In France, children are educated about food from a young age, it forms part of the school curriculum. The simple colourful charts that are now commonplace on food packaging in the UK were in use back at my nursery in the Eighties. We all knew every meal had to feature all colours. Many schools have gardens and vegetable patches, where children learn about growing food and the importance of sustainable practices, an approach to help them understand the connections between food, health, and the environment.
Municipal authorities are responsible for the management of school lunches, with student or parental involvement in overseeing menu choices. Every meal had to follow national guidelines regarding portion sizes, nutritional composition and cooking methods.
Healthcare
Other than diet and food education, access to health may also explain the discrepancy in longevity. In the UK, all women aged 50 up to their 71st birthday are invited for breast screening every three years. In France, it’s every two years from the age of 50 until they are 74.
It’s hard not to relate it to a deteriorating health service. I’m not a fan of Nigel Farage but recently, he made a valid point as he told the press he believed that the French health system, based on a social insurance model financed through employee and employer contributions (the State pays for the poorest citizens who cannot afford it), is better than the British one.
In France, medical care is almost entirely delivered by the private sector, GPs are not public sector workers and tend to give you an appointment on the day, and no need to go through them to see a specialist.
Having given birth in both British and French hospitals, I can tell you that the difference is akin to spending your holidays camping or at the George V. It would be funny except for the fact I felt traumatised after delivering my first born in a London hospital.
The lack of empathy during a 26-hour long labour, being shoved in a noisy dorm postpartum with five other women, with visitors all day and night, blood in the filthy showers, being sent home without a check-up despite a painful episiotomy. When my mother visited, she was shocked. She expected this level of chaos in a third world country, not Britain.
Giving birth in France, on the other hand, I was in a comfortable room with just one other patient, nurses showed me how to bathe the baby and would look after them at night so mothers could rest for a few hours. We felt pampered and looked after – and that was in a state-run establishment.
The difference? Money. According to OECD figures, the UK would have to spend about 19 per cent more per person to match French health expenditure.
But the gap is closing
With recent World Bank data suggesting life expectancy at birth for a French woman has decreased over the past couple of years from 86 to 85 years, while in the UK it’s gone up from 82 to 83, the differences in lifestyle are perhaps becoming less extreme. Increasing obesity rates and malbouffe (junk food) may be to blame, even in the country that invented the Michelin star system.
What can British women learn from the French? “Eat a healthy Mediterranean-style diet reducing ultra-processed-food, meat and dairy; keep physically active and keep socially connected,” says Prof Sarah Harper.