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#1
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What constitutes Junk Food in France?
This question popped up in my mind because there is the general consensus (perhaps) that the term "junk food" only applies to American food of the McDonald's variety. But a visit to any French grocery store will allow one to see junk food which is not American in origin. First, what is junk food?? To borrow a term it could be food with ³no redeeming nutritional value". So is the pornographic equivalent in food. My wife is currently working on a medical history project dealing with the "diet" of the French curing the occupation period. It was an epoch in which the diet was "low calorie" because the food eaten, largely vegies, had low calorie levels. Man differs from the vegie eating Mountain gorillas in that the latter spend all day eating low calorie stuff and their intestinal tracts are four times larger than our own. Like cows they had to eat a lot to get enough to live on. Man found starch containing roots, which have more calories than eating carrot greens, and threw in some animal protein too, which is high calorie stuff. Anyway, the non-Germans in Europe during WWII were all on a Nazi imposed diet and not having gorilla digestive tracts could not make up for it. They were eating junk food. The French of today are different. For children there is the practice in late afternoon of their having a "snack" (now a French work) which generally consists of some high calorie item to energize the little ones until dinner around 8 PM. So items from the grocery store or the patisserie are used. Our daughter as a 5 yr old adored the "palmier", a sort of large cookie in the form of a palm cutting, covered with carmelized sugar. The list of patesserie offerings is large; pain aux raisins, chausson aux pommes, financier, pain au chocolat Flan, tarte au citron, etc etc. These freshly prepared products are better than those coming out of boxes of stuff sold at the market, which now includes chocolate ship cookies. Many cookies or cookie like industrial products are heavy on the cholocate and the choice is enormous. So in a certain sense, the French do have their junk food. Possibly the main difference is that they don`t snack heavily and mostly not in front of TV watching their favorite soccer (sorry football in French) team. Earl |
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What constitutes Junk Food in France?
"Earl Evleth" wrote
| But a visit to any French grocery store will allow | one to see junk food which is not American in origin. | First, what is junk food?? To borrow a term it could | be food with ³no redeeming nutritional value". So is | the pornographic equivalent in food. But nutritional value - and I should hardly have to say this to a French person - is far from being the only criterion by which we judge food. If it were, we could all live on nutritionally-balanced little green diet pills. The mouth is one of the most sensitive parts of the human body (babies explore things by putting them in their mouths) and food delights our senses of taste, smell, touch, as well as being attractive visually and having strong cultural significance. Whilst some will make claims of the efficacy of antioxidants in tea, the simple mug of tea has little nutritional value - some sugar, some caffeine, a little calcium and protein from the milk - yet a cup of tea certainly has redeeming values beyond its nutritional content. Offering one to a visitor is way of expressing welcome and an invitation to stay a while longer, or to a distressed or bereaved person a way of expressing concern and sympathy. A cup of tea signifies a psychological change of tempo on a work break, the employee is on his own time not his employer's, and the first cup of tea on arriving home from work, the end of the working day. To jump to your later point, it was the Nice Cup Of Tea and a Stiff Upper Lip, and the associated maintenance of morale, that won us the war. Junk food, therefore, is not merely food with no redeeming nutritional value. It isn't even always food with *adverse* nutritional value. | pain aux raisins, chausson aux pommes, financier, | pain au chocolat flan, tarte au citron, etc etc. I wouldn't call any of those junk food. Sweets, fancies, indulgences, but they are also delicacies, carefully constructed to be savoured, all representing their location and the time of their origin, just as a steak and kidney suet pudding says something about a time and place of British cooking. Junk food is, IMHO, food that has no redeeming value whatsoever, save perhaps its calorific value in the most easily consumed form possible. Junk food is not merely lacking in nutrients - calories are a nutrient in a sense - but in skill of preparation, theatre of service, texture taste and aroma of mastication, comfort of digestion ... That is what is junk food. And why do children want chicken nuggets and burgers? Because the menu is easy to choose from and it all tastes basically the same anyway. Because the service is quick and children always want Now! Because you unwrap the food like presents at christmas, play with the food, eat with the fingers, and get an instant fat and sugar rush. And no probelms about Elbows On The Table and Ask Before You Get Down. Because when they go to the burger restaurant mum and dad pay attention to them, instead of ignoring them and dragging them round Boring Shops. Children are taught that chicken nuggets and burgers are desirable treats or rewards for good behaviour. | My wife is currently working on a medical history project | dealing with the "diet" of the French curing the occupation | period. It was an epoch in which the diet was "low calorie" | because the food eaten, largely vegies, had low calorie | levels. ... | Anyway, the non-Germans in Europe during WWII were all | on a Nazi imposed diet and not having gorilla digestive | tracts could not make up for it. They were eating junk | food. That is interesting. Two TV programmes in Britain, one in the summer and one only a few weeks ago, put children back on a 1940s or 1950s (food rationing continued in Britain until the 1950s, I think) diet. The 1950s one sent them to boarding school 1950s style, with compulsory exercise, and some of them lost weight but were perfectly healthy - if not more healthy than today's children. Far from being junk food, many nutritionists think that the wartime ration diet in Britain, which was carefully designed at the time to be the minimum on which people could survive - in a much more labour intensive lifestyle - is still by today's standards a healthy nutritious diet. The boarding school programme was called "That'll Teach 'Em" and was broadcast by www.channel4.com - there may still be info and discussion boards on the site. I can understand that the situation faced by the French during the occupation could have worse on the food front, with perhaps very little fats and sugars, but I think it's wrong to confuse the effects of junk food - a surfeit of nutritionally inadequate food consumed *by choice* in preference to readily available healthy food - with malnutrition caused by restricted availability of *any* food. Owain |
#3
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What constitutes Junk Food in France?
je ne vois pas en quoi, la diététique francaise sous l'occupation
ni les habitudes gastronomiques des enfants au retour de l'école, pourrait être d'un quelconque intérêt sur un forum de voyage !!! Mez "Earl Evleth" a écrit dans le message de news: ... This question popped up in my mind because there is the general consensus (perhaps) that the term "junk food" only applies to American food of the McDonald's variety. But a visit to any French grocery store will allow one to see junk food which is not American in origin. First, what is junk food?? To borrow a term it could be food with ³no redeeming nutritional value". So is the pornographic equivalent in food. My wife is currently working on a medical history project dealing with the "diet" of the French curing the occupation period. It was an epoch in which the diet was "low calorie" because the food eaten, largely vegies, had low calorie levels. Man differs from the vegie eating Mountain gorillas in that the latter spend all day eating low calorie stuff and their intestinal tracts are four times larger than our own. Like cows they had to eat a lot to get enough to live on. Man found starch containing roots, which have more calories than eating carrot greens, and threw in some animal protein too, which is high calorie stuff. Anyway, the non-Germans in Europe during WWII were all on a Nazi imposed diet and not having gorilla digestive tracts could not make up for it. They were eating junk food. The French of today are different. For children there is the practice in late afternoon of their having a "snack" (now a French work) which generally consists of some high calorie item to energize the little ones until dinner around 8 PM. So items from the grocery store or the patisserie are used. Our daughter as a 5 yr old adored the "palmier", a sort of large cookie in the form of a palm cutting, covered with carmelized sugar. The list of patesserie offerings is large; pain aux raisins, chausson aux pommes, financier, pain au chocolat Flan, tarte au citron, etc etc. These freshly prepared products are better than those coming out of boxes of stuff sold at the market, which now includes chocolate ship cookies. Many cookies or cookie like industrial products are heavy on the cholocate and the choice is enormous. So in a certain sense, the French do have their junk food. Possibly the main difference is that they don`t snack heavily and mostly not in front of TV watching their favorite soccer (sorry football in French) team. Earl |
#4
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What constitutes Junk Food in France?
Earl Evleth wrote:
This question popped up in my mind because there is the general consensus (perhaps) that the term "junk food" only applies to American food of the McDonald's variety. Actually, in my experience the term "fast food" is usually used in America to describe McDo's, BK, KFC, etc. The term "junk food" would be used to describe potato chips, cookies and candy. So in a certain sense, the French do have their junk food. Possibly the main difference is that they don`t snack heavily and mostly not in front of TV watching their favorite soccer (sorry football in French) team. Their loss then. Nothing wrong with some munchies for the game. Sometimes I prefer chips(or crisps) and beer, other times wine and cheese or nuts. The problem isn't necessarily the foods themselves, but the quantities that *some* people consume. Everything in moderation is my creed. K http://www.regimechangeusa.org/ |
#5
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What constitutes Junk Food in France?
On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 23:21:42 +0100, mezanaod wrote:
je ne vois pas en quoi, la diététique francaise sous l'occupation ni les habitudes gastronomiques des enfants au retour de l'école, pourrait être d'un quelconque intérêt sur un forum de voyage !!! pourraient And BTW, your colons are somewhat approximate too. Mez "Earl Evleth" a écrit dans le message de news: ... This question popped up in my mind because there is the general consensus (perhaps) that the term "junk food" only applies to American food of the McDonald's variety. But a visit to any French grocery store will allow one to see junk food which is not American in origin. First, what is junk food?? To borrow a term it could be food with ³no redeeming nutritional value". So is the pornographic equivalent in food. My wife is currently working on a medical history project dealing with the "diet" of the French curing the occupation period. It was an epoch in which the diet was "low calorie" because the food eaten, largely vegies, had low calorie levels. Man differs from the vegie eating Mountain gorillas in that the latter spend all day eating low calorie stuff and their intestinal tracts are four times larger than our own. Like cows they had to eat a lot to get enough to live on. Man found starch containing roots, which have more calories than eating carrot greens, and threw in some animal protein too, which is high calorie stuff. Anyway, the non-Germans in Europe during WWII were all on a Nazi imposed diet and not having gorilla digestive tracts could not make up for it. They were eating junk food. The French of today are different. For children there is the practice in late afternoon of their having a "snack" (now a French work) which generally consists of some high calorie item to energize the little ones until dinner around 8 PM. So items from the grocery store or the patisserie are used. Our daughter as a 5 yr old adored the "palmier", a sort of large cookie in the form of a palm cutting, covered with carmelized sugar. The list of patesserie offerings is large; pain aux raisins, chausson aux pommes, financier, pain au chocolat Flan, tarte au citron, etc etc. These freshly prepared products are better than those coming out of boxes of stuff sold at the market, which now includes chocolate ship cookies. Many cookies or cookie like industrial products are heavy on the cholocate and the choice is enormous. So in a certain sense, the French do have their junk food. Possibly the main difference is that they don`t snack heavily and mostly not in front of TV watching their favorite soccer (sorry football in French) team. Earl |
#6
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What constitutes Junk Food in France?
And BTW, your colons are somewhat approximate too.
It must have been all that junk food -- Terry R. My return address is munged |
#7
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What constitutes Junk Food in France?
C'est vraie!!!
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#8
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What constitutes Junk Food in France?
On 16/01/04 23:21, in article ,
"mezanaod" wrote: je ne vois pas en quoi, la diététique francaise sous l'occupation ni les habitudes gastronomiques des enfants au retour de l'école, pourrait être d'un quelconque intérêt sur un forum de voyage !!! Mez To understand the present you have to understand the past. The context of way things are. Earl |
#9
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What constitutes Junk Food in France?
In article ,
Keeger wrote: Earl Evleth wrote: This question popped up in my mind because there is the general consensus (perhaps) that the term "junk food" only applies to American food of the McDonald's variety. Actually, in my experience the term "fast food" is usually used in America to describe McDo's, BK, KFC, etc. The term "junk food" would be used to describe potato chips, cookies and candy. and nutritionally most fast foods i.e. McDonalds, KFC etc are the equivalent of much of what is eaten in say France -- I am not arguing that pain au chocolate is not superior to a hot apple pie at McDonalds -- but to argue that one is 'junk' and the other not is silly And a hamburger or fried chicken is nutritionally equivalent to a croque monsieur or plate of pate, cheese, or steak frittes there seems to be a subtext here of general snottiness -- as if an alcoholic who drinks dom perignon is somehow superior to one drinking ripple -- they are both drunks fatty, sugary, salty foods are junk whether produced by a cordon bleu chef or the people who make cheetos |
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