The Problem
I would like to start by telling you about a phenomenon called the French Paradox. The French Paradox is widely known in the scientific community and refers to the fact that French people eat nearly twice the amount of fat as Americans, yet they experience only a fraction of the obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Americans refer to this as a paradox because drinking expensive wine and eating creamy, rich, delicious food is simply not proper nutrition. How is this possible? How do they get away with eating all of the foods that we wish we could eat and still stay slim and healthy? Surely it must be something different, some kind of special chemical in the wine or cheese? Or maybe it is some genetic mutation shared by the French that didn’t make it across the pond?
These questions are all very American questions. We always jump to a complex scientific assumption rather than just observe the obvious. And what is the obvious answer? Well, it starts with the fact that French people don’t see this as a paradox at all. The way they think about food is different. Their relationships with their bodies are different. Different in what way you might ask. Luckily we can look to our American friend science to get the obvious non scientific answer.
A few years ago Paul Rozin, a University of Pennsylvania psychologist, and Claude Fischler, a French sociologist, began work on a series of cross-cultural surveys of food attitudes. The populations surveyed were the U.S., France, Belgium, and Japan.
What they found was that Americans associated food with health the most and pleasure the least. Asked what comes to mind upon hearing the phrase “chocolate cake”, Americans replied “guilt”, while the French replied “celebration”. In response to “heavy cream” Americans replied “unhealthy” while the French replied “whipped”.
So back to the original question of what is the difference between the French experience of food and the American experience of food. The survey finds that Americans worry more about food and derive less pleasure from eating than people in any other surveyed nation while the French choose foods on the basis of pleasure.
The Slimming Power of Pleasure
Now before we can go further we need to talk about what pleasure is and what pleasure isn’t. We can start by making some general observations about French culture. They eat delicious food but in smaller portions. Going back for seconds and snacking in between meals is considered bad form. They rarely eat alone and instead sit down with family and friends for a long leisurely meal. They, talk, laugh, eat slowly, enjoy their food, and have a small but ridiculously tasty desert. They turn a meal into a social experience rather than about nutrition.
So what can we derive from this about pleasure? One thing we can see is that pleasure is enjoying your food. More specifically, it is experiencing the taste, smell, color, and texture of the food. Can this be done if you are eating large quantities in a short time? No it cannot. Is pleasure eating until you feel physically uncomfortable? Definitely not. Can it be done if you are eating in your car on the way to work? Or at your desk? Or while you are rushed in anyway? Can it be done while you feeling stressed? The answer of course is no.
The Solution
Ok, now that we have discussed how pleasure can be derived from how you eat, let’s talk about what you eat. Can you derive pleasure from frozen foods heated in the microwave? What about packaged frozen foods heated in the oven? Can you derive pleasure from a boxed Weight Watchers meal? Or a Lean Cuisine meal? The obvious answer is no.
Now that the differences between the French and American experience of food is clear, it’s time to discuss the real problem we are facing. I call this the American Paradox. The American Paradox refers to an American population that is obsessed with what is perceived as healthy eating while simultaneously being obese and ridden with diet related diseases. The term American Paradox was first coined in 2004 in an articled written by Michael Pollen and published in the NY Times titled “Our National Eating Disorder”. In this groundbreaking article, Pollen cites studies performed throughout the 20th century that shows Americans growing increasingly unhealthy in parallel with the expanding healthy eating obsession.
Unfortunately the American Paradox and its health implications have not caught on in mainstream health or media. This is most likely because promoting the health obsession is big business for all involved. People buy products and tune in to the latest diet fads and nutrition theories being published. Also of course the health industry that creates the obsession and the media that jams it in your face every day would be embarrassed by these facts being so widely known.
So now the big question becomes how do we break out of the American Paradox? This starts with you. This starts with you taking control of how you eat, how you relate to food, and your relationship with your body. It starts with a shift in thinking that is driven by a physical cleaning. In order to make a shift to pleasure, you must first reverse the desensitization of taste, smell, and texture that has resulted from your eating habits. You must rebalance hormones and flood your body with the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients it needs for peak performance. You must functionally move your body to stimulate a hormone response and stabilize your mood. You must learn to relax, reduce stress, and sleep longer and more deeply. And finally you must learn to live in the here and now and not the past and future.
We invite you to check out the Barenakd Pure Cleanse. It guides you step-by-step to address each of these strategies.
