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Nutrition is huge in my life. I think that consuming your daily values of nutrients is essential for healthy living. The French just don’t seem to share this philosophy.  I do not exaggerate when I say that there are more patisseries (bakeries) than bathrooms. My friends say I am just bitter because I’m allergic to wheat, and they may be onto something… 😉 but on the real, it is downright unhealthy to eat bread and pastries all day!

While the pastries here absolutely provide short-term satisfaction, as they are truly to-die-for, people constantly consume them as if they are a nutritional staple rather than an occasional treat (as they should be). I would assert that the critical components of the French diet include bread/pastries, cheese, chocolate, charcuterie, wine, yogurt, and clownishly small portions of coffee.

This brings me to a stereotype that I have found to be: SO TRUE! The French do love to say that Americans are fat. This amuses me, because I have found two tiny gyms in one large city and everywhere I go (other then directly to the grocery store where one can find almost anything,) I find monosaccharaides. To those of you scratching your heads: that means simple sugars; you’re welcome.

Before I really took the time to observe, I was under the impression that all French women are thin. Popular discourse I had been fed all of my life from Western media outlets led me to believe that French women, repulsed by fuller-figured American women, limited themselves to very small and infrequent portions of food to maintain frail silhouettes. I worried that maybe I would stand out here for having what is considered to be an athletic figure at home, which might be interpreted as overweight for a girl in the land of the Francs. I am a smart girl, but just because I know that it is not rational to worry myself over unsubstantiated stereotypes- doesn’t mean that I actually don’t do it- I will chalk that behavior up to an insuppressible element of the young human condition.

What I find here, rather unsurprisingly, is that while there are in fact plenty of dainty, thin French females, there are just as many soft-bodied, chubbier ones. Just like in the United States, there is a wide range of body types, and none so common that they can easily be generalized as true for most French women. A phenomenon that I do observe is that there seems to be a lot less preoccupation with working out in France than there is in the States, so perhaps American females are discursively perceived to be larger overall as a result of an increased prevalence of muscle mass. While there is always some (limited) truth in stereotypes, it is deceptive to paint entire populations with a broad brush.

On that note, I am about to throw together the tabbouleh and beet salad that I grabbed from the supermarché!

 À Bientôt,

RJB

Location: Montpellier, France