Might the French paradox be explained (at least in part) by their F&V consumption?
A study in the current print edition of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition compares the F&V consumption of French and US adults. The results don’t paint a pretty picture. Neither Americans nor the French ate their recommended minimum of five servings a day (the study actually looked at the frequency of consuming fruits and vegetables, not at quantity), but there were significant differences between the two populations. • French women ate the most F&V, followed by French men. In third place were American women, followed by American men, who ate the least F&V. • The distribution of the Body Mass Index (BMI, a measurement that estimates a healthy body weight based on how tall a person is) in the two countries was strikingly different: 31% of the US subjects were obese, compared to 8% of the French subjects. • There was a negative association between fruit and vegetable intake and BMI; in other words, the higher the F&V intake, the lower the BMI. • Education was correlated with F&V
