Less joi d'vive in France?

[SWC Bonfire]

I find this amazing. I'm sure the older French are really pissed off about this - perhaps due in a small part to the increased numbers of muslims, but probably more widespread culturally than that.

The best people that I have met from and in France are the farmers; but the EU evidently is finding out that market protections don't work if there isn't demand for your product.

Wine-Drinkers Down by a Million in France

PARIS (AP) - French people are drinking less wine, with 1 million fewer wine drinkers today than five years ago, according to a new study published Friday.

Some 32 million French people, or just over half the population, still say they drink wine, according to a study from the National Interprofessional Office of Wine. In 2000, the figure was 33 million.

The study concludes that almost all regular wine drinkers are over age 35, and that young people today drink less than their parents.

As the French wine industry struggles to keep up in a compe ive international market, the average wine consumption in France has fallen by more than half in the past 40 years - from 160 liters (42 gallons) annually per inhabitant in 1965, to less than 70 liters (18 gallons) per inhabitant in 2005, the study said.


Occasional drinking has overtaken regular wine consumption, the study showed. In 1980, around two-thirds of French people said they drank wine every day - while only one third in 2005 say they drink wine daily.


09/16/05 11:02


Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

[boutons]

33% of France was still employed in agricultural after WWII. Staying half-drunk all day, aka "regular wine consumption", while working on the farm was common. In the 1970's, 12% of all adult deaths were due to cirrhosis of the liver and other alcohol-related diseases.

As the small farms got bought and industrialized, the farms emptied, just like in the US and other industrializing nations. The French economy moved away from farm/manual labor to services, where being half-drunk wasn't a fun and effective way to get through the day.

[Spam]

Oui. The French are known to be whiners.

[ObiwanGinobili]

they've laways been known for drinking and eating at will all kinds of "bad stuff" (pastries, breads, rich sauces etc)

i wonder if when the younger generations lower thier alcohol consumption they also gain weight?

[boutons]

" "bad stuff" (pastries, breads, rich sauces etc)"

... but the stable-weight secret was that they ate:

1) in moderation (vs the pile-em-high, hog-size, super-size-me proportions in the US)

2) only "a table", "at the table" during meals (no between meal snacks)

3) only legimate meal food, not snack .

The alchohol had nothing to do with moderate weight then, and less alcohol has nothing to do with the above scheme now.

France's kids are getting fatter (but the USA kids are still World Champion Hippos, as are the adults), due to the pervasive, non-stop penetration of the same toxic food culture that has poisoned the USA:

advertizing snack and junk food directly at kids,
vending machines everywhere,
fast food restaurants.
etc

ie, loss of the traditional, sane food culture, with the same results: fatter kids, and everyone else, too.

France has also had a pretty aggressve anti-smoking campaign the last 30 years, with less smoking having the same effect on French woman as anywhere else: fatter.