This Europe: French obesity grows with new fondness for fast and fatty food

The French are getting fatter. So is the rest of the developed (or in this case over-developed) world. The difference is that, until 10 years ago, France's relatively healthy eating habits made them much less prone to obesity than other Western countries.

A study this week confirms the findings of two previous reports that suggest this is another exception française being eroded by cultural influences from abroad.

The average French adult has gained two pounds or so in the past three years and almost four pounds since 1997, an obesity survey by the Sofres opinion polling organisation shows.

That may not sound disastrous but the survey reckons there are now 5,300,000 obese people in France, almost one in 10 of the population. If the trend continues, one in five people will be obese by the year 2020, a proportion similar to that forecast in the United States.

The influence of fast food, not just its contents but its tendency to dissolve traditional mealtimes and encourage constant snacking, is blamed for the change in the shape of French people. Among Europeans, French adults are still comparatively light but they are gaining rapidly on the Swedes, Germans and British, the European Union's heavyweight nations.

Although the love of McDonald's is mostly a lower-class phenomenon in France, the survey found little class distinction in the nation's weight problem. Executives are expanding as rapidly as blue-collar workers.

A survey of French health two years ago also warned that traditional French eating and drinking habits were changing, especially among the young, and in the south of the country where the diet had been the most healthy.

Fast, fatty convenience foods have replaced balanced meals and vegetables in many households. Wine and mineral water have been supplanted by beer and sugary soft drinks.

Last year, the education and health ministries sent out a joint circular, asking schools to replace drink-vending machines with traditional water fountains. Professor Arnaud Basdevant, a nutritionist who led the new Sofres investigation, cites the increasingly sedentary lifestyles of young and old. He called for more sports grounds so "children can go and get exercise instead of snacking in front of the television". He said two in three French men over 45 were overweight, making them more vulnerable to cardiovascular problems, hypertension and diabetes.