The Real French Paradox?

[Guest guest]

You just gotta love those Americans... "when their TV show they were watching was over! :)This was done by Wansinck who I think some of you are familiar with. He wrote the book, Mindless Eating.Internal and External Cues of Meal Cessation:The French Paradox Redux?OBESITY Vol. 15 No. 12 December 2007From the study.....The French were more likely to report food behaviors that suggested that they used internal cues of meal cessation rather than external cues of meal cessation. More so than Americans, the French reported that they stopped eating - when they started to feel full, - when they wanted to leave room for dessert,- and when they no longer felt hungry. In contrast, Americans reported food behaviors that suggested that they tended to use external cues of mealcessation rather than internal cues . More so than the French, Americans reported that they stopped eating - when others thought it was normal, - when they ran out of a beverage, - and when the television show they were watching was over.Reagards JeffAbstractObjective: Our objective was to investigate whether people who use internal cues of satiation when eating a meal arelikely to weigh less than people who instead rely on external cues. In addition to exploring the role that internal andexternal cues play in meal cessation, this study raises an overlooked explanation of the French paradox.Research Methods and Procedures: A demographically matched student sample of 133 Parisians and 145 Chicagoanscompleted a brief survey on meal cessation that asked the extent to which they agreed with statements associatedwith internal cessation cues and statements with external cessation cues. Their answers to these were compared across BMI levels and across countries.Results: Normal-weight people indicated that they were more likely to be influenced by internal cues of meal cessation(p ! 0.043), while overweight people indicated that they were more influenced by external cues (p ! 0.005).Similarly, while the French were influenced by internal cues of meal cessation (p " 0.001), Americans were more influencedby external cues (p " 0.001).Discussion: This research revisits Schachter’s externality hypothesis and suggests that one’s over-reliance on externalcues may prove useful in offering a partial explanation of why BMI might vary across people and potentially acrosscultures. Relying on internal cues for meal cessation, rather than on external cues, may improve eating patterns over thelong term.