[Closed] Fat people in France...

There's definitely not as much "Wandering around eating food" in France

I think its only right to blame our glorious leaders who, quite frankly, have recently been setting a terrible example

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Plus from the ingredient list you've shown it's got nearly no veg in it

Apart from being half tomatoes, and having onion in it.

And it's not a meal in itself, it's a sauce. You add veg 🙄

Surely it also contains preservatives?

I don't see them on the list...?

Getting a tomato or fruit that is ripe and tastes like what it is in the UK can be a job unless you're buying the supermarket premium stuff.

So what you're saying is.. the expensive stuff tastes better.. is that news?

Why not just use a tin of tomatoes and chop up some onions and veg yourself?

Cos I can't make it taste as nice, and it's more effort. Why NOT buy a jar, if it's that good and wholesome?

Because it's lazy and it's not that good?

It describes itself as being packed with carrots, celery and wine.

With wine only accounting for 6% of the total sauce and carrots and celery beign even smaller proportions.

Do you honestly add extra veg or just pour it over some mince?

Apart from being half tomatoes

which are a fruit 🙂

If you like eating variations on a Mediterranean diet you'll be very much at home in a French market/supermarket.

If you like bread and cooked/cured meats and dairy products then Germany will feel like home.

I you like your stodge then a British supermarket is ace.

Just because foreign supermarkets don't have the things you like on the shelves doesn't make them worse, only different. I can't get Marmite in my local supermarket but it has an excellent selection of cheeses made from goat's milk or sheep's milk and Poulain drinking chocolate.

When I went into a Waitrose I was impressed by how many foreign products were on sale. Often at two or three times the price but the British consumer at least has to option: "you pays your money and takes your choice".

When I went into a Waitrose I was impressed by how many foreign products were on sale. Often at two or three times the price but the British consumer at least has to option: "you pays your money and takes your choice".

I haven't been into Carrefour for years, Leclerc has very little foreign stuff. Lidl does a British promo every few months so they had peanut butter today.

It's quite funny don't you think that with all the pain au chocolat and coffee eaten that the French would be the size of a Northern Lass.
Odd non?

Did anyone see BBC news this morning ? The story about the guy who won the hotdog eating competition, didn't he eat 66 of the things.

Puts the Geordie lot to shame like dunnit .

It's just that Carrefour Madrid had an extensive range of British food, if that's your thing.

Does Carrefour not have a decent foreign selection?

Its where I get my baked beans from and Geeta's chutneys.
The beer is pish though, which is horses for courses as far as french beer is concerned. 33 Export anyone? Or would you prefer a Despé?

EDIT:
FWIW, within 10 minutes from my front door, we have: Maccy D's x2, KFC, Subway and Quick. Plenty of fat people here.

Since most stw regulars are inn here, ou et TJ ?

Il est chez nos cousins celtiques, non?

I said less choice, not a different choice.

TJ disappeared after making some perfectly reasonable comments on a thread about a vid of some riders being thoroughly anti-social on their way down Ben Nevis on a bank holiday. He pointed out that they would have been better to choose another day and that if they did insist on riding then should have given way to pedestrians as right-thinking mountain bikers do. One of the people trying to justify the selfish behaviour of riders was... . To continue would break forum rules.

When I visit the continent it never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the food is but there aren't a lot of fat folk about.

Back to Paris for the first week in August JG. Can't wait!

French person here living in the uk .
In France
Portions are a lot smaller .
Not everything comes on same plate .
Lots more fresh products
every food advert on tv has a message about 5 a day .

But it is changing .

Can't wait to go back .

Does Carrefour not have a decent foreign selection?

Telly in Britain is a lot better then other European countries, so I'm guessing that a lot of Brits sit down to watch their favourite programms, while stuffing their faces with oversized grab bag this, bogof that and never move until it's time to waddle off to bed. imo of course.

ou et TJ ?

Well please stick to english...
Où est...

TJ disappeared after making some perfectly reasonable comments on a thread about a vid of some riders being thoroughly anti-social on their way down Ben Nevis on a bank holiday. He pointed out that they would have been better to choose another day and that if they did insist on riding then should have given way to pedestrians as right-thinking mountain bikers do. One of the people trying to justify the selfish behaviour of riders was... . To continue would break forum rules.

Not one of the team from STW Towers, I hope. No, it could never be that. Could it?

No. Silly idea. Of course they would never defend idiotic asshats riding in a selfish, arrogant manner which would damage the reputation of the vast majority of decent mountain bike riders.

So, it wasn't one of the team from STW Towers. I wonder who else it could have been.

Some useful info to put the cause into context

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/11/why-our-food-is-making-us-fat

Basically it is zee Germans fault, and your mums

Edukator - Member

If you like eating variations on a Mediterranean diet you'll be very much at home in a French market/supermarket.

Just because foreign supermarkets don't have the things you like on the shelves doesn't make them worse, only different.

When I went into a Waitrose I was impressed by how many foreign products were on sale. Often at two or three times the price but the British consumer at least has to option: "you pays your money and takes your choice".

My French is a bit rusty/sparse but I successfully managed a 50% discount on some fruit & veg in Leclerc as all that was on offer was so poor in quality and selection.

Like others have said I think the main problem is people not what is available in the shops.

There were at least 30 different types of pasta in the supermarket in Florence, some of which I'd never seen anywhere ouside of Italy. How many in Sainsburys or Leclerc? Is that an issue for me? No.

Supermarkets sell what sells. They choose products on the the basis of DPP (direct product profitability) and profit per metre of shelf space. Farmers do the same. If the farmer with a stall on the local market can't sell something he'll grow something else.

Watching what other shoppers put in their trolleys is always informative. Extremes I've seen include an old couple in an ex-RDA village with just a huge sack of spuds and a bottle of vodka, and a young woman in my local supermarket with only soft drinks and bags of sweets. British trolleys contain lots of industrial cakes and indusrial ready meals.

Edit: so is TJ banned, on holiday, or has he recently got himself a life?

Edukator? Out of interest... in your opinion is there much of a 'Diet' industry in France... weight watchers etc? I didn't look out for SlimFast shakes and the like whilst over there as it wasn't until I got back that I realised that the only fatties I saw were middle aged mtbers from the UK.

Watching what other shoppers put in their trolleys is always informative.

Once saw a fella in front of me at the checkout with nothing else but a cucumber, condoms and a tube of KY Jelly.
I suspect some sort of bet/dare but amusing all the same

The female magazines are covered with "régime" and "diet" in the run up to the Summer holidays but supermarkets promote bio/healthy rather than diet. Madame says the para-pharmacies are where ladies buy the slimming foods and meal substitutes. Some supermarkets have para-pharmacies in them so that would be where to look.

Right I got to read a bit more of this.
First I really do think it's down to eating habits. As I said during my four years in the UK I learn to eat badly (mean anywhere and everywhere). What struck me, is that yesterday I had a recruitment "party" at a private beach around 18h00. Got there a bit in advance and I was starving (it was my third interview and I didn't had much to eat for lunch). So I popped in the local supermarket. And there I realised one thing. This is what I would have done in the UK, I was stuck for beach vicinity so I couldn't walk much further, but in any other case I wouldn't have popped in a super market. I would have gone to a bakery. So I tried to look for savoury but they was nowt. I just got myself a small packet of spirit biscuit. But I would have much prefer a small slice of pizza or pizzaladière. Once again bakery aren't popular in the UK. So are market, and butcher. So once it's down IMHO in the education rather than the food itself.

British trolleys contain lots of industrial cakes and indusrial ready meals

In Asda you might see this more often, you don't see it so much in Waitrose, for example. You are making some terribly sweeping comments.

I think that, following on from what Juan said, there is more choice of eating habit and flexibility in the UK. In some places in Germany and France it seems that you're expected to do everything the same way, shop at the same times and that's that. Here you can eat ready meals, cook from scratch, grab a good salad at lunchtime, sandwiches, soup, loads of different healthy options without needing to shell out for a restaurant.

To be fair Molly... more shopping is done in Asda supermarkets than Waitrose.

Juan is making that out to be a bad thing about British culture... you see it as good. Did you watch 'The Men that Made us Fat'. They invented snacking and eating on the go... it's one of the factors that make us fat.

I think you're trolling BTW. No one can...

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the only fatties I saw were middle aged mtbers from the UK.

Careful who you're calling middle aged Yeti 😉

When we went to france a couple of years ago on one of those camping holidays, the supermarket on site was really shit, full of crap proccessed stuff

They invented snacking and eating on the go

What about the Middle East and India? Doesn't street food feature highly in those places, and has done for hundreds of years..?

Well having just come back from a work trip to Germany, I can say "we" have some way to go in the bad eating stakes.
Eating out, the veg options mainly seemed to be cabbage red/white & boiled/pickled, everything came with a mountain of buttered spuds, and in 4 days I saw very little resembling a green leafy veg, let alone a salad.
And as this was a work trip, it was all "top restauarants" not cheap'n'cheerful...

..Oh, just remembered, I did get a salad - wobbling back from an evening bar vist, chanced across a guy selling kebabs from a street stall - he looked quite surprised when I asked for extra salad 😀

Re: the comment about bread not being real bread if it lasts more than a day is a complete load of piffle.

That doc clearly has no taste:

[url= http://www.thebertinetkitchen.com/sourdough1-2kg-bertinet_1_2kg_sourdough.htm ]http://www.thebertinetkitchen.com/sourdough1-2kg-bertinet_1_2kg_sourdough.htm[/url]

[i]The making of a traditional sourdough loaf is very slow and takes about 18 hours from start to finish. All this time develops a wonderful full flavour from the caramelised thick crust, through to salty and sweet as well as the characteristic sour notes. The thick crust acts as a preserving barrier against the air keeping the loaf fresher for longer. The larger the loaf, the thicker the crust and the longer it will keep. One of our 1.2kg loaves lasts our family of 5 for the best part of a week. Store the sourdough wrapped in a clean tea towel cut side down in your bread bag. It is delicious just as it is for the first 3 or 4 days and then better toasted. It will not mould like some commercial bread. If you have any left over at the end of the week sling it in the magimix to turn into breadcrumbs and store in the freezer.

Ingredients: organic wheat flour, organic spelt flour, organic barley flour, water & sea salt. Our bread does not contain any additives, preservatives or other nasties. However it is baked in an environment where nuts are used so may contain nut traces. Suitable for vegetarians & vegans.

Not suitable for coeliacs.[/i]

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We have one every week delivered.

Nom nom and indeed McNommy Nom.

some of the best salads I have ever eaten have been in germany - they serve salad as a meal not as a side dish ...did you try ordering a salad?

LOL @ Dr Bakes - I'm not risking calling you middle aged... you needed time out with the ginger kitty to help calm you down 😆

The Southern Yeti - Member
To be fair Molly... more shopping is done in Asda supermarkets than Waitrose.

Depends where you live surely...

...I live on what can only be called a "working class estate" actually one of the largest (area wise) in England - in the midlle it has a PO, pub, launderette, newsagent and a supermarket - the supermarket is a Waitrose.
It is usally full of what most stw people would condescendingly call "Chavs" - but, they are all of a fairly normal weight range, and baskets/trolleys are full of "healthy" food stuffs.

This "Fat Brit" thing must be regional, I must say the further N &/or W I travel the more dishevelled, malnourished and unsightly the populace seem to be........

Molly - did you watch the program?

Also, regarding street food... do they add that on top of 3 square meals a day? I'm guessing not... as they're not, in general, fat.

We are!

(Well I'm not 8.7% lalalalalaaaa)

do they add that on top of 3 square meals a day?

Do we?

FFS - did you watch the program? How else do you think there are so many fat ***** here?

The Southern Yeti - Member

LOL @ Dr Bakes - I'm not risking calling you middle aged... you needed time out with the ginger kitty to help calm you down

And now I'm suffering nicotine withdrawal, post holiday blues and Kitty is a thousand miles away. I'm not sure I'd be able to control my rage this time. How's the arm healing up?