About three quarters of French people still eat three meals a day, while the last quarter have switched to two meals. This is what emerges from an Inserm study published on Tuesday, March 31. However, there are many differences in the way meals are eaten.
To get a clearer picture and help better direct the public health messages addressed to the population, Inserm researchers interviewed 3,000 people in Ile-de-France, based on the SIRS cohort (Health, inequalities and social disruptions ). This highly diversified sample includes all possible populations, of different ages and cultures, of various socio-professional categories. For the study, individuals had to detail their eating habits for a week, which allowed scientists to differentiate between 5 major practices.
While three-quarters of French people eat three meals a day at more or less fixed times, 33% eat lunch outside, at the workplace or at the restaurant with colleagues or friends. For a quarter of French people, or 25% of respondents, meals are taken at home with the family. This category is the one that best meets the recommendations of five fruits and vegetables a day. Finally, for 17%, meals are also eaten at home, but alone, in front of the television or while listening to the radio. These people are more involved in the preparation of their meal, and correspond to rather old people and with modest incomes, lists Inserm.
Among the followers of two meals a day only, most jump breakfast, snack more and “find the quality of their diet mediocre. “In addition, “these are the ones who respect the least dietary recommendations”, notes Inserm, which distinguishes two sub-categories of people in this case. A first part (13%) of people eat at home, most often in front of the television, although their family is present. This category generally includes less well-off, less educated and often foreign-born individuals. The remaining 12% eat out in conviviality, and correspond more to the caricature of “the single Parisian bobo”, jokes one of the researchers behind the study.
A veritable anthology of French eating habits, these results “show that it is necessary to segment public health messages to address target populations” concludes the research team.
Read also :
The quality of meals in retirement homes denounced by the UFC-Que Choisir
Breakfast, the meal not to be skipped!
Diabetes: only one large meal per day recommended
