Thread: Eating Pace

So I was watching this doctor on PBS the other day talking about how one of the reasons the French are thin is because they eat slow (as well as healthy, graze throught the day, and healthy). What do you guys think about that? Does eating slow give you better digestion or anything like that?

The fact is, the French still eat more heathily than the average American. The food tends to be self prepared from highly varied fresh whole foods, is rich in micronutrients, features healthy fats (and even some saturated fats, but in far, far smaller doses than your avg American wolfs down in one MacBigBite), and has more soluble and insoluble fiber, fruits and vegetable servings than typical American dietary fare.

In short, they eat like we should be eating. They eat slowly, they take time for their meals, as social occasions, they pace themselves for eating, and they get far more exercise. Gas is expensive, money goes on other items - most French pride themselves on their culturally derived sophisticated appreciation for food.

Your average American, on the other hand, has relatively little variation in diet. Consumes mostly prepared, fatty and carbohydrate rich food, drinks relatively little water and hasn't a clue on what healthy eating really consist of...some of the posts I see here verify this observation, despite this forum being canted towards a healthy lifestyle. The primary misconception appears to be that supplements will bail your ass out, if you happen to be missing a few micronutrients from diet.

Note: "clean" does not mean healthy. Your ideas on clean as healthy are, perhaps, a wee bit misguided, in some cases.

I may just have to start changing this pattern, one post at a time. There is a damned fine logic behind healthy whole foods consumption. If I have time, I'll start spelling it out here and on other forums I moderate or guest post in frequently.