Eat Like the French and Stay Skinny?
We’ve all heard before about how the French either have it in their genes, or their diets, to be one of the skinniest of all of us, but why is this? Many theories abound, but really it’s what is most logical that gives the French the lowest heart disease and obesity rates of any of us. And what could that be? Well, it’s actually one of the seemingly hardest things to do and to learn. It’s portion control.
I find that portion control is probably the hardest thing for me to keep in mind when eating my meals, which is probably why I try to limit the foods I eat more in order to make up for the fact that I do have a fairly large appetite, and tend to eat more than even my boyfriend if I’ve sat down to a particular meal hungry out of my mind.
Another thing that is hard for some people to discipline themselves to do is to slow down when eating. My mom happens to have this one down to a T, and also happens to be very thin because of that and an affinity for meats and veggies in her meals rather than loading up on the carbs and simple sugars and getting fuller faster because of the fact that she does eat slowly.
You see, the French eat slower and savor their meals, many times with a glass of wine, and because of this, their brains signal their bodies that they are fuller when they’ve eaten less than if they would have, say, inhaled their food all in one ten minute sitting very quickly. If we slow down our eating, by the time our brain signals our bodies that we are full, we’ve ingested less, and so have less caloric intake. They say that it takes our brains about twenty minutes to register fullness.
This is why many times, you think you’re still hungry and keep eating, and then a half hour later you feel like you’re about to bust open. You’ve overeaten because you haven’t given your body adeqate time to get the message from your brain that you’ve had enough.
