French women don't get fat...

or have body image issues or have eating disorders. These are all known facts.

That's why on my way back from lunch, I passed by "Diet Avenue" and a new place advertising miracle cake that helps you loose weight. That's also why you can buy hundreds of anti-cellulite, thinning potions at the pharmacy (recommended by the pharmacist). And for those health conscious folk, you can buy a number of plant based remedies to reduce cellulite, water retention or to melt fat away.

Granted, over the years I have had my experiences with French eating habits and thought about the reasons why French women aren't fat. At first, I thought it was due to the less processed foods since, upon moving to France, I lost weight while eating more. Obviously less processed food is better for you, right? The wieght loss may have been due to the fact that I was running a lot which helped balance out the kilos of goat cheese I was ingesting every day.

So I was happy to see that the Verkade biscuit company is breaking those myths and helping women's self-esteem. I purchased a package of pear-chocolate cookies because they were new and looked tasty and reminded me of something I had when I was a kid. And when I took them out of the package for my afternoon snack, I noticed the following on the back (you need to imagine the packaging):

Haaaa! Le coiffeur a complètement raté ma coupe! Je ne peux pas sortir comme ça! STOP! Besoin de reconfort? Attrapez vite un Fruit et Form Poire Chocolat : quoi de mieux que le chocolat pour retrouver le moral? (Argh!!! The hair dresser totally messed up my hair! I can't go out like this! STOP! Need some comfort? Grab a Fruit and Form Pear Chocolate quick: what better to make you feel better than chocolate?)

Not even comforting! Seriously. If you need to comfort eat, it's not one of these flavorless, flat cookies. I'd rather eat a chocolate covered rice cake.

Now I'm wondering : since I'm officially French, will my body image issues disappear and my cellulite melt away? Hm...I think I'll have another bite of my millefeuilles.

P.S. For those of you who don't recognize the person, this is Maïté, one of France's well-known celebrity cooks. Someone all French people know.