French people are getting fatter. I first visited France in 2000. I was amazed to see all these fit, healthy people running around. I came back in 2004 and immediately noticed there was a slight increase in fat people. And by fat, I mean noticeably fat, waddling around, tight clothes kind of fat. Obese. I moved here in 2005 and saw even more fat people. So, I agree the trend has arrived.

There's a couple of things to note about how the French eat and think about food in general. The French have a huge, rich culture around food. A typical French day starts with toast, pain au chocolat, or yogurt and coffee or tea or hot chocolate. That's breakfast. There's a "pause" at 10 for another pain au chocolat, croissant, cookie and more coffee. At noon, everyone, and I mean everyone sits down to a large (by American standards) lunch consisting of meat or fish, vegetable and bread, cheese for dessert and the obligatory wine. At four is the gouté which is usually cheese and a piece of bread. At seven is the apero, something salty and a beer, pastis or other such aperitif. At nine is diner, pretty much a repeat of lunch, with dessert consisting of a piece of fruit or yogurt (the French are huge on yogurt. There's whole aisles devoted to it in the supermarkets) Then everyone goes to bed.

Fresh ingredients are a must and the French have a mindset that surrounds food which is in season. So, you eat leeks in winter, melons in summer, crepes in the spring, grapes in fall, etc. However, really ingrained is the idea that when you do sit down to eat, you eat everything on your plate, and it better be a good heaping portion. Women included. I think this is a left over from their parents who suffered during the two world wars here. What is frowned upon is eating a lot of dessert or too many cookies at the pause, or too much cheese at the gouté. One piece of cheese, one cookie. The idea is to eat just enough to make to the next meal

So when you add processed, heavily salted, fatty foods in the mix, and then you're still expected to eat everything on your plate, I think this is the problem. And, I agree with Silenced (for a change), there's nowhere to work out here. I can't think of a single gym in the relatively small village where I live (20,000 people). However, a lot of people play tennis, swim, jog, ride horses and bikes and otherwise get exercise outside.

That said, there's one single McDonald's here and no other fast food outlets. Most people here consider pizza from a pizza truck, or a kebab sandwich to be fast food. I don't know any women who eat at McDonald's. And, I don't know anyone who doesn't sit down for every meal.

Along with the trend toward more processed food, I think we'll see some gyms popping up soon. But, because the French are more united culturally around food, they're going to bring about change in a more global way. I imagine they will soon ban commercials with processed foods aimed at kids, start a healthy eating program authorized by the government. And they'll mostly all follow it because, well, that's what the French do. Especially if it's French.

and I'll say it again, Americans will have universal health coverage when they are willing to pay for it.

I live in France, one of the many First World countries that provides health care to all its citizens. The French pay a lot of taxes for the benefits they enjoy. Yeah, they bitch about having to pay for "all those people who don't work" but if you ask them if they'd rather take away their health care in order to reduce their taxes, they look at you like you're out of your mind.

Watching Michael Moore's "Sicko" illuminated and defined the basic difference between Americans and the rest of the world. Everyone except us feels that it is in all citizens' best interests to help provide for people who are unable to do it for themselves. While Americans feel that everyone should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

Until this basic mindset changes and Americans are willing to pay 10% more taxes--to cover *gasp* the unwashed masses, as well as themselves--and let the government run health care and not big business, Americans (at least those who can) will continue to pay outrageous health care prices. Those who can't afford it will continue to suffer and die as a result.

Yeah, it's about raising taxes and you can bet that no American presidential candidate is using the dreaded "T" word (tax increase) for this election.