I thought it was because we eat fast while distracted, whereas they make meals more about talking and having fun ...

silly me

the study notes that heavier people of both nationalities rely on external cues more. I can't wait for the fat acceptance people to get their hands on this study.

I particularly like this bit:

"... they [the French] use internal cues -- such as no longer feeling hungry -- to stop eating, reports a new Cornell study. Americans, on the other hand, tend to use external cues -- such as whether their plate is clean, they have run out of their beverage or the TV show they're watching is over.

As a child, regardless of time of day, day of week, meal, snack, whatever, I was never ever allowed to be excused from the table unless my plate was cleared of all food. Being a kid, I was never the one to fill the plate up with food, so this resulted in a seemingly never-ending battle between my mother and myself. At family holiday dinners when plates were usually over-flowing anyway, a six-year-old version of myself was forced to sit at the damn dining room table for over three hours because apparently puking from being too full does not constitute a pass to be excused from the table.

To date, I have struggled with over-eating on a daily basis. At restaurants I have to either have a server remove my plate immediately upon feeling full or just cover up every visible piece of food with a napkin. If I can't see it, I'm okay. If I can see it, I will eat until I'm either sick and running to the bathroom, or until every last scrap is gone ... both happening before I'm even conscious that I've continued to eat again.

Fuck you, America parenting.

"... they [the French] use internal cues -- such as no longer feeling hungry -- to stop eating, reports a new Cornell study."

Wow, logic.

A small self-reporting data set answering questions tailored around a particular hypothesis. Can't argue with that.

"A small self-reporting data set answering questions tailored around a particular hypothesis. Can't argue with that"

whatever fatty.

Some thoughts on this:

1) The Great Depression is why our parents made us eat everything on our plates. We never knew when we'd eat good again.

2) Re: "... they [the French] use internal cues -- such as no longer feeling hungry -- to stop eating, reports a new Cornell study."

It's easier to take notice of your "internal cues" when you eat slower. Having been to Paris, I can attest that the Parisian diners I experienced, tend to be more interested in their dining companions and the conversation between them, than the food on their plate. If you're more interested in talking than eating, you eat slower and thereby feel the fullness more astutely, rather than if you were trying to hork down a 36 oz. steak like it's your last meal on earth. Which reminds me how inarticulate and anti-intellectual most American men are.

I love French culture.

French and Americans eat the same number of calories per day. But please- don't let facts get in the way of a good marketing effort.

#3 - I'm with you there. I was never allowed to fix my own plate as a kid. It was served up for me in huge amounts and then I was forced to eat every bite.

#7 - In Europe you're given the time to eat. In the U.S. they plop the bill on the table when you're halfway through because they want a faster turnover rate.

Maybe the French do get as fat as Americans, but don't put them on television where they can be easily seen?

Hey Big Sven,
It looked like the data you linked to acknowledged the inaccuracy of their own data, being that it was based on national averages of food produced etc. As they note this does not take into account throwing food away or eating out. Maybe there is other data out there listing the actual calorie intake across different demographic groups but that article is not useful.
As to @5, I don't think we can be sure the cornell studies methodology is that bad until we actually see the published paper. The big problem with reports about papers is they rarely have depth and a link to the original.