In this episode, we’re going to talk about what we can learn from the French about food and dining. The French are a fascinating culture, and when it comes to food, I think they’ve got a lot of things right. So first, I’m going to talk about some things that I find really significant about the way the French approach food and dining. In the next episode, we’ll talk about how we can apply some of these principles in our own lives.
Number one: the French have a healthy relationship with food; foods are to be enjoyed by them. They’re not afraid of food – they’re not fixated on eating certain foods, cutting out certain things or only eating certain things. Their relationship with the idea of food and dining is really healthy. They’re not afraid of carbohydrates though they do eat a lot of protein. They don’t have to eat gluten free. You know what’s gluten free? A lovely broth with vegetables and some meat in it. So, they’re interested in having a balanced diet, eating many different things. and getting high nutrition from what they eat.
Number two: they respect mealtimes. Meals are an experience for them. They’re a time to slow down, to enjoy each other’s company, to have fun together as a family, or to have guests over and enjoy a time of fellowship. Their food is more than just nourishment for the body, it’s food for the soul, and a means for healing, a way to have a good family time together. They eat slowly, they enjoy and savor what they’re eating. They don’t rush. And they also make mealtime beautiful. They make it a lovely experience; they make the table look beautiful, the dining room neat, and put on some lovely music. They enjoy it as an occasion.
Number three: they’re social. They don’t eat in isolation or while watching a show. For them it’s a time of fellowship with family and friends. It’s a time where everyone gets together to talk about their days and to bond over the food. They take their time, they’re not in a hurry. It’s not just eat, eat, eat, jump up and go and watch something. It’s a social time, an enjoyable time together. They expect to have good conversation, expect to laugh and enjoy it. All these things contribute to their health and their ability to get good nutrients from their food. Which brings me to number four.
Number four: the French eat nutritious food. They eat a balanced diet which consists of foods from all the food groups, so they have a good variety. Their food is loaded with nutrients that satisfy them. They eat lots of fruit. They’re not afraid of dessert! They eat vegetables. They eat meat. They eat bread. Just about every meal has French bread in it. They eat butter. They have wine with their meals. So, it’s a very simple fare, not processed food, but very nutritious. They try to eat it fresh and whole and make sure that their bodies are nourished.
Number five: they cook their food from scratch at home each night. There’s no take out, so a typical weeknight dinner might be a vegetable soup with a lovely broth, French bread and butter, and then a fish course, or some kind of meat, perhaps with vegetables or potato, and then a dessert: whatever fruit is in season, with a bit of cream or yogurt.
Their soups, as I said, are made from fresh, healthy broths and vegetables; they don’t come out of a can. These days, I think that we’re often encouraged to stock up our pantries with cans to make sure we have food and to maybe cut costs that way. But it’s often at the cost of the nutrients. Canned food is going to have far fewer nutrients. Boxed food is going to be a lot more processed.
I really love the simplicity of just thinking, “Okay, what do we need for dinner? We need a little meat or fish. We need a nice vegetable. We need some fruit, some dairy like cream or cheese.” And there we have it. That somehow simplifies it so much. To know then that my family is getting such good nutrition is really rewarding.
Number six: the French possess optimized digestion. They have good digestion, good metabolism, and no uncomfortable feeling after eating. Part of this is that their food is not genetically modified. In Europe, no GMO products are allowed, so their grains are much more digestible. They use ancient grains like spelt a lot more. They make sourdough, and people find they don’t need to be gluten free. They can eat the sourdough, they can eat the spelt.
But there’s many other things that they do to help their digestion. For example, they eat slowly, they don’t gulp down their food. They sit down, they relax and they know, okay, it’s dinner time. My body can relax. There’s no stress. It’s time for eating. We can focus on digestion. Really being present at a mealtime helps your body a lot with this. It helps our kids to know that they can slow down and that this is a safe time. Bodies can do what needs to be done to assimilate all the nutrition from the meal.
Eating in courses helps our bodies to have time to digest each course before going on to the next one. First, there might be the soup, then the fish or the meat with the vegetable, then maybe a break, and then a fruit or light dessert, and perhaps a cheese course. The cheese also helps with digestion. Sometimes they also have bitters, which are greens – maybe a light bowl of greens with a little bit of olive oil, or a dressing with a vinaigrette, maybe some balsamic vinegar, just lightly sprinkled on the greens. Having just a forkful or two of the greens really helps with digestion. Having a herbal tea together after the meal also helps. This also extends the meal so that there’s no jumping up afterwards and going separate ways, but rather extension of the conversation and more time spent together.
Number seven: the portions are much smaller – oftentimes three times smaller than they are in the USA. The French know when they’re full. They listen to their bodies and then they stop eating. Sometimes having a break between courses helps with this because our bodies have time to absorb what we’ve eaten and to think, okay, now we’re full. If we eat one course very fast, we probably eat more than usual because we don’t realize that we’re full until it’s too late. So, eating slowly and eating in courses is very helpful and our bodies then can know when they’re full.
Number eight: they often walk between courses, or after the meal. We’re often in a huge hurry to just move on to the next thing. And so we jump up after the last person finishes and we clean up and then we go and do our separate things. But sometimes, going for a little walk helps the conversation to grow and helps the connection between family members. Plus, it definitely helps with digestion. Doing a little bit of a walk, even in your backyard, helps your body so much. It also helps your blood sugar to be stable.
Number nine: they eat a huge variety of foods. They’re not afraid to try new things. They experiment, and they’re adventurous in their eating. They’re trying new vegetables and new methods of cooking vegetables. There’s hardly anything that you’ll find a French person won’t eat! They have an amazing variety of meats and vegetables and ways to eat them. They’ll eat snails, they’ll eat organ meats, and they’ll eat unusual things that we often don’t even know exist.
They introduce new foods and everybody just learns to like them. The children are taught from a young age to enjoy their food and to try new things. In France, school lunches are often three course meals. The children sit down at real tables with real knives and forks and they are given real food and they’re not afraid to try whatever’s on their plate.
Number ten: the French eat local, in season food. Often they’ll go to the markets and buy the food that they’re actually going to eat that same day, which gives them fresh air, exercise, and a bit of a connection with other people, as well as the ability to choose the food that they’re going to eat.
They don’t eat frozen stuff very often. They eat foods that are a lot more nutritious. Nutrient dense, fresh food. So, they’ll get in season produce and meat, perhaps from people who’ve driven in from the Mediterranean coast. Maybe fishermen who they can get fish from. There’ll be markets outdoors where they can get their fruits and vegetables. There’ll be a local butcher who can cut the parts they require. It wouldn’t just be the same pre-packaged meat every time. They can get their dairy and their eggs from a local farmer. They certainly wouldn’t go to the supermarket very often for their food.
I know we don’t always have a lot of time to do this. So I think the thing to do is to choose one or two of these items that you want to improve in your own family and try them. When you feel that those are being helpful and are working, then you can try something else. But we shouldn’t feel pressure or feel overwhelmed when thinking about these things, but we should feel joy in trying to decide what ways we want to improve our family’s health, wellness, and togetherness through the way we eat.
So it’s very inspiring thinking about how the French relate to food and to meals. So next time I’m going to talk about some practical ways that we can apply this in our own homes. But I hope you’re feeling inspired and remember you can download Conversation Starters below if you’d like.
