Why dont french women get fat???

[5-element]

Funnily enough, there was an item on the news this lunchtime (FR1) on young (very young) women who feel too fat. One 13-year old refused to reveal what her weight was, another (11-year old) declared that she was still too young to diet and would only start when she gets to 14..... Another one's mum said her teenage daughter is "careful" i.e. doesn't eat much sugar or fat. Yet another could tell that what she needs to eat most not to get fat, was "proteins". It was quite interesting that at 11-14, they seemed to know already what food groups were more OK than others. All the young women interviewed looked - well, just fine, and average.

Katie - wrong move, to throw out those too big jeans. They would have made you feel really thin!  I am size 10 too. (but I used to be size 8 - obviously too much chocolate at the wrong time of the year). But it is true that looking at some women,  I can easily feel like a whale, so I know what you mean.

Woolybanana - "ma petite boudinette", no, I can't imagine anyone who would like it, as you well know. Do you know the expression "boudiné"? It is what one looks like, when wearing clothes that are too small.

 

[cassis]

What's wrong with dressing in sausage skins?

[5-element]

[:D]

Sorry Cassis, didn't mean no dissing sausages in any way,  shape or form...[blink]

[mayday]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the rôle of bulimia in keeping French women thin!

[5-element]

Bulimia was implied, as anorexia, it was so obvious,  maybe that is why it was not mentioned as specific conditions.

Surprisingly perhaps, I have come across more bulimics in England than I have in France. Unless they are much more sneaky and skilled at concealment here, which is always possible. Does anyone know any statistics?

What might be interesting though, is the number of older women who are thin here, and that might be where the difference lies. Now, how long, for how many years, can one continue to be anorexic/bulimic without falling seriously ill? It might depend on the degree - perhaps many women are just borderline, or might be occasionally bulimic rather than systematically.

[Val_2]

What the older woman actually buys here to eat and drink as well affects how they look. When my daughter worked holidays in the supermarket she kept saying to me that the old women always bought the same things every week from same brand of coffee to the same butter and biscuits. I think they all have the same instilled eating habits that came from the early post war years where food was scarcer and less choice and this has been instilled in them and their children since. Some elderly women here look so frail to me and yet others a few years younger are much porkier and rosy cheeked. Osteoporosis seems very prevalent too going by all the info available on the surgery wall the other day and I can't say I am surprised.