French Paradox?

Fruit and vegetables, locally grown and sold in large quantities

A variety of well made cheeses, from cows, sheep and goats

Meat, locally reared and killed. The notice shows the names of the farms from which the animals came.

Some fish, always lots to choose from.

Pain de campagne, low gi and eaten in large amounts

Something to finish the meal, not everyday and not too large or too sweet

But don't forget the wine!

So what do the people who according to the statistics are a part of the French paradox seem to buy and eat? Butchers sell all kinds of meat, beef, pork, veal, lamb, lots of duck and other poultry ,rabbit and occasionally goat and horse. Nothing is wasted, almost everything is eaten including parts of the animal usually relegated to pet food in the UK.

Though a long way from the sea, fishis extremely popular and far more plentiful and varied than in the UK. (even our local 'fast food ' restaurant Flunch always has at least 4 fish dishes every day). Dried, salted cod is used in traditional local dishes.

People struggle home with whole trays of fruit, it was melons and peaches this week. Seasonal fruit and vegetables are relatively cheap and people eat lots. Cheese selected carefully but eaten in fairly small portions. Bread, often pain de campagne (made with coarse flour and soudough raised ) rather than baguette is eaten at every meal.

French patisserie , often very rich, tends to be just for Sundays and special occasions, for everyday eating fruit is more common. And the wine, well people drink it,but I often get the impression that they drink less at any one time than the local British inhabitants.

My part of France has the highest life expectancy in France. Most of my neighbours are very elderly. One of the reasons I think they have such long lives is they have been active and remain active. Sadly, when I read the the local paper it often seems that the most common causes of death of the older farmers areagricultural accidents... often turning over the tractor on a steep hill. These men and women have lived hard lives,their youth was during ww2, a time rarely mentioned but I gather that times were hard. Market in the past was as much as anything a social occasion, much of the food was (and is) grown or reared at home. The market was a place to sell the surplus produce and to meet friends and relatives from other villages. Even today much of the chat between locals is in 'patois', here a mix of Occitan and French. Now they drive or are driven to market, but in their youth everyone walked; every week 15km there, followed by 15KM back again.

Whilst they still can, my neigbours continue to walk, perhaps only a few kilometres a day. I see them walking the quiet roads, stick in hand. Apparently the GPs say that they should walk a minimum of 3km a day but I don't think they need to be told, it's what they've always done. The terrain round here isn't easy, it's hard to to farm and you need to be fit to walk any distance. In the photo below I tried to show the hill outside our house . It goes down 250m and then straight up again. One tourist book calls it the land of the 1000 valleys. I'm sure that working and walking in such an area must develop good cardiovascular fitness.

I don't really think there is a paradox. The local diet includes a huge variety of foods, mostly local, fresh and homecooked. People don't count calories, carbs, types of fat or check their vitamin intake. Whats missing, at least in the diet of the older generation are biscuits, crisps, ready meals , sweets and fizzy drinks and snacking between meals. They've also had a lifetime of hard work and whilst they are still able, continue to keep themselves fit.