A guest blog by Peter Loffredo.

I have
often considered that the reason so many cultures have traditional
blessings before eating meals was to aid in digestion. Entering into a
state of gratitude before a meal helps not only the enjoyment of food,
but the absorption of it and healthy use by the body of the nutrients.
Dr. Paul Rozin conducted a study of the attitudes towards food by the
French and Americans, and ade the link between guilt and anxiety about
food and obesity. Makes sense to me. Here are some excerpts from a
Times article on Rozin’s study:

"An American researcher is offering a possible new explanation for why
the French eat a diet richer than that of Americans, yet seem to suffer
fewer health consequences.

Where other researchers have offered reasons ranging from genetic
differences to the red wine that often accompanies foie gras, Dr. Paul
Rozin, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania,
suggests that it may all come down to one’s state of mind. Simply put:
Could it be that if you think of that ice cream sundae you’re about to
wolf down as your friend — and not your vanquisher — you might be the
healthier for it?

"There is a sense among many Americans that food is as much a poison as
it is a nutrient, and that eating is almost as dangerous as not
eating," Rozin writes in a recent issue of the journal Appetite.

Rozin bases his theory on a survey he and his associates did of more
than 1,000 people, mostly in America and France, but also in Belgium
and Japan. Researchers questioned people at railroad stations and
airports and college students. They found that the French — only 4
percent of whom are said to follow diets in line with the American
recommended guidelines for fat intake — associate eating more with
pleasure than with health. Americans, on the other hand (and, overall,
women in all countries), not only associate food with nutrition but
worry about it, too. The Belgians and the Japanese tend to fall in the
middle.

"It is not unreasonable to assume," Rozin writes, "that when a major
aspect of life becomes a stress and source of substantial worry, as
opposed to a pleasure, effects might be seen in both cardiovascular and
immune systems."

In the end, the study may amount to little more than further evidence
that reducing stress — whether about food or anything else — is good
for one’s health. It is well established that a positive mental outlook
may not only ward off illness but even help bring about a cure. Still,
if nothing else, the article provides yet another illustration of how
Americans and the French differ over matters of the stomach.

To gauge people’s attitudes toward food and health, the researchers asked some two dozen questions.

Those interviewed were queried, for example, about which word they
associated with ice cream: delicious or fattening. About 31 percent of
Americans chose fattening, compared with fewer than 22 percent of the
French.

They were also given the words bread, pasta and sauce, and asked to
pick the one that did not belong. The French, presumably appalled at
the notion of dry noodles, generally gave the boot to the bread; a
somewhat higher number of Americans, dutifully grouping together their
carbohydrates, dispensed with the sauce.

People were even asked whether they would take a daily pill instead of
eating if it would safely satisfy their hunger and nutritional needs.
About 26 percent of the Americans said they would, more than twice the
percentage of French.

Rozin, who specializes in the psychology of food (his past work
includes trying to explain the near-mystical allure of chocolate and
why cultures differ on which foods are considered edible and which are
beyond the pale), said any number of cultural differences like income
and religion, which people were not queried about, could help explain
the differing attitudes, as well.

He also acknowledged that the "French paradox" — as the disparity
between France’s rich diet and general good health is often called —
will not be embraced by mainstream American nutrition experts to rush
to embrace his theory. "A good part of the American health community is
out to nail foods as good or bad for you," he said.
Rozin remains steadfast.
"
I really feel that there’s an important message to get to people," he said. "And that’s that they can enjoy good food."