I Was Asked for My Expert Opinion...And It Felt Strange

A journalist from The Connexion, an English-language newspaper here in France, got in touch a few months ago to ask if I'd answer some questions for a piece on why people in France tend to live longer, and healthier, than in the UK or US. The piece went live this week, and I have to admit, being asked for my "expert opinion" felt strange, it's never happened before! Here's a bit more about what we talked about, and why it matters to how I work with clients.

Getting back to basics

If you've been to one of my workshops, you'll know I'm not big on complicated rules. Eat as naturally as you can, cut down on processed food, cook from scratch when you're able to. That's more or less it.

I moved here from the UK in 2011, aged 23, a bit of a "why not" adventure at the time. I ended up meeting my husband and settling in a tiny village called Loubès-Bernac, in the Lot-et-Garonne. And food was one of the biggest culture shocks. Back home, I genuinely thought opening a jar of pasta sauce counted as cooking. In rural France, that shortcut just wasn't really an option, the village doesn't really do "convenience." So I started going to the local markets and learning to cook with whatever was actually in season, and it changed things for me almost immediately. I felt more energetic, I slept better, and that's honestly what got me curious enough to go and study nutrition properly.

Meals are slower here, and that's the whole point

Gathered around a table, friends and family enjoy a leisurely meal, embracing the benefits of slow eating for better digestion.

One of the first things I noticed after moving was how differently mealtimes are treated. In the UK I was used to eating lunch at my desk, or on the go. Here, tradespeople and office workers alike still take a proper one to two hour lunch break. The first few times I ate with French friends I finished my plate before anyone else had barely started, everyone else was still chatting.

That slowness isn't just a nice cultural thing, it actually does something physiologically. It takes about 20 minutes for your gut to tell your brain you're full. If you're eating quickly, you miss that window and tend to overeat without meaning to. There's also the chewing side of it, which people forget, digestion starts in your mouth, and if you're rushing your food you're not breaking it down properly before it even reaches your stomach.

Savoring a delicious croissant outdoors on a sunny weekend morning, embracing the moment with pure joy.

Food without the guilt

This is the bit I feel most strongly about. In the UK and US, food tends to get sorted into "good" and "bad," and that creates a lot of anxiety around eating. Here, food is more just... food. Something to enjoy, something tied to where you live and what's in season.

That mindset shift matters more than people think. Eating while stressed or guilty raises cortisol, and cortisol messes with blood sugar regulation and can encourage weight gain around the middle. So ironically, relaxing about food, actually enjoying it, tends to support a healthier body than white-knuckling your way through a "clean" diet ever does.

A pastry here is treated with a bit of respect. It's a weekend thing, eaten slowly, not a biscuit grabbed from a cupboard between meetings without really registering you've eaten it.

A rustic plate of lentils cooked with olive oil, garnished with roasted onions and fresh herbs, beautifully presented on a wooden table alongside fresh bread and a bottle of olive oil.

The boring stuff that actually works

We talked about olive oil, obviously, it's still the one fat almost every nutritionist agrees on, and there's good reason for that. But the thing that surprised me more, looking back at my own habits, was beans and lentils. In the UK my experience of pulses started and ended with baked beans and the odd tub of hummus. Here they're just... on the table. All the time. And nutritionally that's brilliant, good fibre, slow-release carbs so you don't get the blood sugar spike-and-crash, plus iron, magnesium and folate.

None of this is exotic or expensive. That's rather the point.

What I'm less sure about

I won't pretend everything here is perfect, and I said as much to Jessica. French school dinners are still genuinely impressive, a proper three or four course meal, veg-based starter, balanced main, a bit of cheese or yoghurt, fruit for dessert, bread always on the table. My own packed lunches growing up were a sandwich, a piece of fruit, a packet of crisps and a biscuit, so there's no contest really. It would have been even worse if I'd eaten at my own school canteen which served, pizza, chips, hotdogs, burgers and an array of different chocolate bars and packets of sweets!

Friends enjoying pizza together in a sunny park, highlighting how fast food culture remains popular in France.

But fast food has crept in a lot more than people assume. There were about 100 McDonald's in France in 1990. Now there are over 1,600. Teenagers here are just as drawn to convenience food as anywhere else, and that shows up in the same way it does in the UK, more processed food, more blood sugar rollercoasters, more of the low-grade inflammation that stores up trouble for later. The traditional food culture is still there, but it's not guaranteed to win out against everything else on offer.

Fresh, homemade salsa takes just five minutes to make, tastes better than shop bought and is so much better for you.

How this shows up in my own kitchen, even now

Even after all these years, I still notice the difference. We had chicken fajitas last week, in the UK I'd have grabbed a kit, flour tortillas, sachet of spice mix, tub of guacamole, all done in ten minutes. Here I just make it. Fresh homemade tortillas, real avocados mashed up, tomatoes chopped for the salsa. It sounds like more effort but it genuinely isn't much slower, and the difference in how you feel afterwards is noticeable, no bloating, no "why do I suddenly want something sweet" twenty minutes later.

That's really what I try to pass on in my workshops. Not a diet, not a list of banned foods, just a shift back towards cooking things yourself, with real ingredients, and giving yourself the time to actually enjoy eating them.

If you'd like to read the full interview, you can find it on The Connexion's website (it may ask you to sign up to read in full). And if it's inspired you to get back into your own kitchen, I'd love to see you at one of my upcoming cookery workshops.