Getting Fat

Does this explain why Europeans, in general, are thinner than North Americans:

According to major surveys from both nations, the percentage of French women who smoke is five points higher than the percentage of American women. Researchers have dismissed this difference as statistically insignificant.

A stark gap emerges, however, if you compare elites from both countries. In America, where cigarettes now have a loser image, only about one-tenth of those with college and graduate degrees smoke, compared with about 40 percent of high school dropouts. But in France, nearly a third of upper-income earners smoke, a slightly higher percentage than in the lower classes.

So those chic uppercrust French women trotting around not getting fat smoke far more than their American counterparts.

Of course, kicking the habit is fattening - quitters gain six to nine pounds on average. Not that I'm suggesting that America is so Rubenesque because we gave up smoking. (We're just big-boned!)

To be fair to the French - not as if I should be - they are smoking less than they used to. But it can't be just a coincidence that they're also worrying more about obesity. The point is, if sensuous eating works so well, why does the most beautiful woman in France smoke to stay slim?

I'm sure you noticed that the French love to make fun of those 'fat' Americans? I wonder why the Americans never make fun of the French and their habit for smoking?

Could it be that Americans are more polite than the French or do they just have better things to do with their time?