Lifestyle:Why French Kids Don't Get Fat

WE’VE heard that French women aren’t fat — now it’s clear their healthy eating habits start in childhood. The country’s primary schools are setting students on the right path with a diet of nutritious, varied and freshly prepared food. Rebeca Plantier, an American mother living in Annecy in south-eastern France, began researching the phenomenon after noticing the difference in her children’s public school meals after moving from USA. Lunches in France consisted of three small, balanced courses, along with plain water so as not to ruin children’s appetites. Meals typically begin with a salad, move on to the main and side dish, then cheese, and finally dessert. “By instilling our children with good habits early on — French kids start school aged three — we can avoid a lifetime of weight issues, and everything that follows in adulthood when there is bad nutrition and excess weight,” she told news.com.au. Her theory is borne out in the fact that obesity rates in France are among the lowest in the OECD, with just under 40 per cent of the population being overweight or obese, while in Australia it’s 60 per cent. Unlike with the often processed, pre-prepared meals sold in Australian schools, food is as fresh as possible, usually cooked on-site in a school kitchen.Menus are varied, and checked every two months by a dietitian to make sure they are balanced and nutritious. The dietitian might take out a small chocolate eclair and replace it with a kiwi fruit for dessert if there’s too much sugar that week, or modify the amount of carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits, or protein to keep the balance right. Ms Plantier points to a wide range of fruit and vegetables at her children’s school, usually sourced locally and often organic. Interestingly, treats are included — the occasional slice of tart, a dollop of ice cream or a delicacy from the local pastry shop — but enjoyed in moderation. “I had my four-year-old come home one day and ask me to start making beet salads because she loves eating them at the cantine (school cafeteria),” she says. “The French government have put nutrition, eating and exercise on high priority where children are concerned, and it shows.” Ms Plantier, co-founder of website Fit to Inspire, has now written a guide to the healthy habits of the French, Lessons from France: Eating, Fitness, Family which she hopes will highlight issues with school cafeteria food, childhood obesity, nutrition for children, and sugar dependence. She claims that when you make health and wellbeing a priority at school, positive things follow: happy children, lack of weight issues, higher energy, better attention spans in class, little to no food allergies and fewer absences.