America Just like France

France is a country that is known to love food and eating, but still the obesity rate in America is much higher than that in France. In fact, it is the highest of all the major countries in the world. The obesity rate here in America is a whopping 30.6 percent compared to France's mere 9.4 percent. Americans could learn ideas on how to maintain good health by studying the lifestyles and eating habits of the French.

One thing that I think helps the French to maintain good health is portion size. Studies have shown that when you are served larger portions, you tend to eat more than you would if the portion was smaller. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania compared the same restaraunts from both countries and found that on average, portions served in France are smaller than the ones served in America by 25 percent.

Another way that I think the French maintain good health is by eating their food slowly. Since the French are served lesser amounts of food than Americans, they spend more time eating it to savor all the flavor and goodness of it. By eating slowly, it gives your body more time to realize when you are full so you won't over eat. The average time that a French family spends at the dinner table is an average of 40 minutes, which most Americans would find to be crazy. The average dinner time in America is about 25 minutes or less.

One last way that I think the French maintain good health is by eating healthier foods. They eat lots of fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. For snacks, they usually look to some fruit or cheese. Sometimes they even eat it as a course in their meals. Here in America when we want a snack, we usually turn to a candy bar or potato chips, which are loaded with sugar and fat and very unhealthy. If we would replace the candy bar with a banana every once in a while, we could be one step closer to becoming healthy.

As you see, the French have very different eating habits than us Americans. If we would just be more like the French in the way that we eat, we could become a much healthier country. If America used some tips from the French on being healthy and actually worked at it, our country could see a complete turn around. There would be less obesity caused deaths, and people would feel better about themselves. They would also feel physically better. If we all just worked at being healthy, we could bring our over-the-top 30.6 percent obesity rate down much lower if we would just change our bad eating habits.