Can you believe everything you read?

I've said before that this blog is meant to be an online travel diary but, since I am still in Ozland, I have spent the last few months blogging on about this and that. Those of you I haven't bored to tears will know that I've devoted a bit of blogtime to dissecting high-brow literature and providing in-depth analysis of current affairs in this big, weird world. And today's post is no exception.

Last night I was talking to Katie on the phone all the way from chilly Paris, and it reminded me about an article I read in the current issue of Australian Vogue (this is the 'highbrow literature' bit, in case you're wondering).

The article is written by a Frenchwoman who attests, right up front in the title of her piece, that French Women Don't Get Fat. It's in black and white, size 400 font (or something) and puts it right out there. Okay, so I was intrigued and read on. Apparently les francaises have disovered the art of eating for pleasure. Rather that gorging on platefuls of gourmet fare, they value high quality, fresh ingredients. They also know what to savour, and how to stop eating once they're full.

Aye, there's the rub.

If I am confronted by an intact pack of Swiss chocolate (its completeness is what would make it a rare delicacy in my house), surely I am obligated to gobble up as much of it as I can in one sitting lest it find a home in the stomach of one of my housemates? Isn't that Darwinism at its most beautiful? Or maybe stuffing one's face is simply the Australian way. Certainly that's what the article suggested to me.

And, forgive me for saying so, but the author of the article did come off just a wee bit smug in all her thinness and chic-ness. She saves it till the last paragraph to posit, in smaller text than the title of course, that this sensible eating style does not make the French superior to other cultures (citing 'American' as an example, though I accept that ascribing a culture to America may have been an editorial oversight). Rather, she suggests that France's gastronomic history is to blame - a sort of "we can't help that we're thin, please don't hate us" sob story. Bah.

Never eat carelessly, she warns in closing. My conclusion would have been 2, 4, 6, 8 - Dig in, don't wait, but that's the Aussie in me I guess.