 wobbling its way down streets across the nation. By dumping traditional dishes for convenience food, the French are walking into the same biochemical trap as everyone else. Unlike high-fat produce, processed food often contains high glycaemic index carbohydrates that produce surging blood-sugar levels, which then plunge back, rekindling hunger. Some of it even triggers the release of brain chemicals that produce craving and stunt satiety. Research has also shown a direct link between how meals are consumed and calorie intake: simply put, people who eat fast and furiously eat more.
Small wonder the French are getting larger by the year. Faced with a potential tsunami of obesity related disease, their government has asked schools to give kids 30 minutes of exercise a day, while banning vending machines selling
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Home-cooked fresh produce has given
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fizzy drinks and snacks. Last year it slapped a 1.5 per cent tax on advertising by food companies that don't promote healthy eating.
French women are also doing their bit to cling on to one tradition: even now, only one in 10 of them are clinically obese - half the rate of women over here. Some have suggested it's the result of all those appetite-suppressing cigarettes - a nice idea, spoiled only by the fact that only around 25 per cent of them smoke, the same as in the UK.
They seem to be relying on nothing more than sheer willpower. But if experience elsewhere in Europe is any guide, they are fighting a losing battle. In the end, the French will end up looking like the rest of us. 
FIRST POSTED AUGUST 16, 2006
 Fat profits - food giants sued like tobacco companies
Science and Technology factfile
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