I have been on my holiday in France. I noticed that there are fewer heavy people than over here in Scotland. What was going on? I decided to examine their eating habits!

They were not all skinny, by the way. Women in their 50s and 60s and older had comfortable shapes. Those who had clearly been thin people in their youth were still thinnish, but a bit more lumpy, and those who had been plump were perhaps more chunky in their middle age. As is only natural. They did not seem to feel the need to squeeze into the clothes their children wear. But there were lots of nice jackets, which took my eye.

Anyway, back to the food. What I noticed was this:

They all eat at the table for dinner at 7.00pm prompt, and everyone is required to be there otherwise there are serious ructions. Everyone eats the same meal. It is cooked at home (though increasingly assembled from bought-in parts such as pastry and other labour saving ideas). A complete packet meal was not normal.

Now, this is for families. So it will be different for students and people living on their own at the start of their adult years. But they have been trained to eat at table in company.

What was even more interesting is that this "training" starts in primary school. The menu for the day is posted on the school canteen door, and it is the same throughout the local authority region. It includes a wide range of local food types, vegetables, salads and real local cheese. They are training the palates of their children so that they appreciate a wide range of different foods, including the local smelly cheeses. As a result, these children do not grow up faddy.

I asked one of them whether he liked his school lunch (which by the way the parents pay quite a lot for) and he said it was all right. I asked him what he would prefer. Pizza was the answer. But he wasn't offered pizza.