What The Onion says about it
Patience:
Shopping for food takes time. Preparing food takes time. Eating food takes time. People are impatient. They don't want to spend time shopping, cooking or eating, and even think of it as a "waste" of time. Our fast-paced culture contributes to this problem by giving less than an hour for lunch and offering constant options for "fast food". This supports an image that eating is not important and that it can and should be as fast and convenient as possible. The result is that people often don't have time or patience to shop, so they order take-out and get drive-through meals. People don't have time or patience to cook, so they stock-up on pre-prepared food which often has lots of preservatives and is far removed from the original fresh food source. People don't have time or patience to eat, so they wolf down whatever will fill them up the fastest, and so often skip anything that requires time to cut or eat, like salads, meats and soups. As a result people often are still not full by the time lunch break is over. Then people need to snack between meals because they're still hungry but they don't have time for a real meal. The body adapts by shrinking the stomach to a standard smaller size, so that we get full faster but need to eat more often. Before I moved to France the longest I could go without eating was 4 hours.
The French have a slower pace of life in general, but even the busiest of people insist on taking a full hour for lunch. It's regarded as a break from the busy day, a needed time to pause between the racket, and in no way is seen as a waste of time. Most French people consecrate about two hours every Saturday for food shopping. Some go to an outdoor farmer's market for the freshest ingredients, others go to the supermarket and stock up on everything they need for the week. Many people go as a couple or with their family so that they are not alone, and so it goes faster and doesn't seem like a resentful chore. Dinner is planned at least 6 hours in advance, and whoever is making dinner that night makes sure that afternoon that they have everything for a 3 course balanced meal (fruit/salad, meat and cooked vegetable, bread and cheese or fruit/chocolate). Anything missing can be picked up at the supermarket, but mostly they plan around what food is already at the house. They expect to spend about an hour cooking, and plan for it, so that it is not a surprise or a burden. Cooking a proper 3 course meal is always more fun than microwaving a TV dinner, and so cooking becomes a creative adventure and the result is something you look forward to and can be proud of. They also don't snack between meals, so that by the time dinner is ready, they are really hungry and the food tastes better. They eat dinner with company, whether that's another person to talk to, or a full one-hour TV program, but dinner is enjoyed slowly, and they eat until they are full. As a result, the stomach adapts by becoming more elastic, able to shrink quite small before absolute hunger is felt, and able to expand to hold a large meal that will last up to 9 or 10 hours before the next meal. Now I can usually wait 6 or 7 hours between meals before I get really hungry.
Attitude:
Within a fast food, consumer-oriented culture we are surrounded by advertising. Our culture says it's ok to snack, and we are confronted daily with offers for fast, delicious doughnuts, chips, soda-pop, cheeseburgers, pizza and chocolate bars. While we know these things are unhealthy in excess, once in a while (once a week usually) we grab something to tide us over until dinner. Because we are never full after a meal, and because we fear hunger, we think we "need" these snacks. They are seen as sinful delights, and because they are so "bad" for us and so instantly gratifying, we worship them as a culture. They are the best kinds of food that we dream of and we feel rewarded when we indulge in them. We often don't know or care where they came from, and although we do know they have calories, there are also many "lite" options that reduce the guilt. Most of us are unaware however how truly horrible for our body these things are. On the other hand, most healthy food is not revered in our culture, but is looked upon as a boring but morally correct choice that many of us struggle to succeed in eating regularly.
Fresh raw foods and ingredients are also usually cheaper than their pre-packaged counterparts and so should logically be the preferred choice in our penny-pinching society. Our consumer culture also teaches us, however, that price reflects worth, and so the low price makes us unconciously think that fresh food is in fact worthless, so things like rice, beans, broccoli, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, green peppers, apples, oranges and bread routinely rot in the cupboard or fridge when we don't feel like cooking and opt for another take-out.
The French are obsessed with food, and have a very different attitude towards food and eating in general. Food is regarded as a privilege and a blessing, something to be cared for and used properly, and never disrespected or wasted. People demand only the freshest food and buy only what they can use in a week before it rots. They cook only as much as they will eat in the meal, or cook double and save any leftovers for the next day. They don't even put more on their plate than they'll eat, so the portions are small but they'll go for seconds if they're still hungry, and they always eat as much as they want during a meal. They never starve themselves, but wait until a meal to eat, (or eat a meal instead of a snack) and then eat as much as they want. Never leave the table hungry.
People here are also very aware of the nutritional benefits of real food, and often know where their food comes from. They know what shrimp and fish look like raw, and how to cook them. They know what part of a pig or cow they are eating, and they know which berries or mushrooms in the forest are good to pick. They choose dishes with variety and simplicity: fresh fruit, non-iceburg lettuce, pasta with fresh chopped herbs, chopped stewed vegetables and roast meat and fish. Many people either have a little pot of parsley growing on the windowsill or buy bunches of fresh herbs the day they will cook (or put the cut branches in a vase like flowers). They know which herbs will help digestion, headache, relieve water retention, relieve stress and increase blood flow, and so they usually use fresh instead of dried herbs.
They always know what food there is in the house, and feel a duty to cook what there is, not what they feel like eating. They drink juice (with no sugar added), water and wine instead of soda-pop or milk. They eat nuts and olives instead of chips and dip. They only eat 5 potato chips at a time, and right before dinner, maybe once a month. They only eat one doughnut or chocolate eclair a month, after a meal. They eat two squares of dark chocolate after a meal instead of suger-added candy bars. They drink black coffee with one or two sugar cubes (one of the only acceptable times to eat sugar). They eat one scoop of ice cream maybe every 3 months, after a meal. They use fresh light cream instead of cheesy sauces on meat, pasta or vegetables. They never eat more than two pieces of pizza at one time. They cook with oil instead of butter. They boil, bake or steam instead of fry. They eat three lettuce leaves with oil and vinegar with most meals, and they never eat pasta or pizza without an equal amount of salad.
Why so little sugar, fat and carbs? Sugar is regarded not as the sinful secret lover, but as the evil, invasive destroyer. Commercials show a mother explaining how sugar will practically kill her child, so best choose this yogurt with no sugar (and no suger substitute). Candy commercials and candy products now carry a large print warning at the bottom, similar to the ones on cigarette packages, that says "sugar and fat are harmful to your health, consume this product in moderation and make sure to exercise and eat right". With so little sugar and grease in their diet, their stomachs adjust and they don't like the taste of sugery things anymore, and eating greasy things gives them indigestion.
Discipline:
So how can they possibly resist the goodness of such delicious gourmet meals, cream, chocolate, etc.? Their willpower is strong, but the main motivator is one of the most powerful psychological tools that exist: Peer pressure. Because their society is so obsessed with looking fashionable, stylish and thin, anyone even moderately overweight is unmercifully called "fat" and even publically sneered or laughed at. Anyone taking a conspicuously large helping of something heavy or unhealthy gets looks, and taking more than one chocolate eclair is seen as outrageously selfish and greedy. There is no ideal of individual freedom here, and you are not socially free to eat what you want, when you want. Collective heath and well being is the norm, and so people will not take more than others, so that everyone is sure to have enough to eat. Snacking is scorned as a sign of greediness or weakness and as hungry as you might be, or as good as that chocolate eclair may look, not many are willing to risk the humiliation of buying one at 3:30 pm and indelicately scarfing it down in public. A suitable snack here is bread with jam or honey or a piece of fruit. It's not nice, it's not necessarily good, but it's a very effective way to keep people from frequently eating unhealthy things. (I must say, though, that it is at times too much, and I have seen more chronically anorexic girls in France than anywhere else. It is a very sad but widespread consequence of taking this attitude too far, and mixing it with an adoration for runway models and fashion.)
-Brazilian model who died of anorexia
Meals are also disciplined, and while it may be difficult at times to hold off until dinner, the quality of the food is so good that you don't mind being hungry, and even enjoy being hungry in anticipation of the food to come. Chocolate and cream are not sinful, since they're not illegal or banned - you just have to wait for the right time to have some. Potato chips and doughnuts are not missed, since they don't compare to the satisfaction of the real food you get at meal times. Overall people enjoy shopping, cooking and eating, and it's true that France is known for arguably some of the best food in the world.
A note about exercise:
While the French are not sporty people, they are not lazy either. Rarely will you see people jogging in public, and there are not many membership gyms, but many people bicycle both to work and to the park on weekends, and if they need to go somewhere close, they'll walk (if it's a 30 minute one-way walk or shorter). While the car is convenient, the price of gas, the hassle of parking, and the peer-pressure to prevent wasting carbon-dioxide emissions are all factors that contribute to the large number of people who walk at least 20 minutes a day. This, in addition to taking the stairs and carrying a shopping basket instead of pushing a cart, is pretty much all they do as far as exercise.
So there you have it.
Replace 30-minute lunches, fried foods, packaged snacks, high sugar pastries, cheesy and greasy food, soda-pop, microwave dinners, elevators and 1/2 mile car trips with 1-hour meals, baked and steamed food, fresh salads, occasional low-sugar pastries, unpasteurized cheese and bread, sugar-free juice, stairs, and bike rides.
Easier said than done, but once done, easy to keep doing it!
