Supersize Me!

I'm really looking forward to watching the documentary 'Supersize Me'. This is a funny and yet serious look at the American obsession with fast food, where the moviemaker survives on a diet of supersized McDonald's meals for a month, while doctors track his vitals with horror. Incidentally, the website www.supersizeme.com is pretty cool in itself and has many links including to this story about why the French do not face similar obesity problems. You should read the whole story, but here is one excerpt I particularly liked:

Nutritionist Dr Francoise L'Hermite says the French secret to staying slim is to do exactly as Clemence and her family do - make sure you sit down with friends or family for a meal, eat three times a day at regular intervals, don't snack, don't eat in front of the television, and finally - eat slowly and savour both the food and the company.

"For France, a meal is a very particular moment, in which you share pleasure, the food as well as the conversation," she says. "From an Anglo-Saxon point of view, food is just fuel to give energy to your muscles. If you have no pleasure in it, you are breaking all the rules of eating."