Is carrot salad the answer to the French "paradox"?

Rachel

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Apparently, grated carrot salad is one of those ubiquitous dishes that just about everyone in France eats. Hmmmmmm...

French school children start off eating it at a young age, It's in regular rotation at school cafeterias.

"If I had to compile a list of the top five National Dishes of France, right up there would be salade de carottes râpées, or grated carrot salad. It’s everywhere. You’ll find it on many café and bistro menus, Charcuteries sell it by the kilo, and even supermarkets sell it packed up in rectangular containers, ready to go, which office workers and others enjoy for a quick lunch.."
- cookbook author and pastry chef David Lebovitz

"When I first went to Paris, carottes râpées, or grated carrot salad, was served at the least expensive student cafés and offered at the priciest take-out shops. Decades later, you can still find the salad just about everywhere."
- cookbook author Dorie Greenspan, Around My French Table

The are a gajillion different versions, but the main components are usually grated carrots, lemon juice or vinegar, salt, a little sugar or honey, olive oil, and a bit of parsley.

Here is David Lebovitz's recipe: French Grated Carrot Salad

I make this fairly often swapping out the olive oil with MCT oil (not coconut because it hardens in the fridge). And I use half lemon juice/half vinegar instead of straight lemon juice.
This makes 4-5 days worth of carrot salad for one.
 

keytothecity

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They don’t like cooking with heated fats
The fat they consume doesn’t come out of the pan, typically. Thats the reason
More frying, more cardiovascular disease and cancer. Pufa even the pufa content in sat fat becomes unstable and ***** you up
Plenty of steaming, boiling, slow cooking, cold plates, salads with healthy oils etc

frying is a treat and generally perceived as quite low class, except for special occasions
 

mayku-T-meelo

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I was talking a few months ago to my French friend and she said that they have a saying, that "carrots make you nice and polite", I laughed. Someone also commented to her that French sounds like someone cutting carrots.
 

mrchibbs

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Fascinating! I didn't know this and although I'm not from France, I'm fairly familiar with french culture.

I think the saturated fats, variety of cuts of meats, offals, dairy etc. play an important role, but the carrot salad can definitely help if it is as pervasive as the above quotes seem to suggest.
 

Epik

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Interesting. I always just assumed it was the favorable calcium to phosphate ratio, preference of saturated over unsaturated fats, a more sociable environment, slower-paced and relaxed culture, and the fact that almost all cows are A2.
 

PaRa

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There's no paradox, people in France are not particularly healthy.
For sure, people here have a ****88 idea of France, I live in France people are just eating like Americans : non soudough bread, crackers, soda, alcool, pufa pork, pufa chicken, pufa oils, pastas, mcdonald, tacos, nestle cereal, pufa croissant, pufa healthy nuts, uht milk, and all the frozen industrialized crap, the pufa drenched carrot salad will not save us
if you go in stores or street and watch people 7 men / 10 are balding + fat nipples + dad bod etc

I have to recognize that the food is somehow of better quality than in other countries and very controlled but ag isn't organic and soils are depleted, full glyphosate, npk, pesticides etc, life is metro work sleep, the lockdown is knocking us hard, no "slow paced or relexed work or whatever, tho, there is still some good places and you can access to really good quality food but it's not the mainstreamFrench resident,
I France was probably very very good hundreds years ago, like everywhere else, before things get ****88 up by mens


I wish I don't transmit my serotonin too much aha but just stop seeing French people like example, they are 90% as sick and as bad as all westernised style society, no French paradox
 

mrchibbs

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For sure, people here have a ****88 idea of France, I live in France people are just eating like Americans : non soudough bread, crackers, soda, alcool, pufa pork, pufa chicken, pufa oils, pastas, mcdonald, tacos, nestle cereal, pufa croissant, pufa healthy nuts, uht milk, and all the frozen industrialized crap, the pufa drenched carrot salad will not save us
if you go in stores or street and watch people 7 men / 10 are balding + fat nipples + dad bod etc

I have to recognize that the food is somehow of better quality than in other countries and very controlled but ag isn't organic and soils are depleted, full glyphosate, npk, pesticides etc, life is metro work sleep, the lockdown is knocking us hard, no "slow paced or relexed work or whatever, tho, there is still some good places and you can access to really good quality food but it's not the mainstreamFrench resident,
I France was probably very very good hundreds years ago, like everywhere else, before things get ****88 up by mens


I wish I don't transmit my serotonin too much aha but just stop seeing French people like example, they are 90% as sick and as bad as all westernised style society, no French paradox

That's true today, for sure.

But 2-3 decades ago, there was markedly lower cardiovascular events, along with high saturated fat consumption and I think that was because of the pervasiveness of good dairy, butter etc.

Sad to hear PUFAs have become the norm as in everywhere else.
 

keytothecity

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Dec 5, 2020
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204
For sure, people here have a ****88 idea of France, I live in France people are just eating like Americans : non soudough bread, crackers, soda, alcool, pufa pork, pufa chicken, pufa oils, pastas, mcdonald, tacos, nestle cereal, pufa croissant, pufa healthy nuts, uht milk, and all the frozen industrialized crap, the pufa drenched carrot salad will not save us
if you go in stores or street and watch people 7 men / 10 are balding + fat nipples + dad bod etc

I have to recognize that the food is somehow of better quality than in other countries and very controlled but ag isn't organic and soils are depleted, full glyphosate, npk, pesticides etc, life is metro work sleep, the lockdown is knocking us hard, no "slow paced or relexed work or whatever, tho, there is still some good places and you can access to really good quality food but it's not the mainstreamFrench resident,
I France was probably very very good hundreds years ago, like everywhere else, before things get ****88 up by mens


I wish I don't transmit my serotonin too much aha but just stop seeing French people like example, they are 90% as sick and as bad as all westernised style society, no French paradox
Upper middle class and above eats healthier on average than the same classes in germany as well as most of the western world, with the exception of the Mediterranean maybe. Middle europe and usa eats worse in these classes IMO. Too much frying, too meat heavy and acidic
 

Ash

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Jan 10, 2021
Messages
21
For sure, people here have a ****88 idea of France, I live in France people are just eating like Americans : non soudough bread, crackers, soda, alcool, pufa pork, pufa chicken, pufa oils, pastas, mcdonald, tacos, nestle cereal, pufa croissant, pufa healthy nuts, uht milk, and all the frozen industrialized crap, the pufa drenched carrot salad will not save us
if you go in stores or street and watch people 7 men / 10 are balding + fat nipples + dad bod etc

I have to recognize that the food is somehow of better quality than in other countries and very controlled but ag isn't organic and soils are depleted, full glyphosate, npk, pesticides etc, life is metro work sleep, the lockdown is knocking us hard, no "slow paced or relexed work or whatever, tho, there is still some good places and you can access to really good quality food but it's not the mainstreamFrench resident,
I France was probably very very good hundreds years ago, like everywhere else, before things get ****88 up by mens


I wish I don't transmit my serotonin too much aha but just stop seeing French people like example, they are 90% as sick and as bad as all westernised style society, no French paradox

For sure, people here have a ****88 idea of France, I live in France people are just eating like Americans : non soudough bread, crackers, soda, alcool, pufa pork, pufa chicken, pufa oils, pastas, mcdonald, tacos, nestle cereal, pufa croissant, pufa healthy nuts, uht milk, and all the frozen industrialized crap, the pufa drenched carrot salad will not save us
if you go in stores or street and watch people 7 men / 10 are balding + fat nipples + dad bod etc

I have to recognize that the food is somehow of better quality than in other countries and very controlled but ag isn't organic and soils are depleted, full glyphosate, npk, pesticides etc, life is metro work sleep, the lockdown is knocking us hard, no "slow paced or relexed work or whatever, tho, there is still some good places and you can access to really good quality food but it's not the mainstreamFrench resident,
I France was probably very very good hundreds years ago, like everywhere else, before things get ****88 up by mens


I wish I don't transmit my serotonin too much aha but just stop seeing French people like example, they are 90% as sick and as bad as all westernised style society, no French paradox
Google an article from a few years back called

Why Can’t We Let Go of the Myth of French Food?​

I think you will find it interesting
 
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