced here in the states, are very formal (not familial and hospitable, and layed back like Ristorante Italiano), because they are usually more high end food. The meals are of small portions, but usually contain a thick creamy sauce, a lot of mushrooms, onions, garlic, butter, potatoes, etc. To me, this is very different from southern Italian cuisine, which features a lot of cheese, tomato based sauces, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, pasta, olives, fish, etc. Italian cuisine is one of my most favorite of all. In some cases, I actually prefer Italian over Mexican. Perhaps that's because I eat Mexican food nearly every day!
fab   Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:35 pm GMT
" Not half as jealous as you, as I've lived with many Italian families. And they generally have low standards for wine, at least compared to the French. "
"No, it's just that most French restraunts which I've experienced here in the states, are very formal (not familial and hospitable, and layed back like Ristorante Italiano), because they are usually more high end food. The meals are of small portions, but usually contain a thick creamy sauce, a lot of mushrooms, onions, garlic, butter, potatoes, etc. "






You have I think in mind the idea of "frenchness" linked with the international "high-culture" that you can find in the rich districts of Paris.
For some reasons this seems to be this part of the french culture wich is more famous in foreign countries, especially in the USA.
99% of France and French people are not part of this "bourgoisie" and have nothing common in the "snobbish" behaviour and such.
For us, our culture, our language and food are an everyday familial and friendly relation - we eat with noise, speaking of everything and nothing,
The french wines which are famous outside France are the "grands crus", some wine whose price is prohibitive for most people, that the reason why we sell it to the new rich Americans who are acting as snobbs saying "oh it is a grand cru, I've buy it to a bordeau chateau, etc..." This way American people think that all french people are living in grands domaines in Castels and bourgeoise demeures speaking with manners and so on... It is sooo far from the reality that this stereotype is really laughable.

For us, the French culture is basically a popular and country-rooted one, especially for cooking. The "nouvelle cuisine" served in international restaurants under the name "french food", if far to be the food that we traditionally eat in our everyday meal !
Most of us, when having meals we drink "vins de table", it means the low-price wines from not renowed wineyards. A lot of people dronk the local wines, in what we call "coopératives", pleces where the owners of small winyards come to give their little grape grape production for some bottles of vin de table. My parents do the same with the olive they have in the graden, and get some olivee oil wine of their own production in exchange.
You have to realise that Wine drinking and french food in France is not a "chic" or snobbish attitude as it can be in some foreign country, but an everyday familial an convivial drink. I personally almost never had tasted a "grand cru", and eat almost never in restaurants that serve "high cuisine" or "nouvelle cuisine". As all "naromal" french people I prefer a convivial restaurant where I can talk and sing with my friends than a restaurant for aristocrats where the plate is almost empty.

A everyday meal in France look more like that :
http://www.agualine-provence.com/img/ta3.jpg

Than this ! :
http://www.maritim.de/typo3/fileadmin/maritim/pics/hotels/hotels/ber/ber_09.gif

And it can also unfortunally be this :
http://gifs-en-folie.sportblog.fr/images/mn/1143477018.jpg


the lunch time in countryside can be like this :
http://www.cepdargent.com/images/interface/img_ti_piknik.jpg
http://www.u-blog.net/aslvieillebergerie/img/Repas.jpg
fab   Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:13 pm GMT
guest, you're a coward. Reveal thyself and face up. Scum
greg   Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:20 pm GMT
a.p.a.m : « The French also prefer to have a snob chef to prepare their meals for them. Italians prefer to have their mothers or grandmothers do the cooking. »

C'est (très) mal connaître la cuisine (et la société) française...
Guest   Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:31 pm GMT
Justement, I'm talking about vins de table and not a snobbish culture of expensive wines involving gustation and other drinking rituals. This has nothing to do with foreigners (or your synonym "American") because the French have their bourgeoisie (petite, moyenne, haute, whatever...it's there.) and even the petits bourgeois put on airs.

Forget about the proper process of vendange, pigeage, etc that you are implying from a region de vignoble that makes wine. The idea lies in the simple fact that most Italians make their own wine crudely.
greg   Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:33 pm GMT
C'est la ignorance, guest.
LAA   Tue Jul 25, 2006 3:08 am GMT
"You have I think in mind the idea of "frenchness" linked with the international "high-culture" that you can find in the rich districts of Paris.
For some reasons this seems to be this part of the french culture wich is more famous in foreign countries, especially in the USA. "

Yes, you could say that. Cosmopolitan "Parisian" France is what most foreigners, and especially those not from Europe, are exposed to. I am of the opinion that there are two Frances, just as there are two Italys. And Americans are exposed to Parisian fashion, fine cuisine, and culture. Perhaps that is why our two conceptions of France are so conflicting, as you think of France in terms of the south, and non-metropolitan, and I think in terms of Paris.

Could you describe a few typical meals everyday Frenchmen like you would eat? And please limit it to French food, and not Japanese, or American fast food, or Italian, etc.
Kelly   Tue Jul 25, 2006 3:18 am GMT
''Could you describe a few typical meals everyday Frenchmen like you would eat?'' goose liver pate, creamy soup, volauvent with ginger and Diet Pepsi