Why the French don’t drink a lot of water during meals (and why you shouldn’t either)

March 05th 2007

One of the things I love about living in a foreign country is it can sometimes turn your thoughts 360 degrees and put them right back in your face. Things you always believed but never really thought about it. And then a French person comes along and BAM! You’re thinking “What was I thinking?” Believe it or not it’s a pretty cool feeling. Kind of like being tricked by a magician.

I noticed once (about 2 1/2 years ago) that my coworkers didn’t drink much water during our lunches in the cafeteria. Often a coworker would get a glass and then never even use it! Americans are big drinkers, especially during meals. It’s a conspiracy with roots deep inside the Coca-Cola company that ends up with most restaurants having “free refills” on sodas. The French, on average, drink very little during the meal, and almost exclusively water (and wine). So I finally asked a coworker “Why don’t you drink with your meal?”. “Because you’re not supposed to” was the reply. “Really? Why is that?” I asked. “Because it fills up the stomach, dilutes the stomach acid, and makes it harder to digest” came the swift response. I thought about it for a few seconds and then kind of dismissed it. After all, everyone in the US drinks a lot during meals.

Fast forward a few months, I decided to ask doctor about it during a visit and he “prescribed” me this: Drink one glass of water before the meal, and then have a glass of wine with the meal but nothing else to drink. What? Did a doctor just tell me to drink wine? Hey, that’s pretty cool. So the next day I grabbed a glass of wine at the cafeteria at work. That caused quite a bit of interest, because even though it’s allowed, available, and acceptable, no one does it. I explained, “Doctor’s orders!”. That didn’t last long because I found it hard to stay awake after lunch, but it did change my thoughts on drinking during meals.

So if you’re interested, the rule is this: Drink in between meals but not during. If you forget, just drink water before you start eating or don’t drink at all. This may sound hard to Americans, that’s because the American food is very rich (read fat) and salty. The food isn’t salty in France so drinking a lot of water isn’t necessary.

If you Google it, you’ll find the French aren’t the only ones. People are catching on to it in the US too. Which is quite funny, because it’s something the French have known for how many hundreds of years? So remember: If the French say something about food, pay attention! They’re almost always right. Even when they say US birthday cake is disgusting and you don’t want to believe them, you know deep down inside they are right.

And now you know why Rolaides, Tums, Tagamet, Pepcid, etc. are doing such a huge business. Take a meal for two but put it on one plate, with lots of fat, salt, and sauce, and then throw in a gallon of Coke and you’ve got a recipe for disaster! Kind of like throwing a Menthos in a glass of coke.

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Comments

5 Comments so far

  1. Marie-Noëlle on March 6, 2007 17:45

    Perfectly right!
    My glass is always dry after a meal and I put it back into the cupboard after the meal…
    BUT my lot (husband + children) do drink during…
    Now where is the rule and where is the exception?

  2. Teresa on March 11, 2007 21:44

    When I was a teenager Mom had a health food store and drinking before and after but not during meals was a standard thing for many of her customers. (That was 30 years ago!)America also historically had better tasting unpolluted water resources. While things maybe changing in that respect the habit of drinking with the meal may not have. I’d be willing to bet that the more Urbanized the setting the less anyone would want to drink the water. In my opinion bottled water is the only way to go. You know your experience of America and mine are quite different even though we are related. Your job kept you in a very “stereotyped” educated white collar middle class experience. Mine had me working in impoverished and/or diverse environments. I no longer think of American as one homogenized thing. Even for a person of similiar income within the middle class there is a huge difference of perception of what it is to be American if one is white collar vs being blue collar. In schools and workplace trainings these days cultural issues are very big and it is considered polite (politically correct?)to qualify one’s statements. So generalizing by saying that Americans do this or that, is considered rude. What is now being done is to say that “In my family we do this…” or people compare and contrast the experiences under discussions. For instance, that US Birthday cake you discussed. For the kids in my preschool classes the cake of choice was trace leche cake (positively sure I’ve misspelled that). Those kids are second generation Mexican-Americans. For them that is the US Birthday cake compared to what I think you were thinking of in your statement. When you come back to visit I’ll get you some to try, it’s very yummy.

  3. Michael on March 11, 2007 22:14

    Teresa,

    Thanks for the comments. I agree with you, this site is going to be one big generalization! I could qualify everything by saying “In my experience those around me..” or “the people with whom I have worked..” or “the people in the metro..” but it gets tiresome and uninteresting. Some of my coworkers remind me, when I say “the French” that I’m living in Paris, and not all French are Parisian (those that aren’t are quite proud of it).

    Of course not everyone in the US drinks a ton of water (or Coke) but I feel I can generalize here because my experience as a both a waiter and as a customer in the US have shown that they do. When we go out to eat in the US, even if our glass is half full they come by and fill it up. In France (at work), if your glass is half full, someone asks if they can take your carafe (because there aren’t enough to have one per table)!

  4. Eric on November 25, 2008 19:29

    While your coworkers have their reasons for not drinking water at meals, please refer to this website for a more informed perspective:

    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/digestion/AN01776

    I think that you have stumbled upon a cultural difference based on tradition and faulty logic rather than fact.

  5. Michael on November 26, 2008 8:38

    Whoa, wait a minute there Eric. I didn’t say “not drinking water at meals”. I said not to drink a lot of water DURING meals. There’s a big difference. A small glass is OK but a liter isn’t.

    The ideal is to drink water when you sit down at the table. During the meal it’s used more to rinse out your mouth when changing from one item to another (for example from the meal to dessert).

    I bet most Americans aren’t even able to do this, because the food is so salty. It’s all marketing. The restaurants make their food salty so you will drink more, hoping that you’ll be drinking something that’s not free like water. That’s the same reason bars will give some salty peanuts or pretzels with your drink.

    When I’m in the US on vacation, we usually get huge glasses that hold a liter of water. In France the glasses hold about 20cl which is 1/5 the amount.

    Then in the US, every time the server comes by they will keep filling it up. The result is that people can drink a liter or more of water, tea, or even worse soda. All this liquid fills up the stomach. Add to the liter of water a meal portion for 2 and one feels like the Good Year Blimp.

    The doctor doesn’t address this bloating aspect, but he did say that water doesn’t dilute the stomach juices. I’d need more details from him on that one, he’s kind of vague.

    In summary, it’s possible to go an entire meal in France without feeling thirsty, but that isn’t the case in the US. I think that points out one of the problems with the American diet. Americans are oblivious to it because high-salt high-fat diets become norm rather than the exception.

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