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Discover why French food is considered some of the best in the world 🇫🇷
From fresh ingredients to strict regulations and deep-rooted culinary traditions, France takes food quality seriously. In this video, we explore what makes French cuisine so special and why it stands out globally.
Perfect for language learners, food lovers, and anyone curious about French culture.
#frenchfood #francecuisine #frenchculture #foodquality #frenchcooking #europeanfood #parisfood #foodlovers #learnfrench #supereasyfrench #frenchlifestyle #foodstandards
From fresh ingredients to strict regulations and deep-rooted culinary traditions, France takes food quality seriously. In this video, we explore what makes French cuisine so special and why it stands out globally.
Perfect for language learners, food lovers, and anyone curious about French culture.
#frenchfood #francecuisine #frenchculture #foodquality #frenchcooking #europeanfood #parisfood #foodlovers #learnfrench #supereasyfrench #frenchlifestyle #foodstandards
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Every time I visit the US I feel like the food is making me sick for no reason
00:04and when I come back home to France I instantly feel better
00:08and apparently it's a super common thing for a lot of people in my comment section
00:13so I want to understand what is really going on here
00:16of course I'm not trying to generalize
00:19this is not all the US or all of France
00:21and I've had a few of my favorite meals in the US
00:24like very recently Bobby's dad cooked us this delicious breakfast plate
00:28with homegrown tomatoes from his garden
00:30and obviously if you compare this delicious dish to this very sad pizza
00:35that you can find in a restaurant near the Eiffel Tower
00:37you can understand that things vary a lot from place to place
00:41and the first thing you need to know to understand this topic
00:43is how important food is in France
00:46like we're the first country in time spent eating and drinking every day
00:50apparently we spend 2 hours and 13 minutes a day eating or drinking
00:54and we're closely followed by Spain and Italy
00:57which tend to have similar eating habits to France
01:00by the way the US is towards the bottom at 1 hour and 2 minutes
01:04so we spend more than double the time eating and drinking compared to the US
01:08and France is also one of the countries where people cook the most
01:12at 8.6 meals cooked a week
01:15so this means that we're not only spending time eating
01:17but we're also spending time preparing the food
01:20and by the way this type of eating is very similar
01:22in a lot of other European countries
01:24like Italy for example
01:26where I've lived for a bit
01:27but since I'm trying to not overgeneralize
01:30I'll specifically use French examples
01:32and unfortunately while France is the leader in time spent eating
01:36the US is the leader in consumption of ultra processed foods
01:42and apparently those ultra processed foods
01:44they account for 60% of overall caloric intake in the US
01:49while in Europe it's between 14 and 44%
01:52so as you can see in France we in general eat less processed foods
01:57than in the US on a per calorie basis
02:00but I also want to say that the processed foods we do eat
02:04actually tend to be better than in the US
02:06because they often don't contain harmful additives
02:09and we'll talk about this later
02:11also just know that I'm giving you a few stats
02:13so that you have an overall idea of how things are
02:16but the US is a massive country with a lot of diversity
02:19there's a lot of different people from different cultures
02:22who all eat differently
02:24and you know when food is such a big part of your life
02:26you tend to have higher standards
02:28in France specifically there's a lot of demand for the same fresh food
02:33for example in France there's 32 million baguettes eaten daily
02:38for a population of 68 million
02:41so obviously if I go to a French bakery
02:44things are gonna be pretty fresh
02:46and in the US people don't want as many baguettes as in France
02:49when I buy a baguette in the US
02:51even though it has been made perfectly
02:53it's just not as fresh
02:54because it has been made a few days ago
02:56so it's just not as good
02:58which leads to this type of reviews on some French bakeries in the US
03:02and by the way it's just the same in France
03:04if you keep a French baguette for a few days
03:06it becomes hard as a rock
03:08so everywhere where you have more demand for fresh food
03:11you have access to fresher food
03:12so for example in NYC
03:14the best thing to buy might not be baguettes but bagels
03:18like we went to this bagel shop
03:19and the lines were absolutely massive
03:21and this is because they make all their bagels by hand
03:25from scratch in front of your eyes
03:27like you can actually see them roll the dough
03:29and then put it in the oven
03:31so obviously something that's fresh
03:32and hasn't been sitting on a shelf for a day
03:34is way better
03:35and those bagels were absolutely delicious
03:38but there's more to the story
03:39and I've read this Vox article called
03:41why fruits and vegetables taste better in Europe
03:44it seems that we just have different standards for food in Europe
03:47and as you'll see in the next section
03:49I think that's just one part of the story
03:52in this article they say
03:53we can't just as easily grow food in the US
03:56that's as delicious as the food you eat in Europe
03:58it's just that most of the time we choose not to
04:01the growers are not paid for flavor
04:03they are paid for yield
04:05basically this means that for industrial farmers
04:08the priority is profit
04:10with bigger fruits and veggies that are more resistant
04:13and a lot of them
04:15and this makes total sense
04:16and it's also an issue in Europe
04:18where people have been complaining
04:20that tomatoes have no taste anymore in supermarkets
04:23since before it was born
04:24but apparently people here in Europe demand tasty veggies
04:28and they are ready to pay for it
04:31when in the US people tend to prefer convenience
04:33but as I was telling you before
04:35I think that our individual choices
04:37are just a part of the issue
04:39because it's also easier to get fresh fruits and veggies in France
04:43but we'll get to that in a bit
04:44and I think we can re-see this idea
04:46of the consumers demanding more
04:48when we talk about seasonality
04:50like the arrival of specific fruits and veggies
04:53is almost an event in some places in Europe
04:56like for example in France
04:57every spring we have specific strawberries
05:00that people get very excited about
05:03and of course as I was telling you
05:04we can find the tasteless tomato in France
05:07in any supermarket
05:08but a lot more people tend to eat seasonal fruits and veggies
05:12because it's just tastier, cheaper
05:14and it's everywhere in shops
05:15and also another factor is that in France
05:18we tend to eat more local food compared to the US
05:21and again I am not saying that French people only eat local food
05:25I live in Paris
05:26there are no farms around me
05:28but each region in France has their local specialty
05:31that's really good, super famous
05:33and that people love
05:34like for example I was born near Caor
05:36and I grew up next to a Rocamador farm
05:39which is this very soft goat cheese
05:41that you can find in the region
05:43and as a family we were eating that so much
05:46when we moved to Toulouse around age 10
05:48the way we ate kind of changed
05:50we added more local products from that region in particular
05:53and you can find the regional stuff
05:55from other regions and big cities
05:57like Paris
05:58you could find the Rocamador
05:59but it's just not as good
06:01it's not as fresh
06:01but even in Paris and in other big cities
06:04there's many ways you can have access to good kind of local food
06:08like for example
06:09all the food that you can see right now
06:11has been bought directly from a farmer
06:13that lives around two hours away from Paris
06:16and this is actually cheaper than going to the supermarket
06:19and it's way more delicious
06:21like seriously look at these little pumpkins
06:23they look really delicious
06:25and again I'm not saying that this doesn't exist in the US
06:28like for example the breakfast plate I showed you before
06:31Bobby's dad actually got the meat directly from a farm
06:34what I'm saying is that in the US
06:36it tends to be more expensive and less accessible
06:39and I'll tell you all about that in a bit
06:41and by the way this is not limited to food
06:44we also have higher standards in Europe
06:46when it comes to skincare
06:47with the EU banning around 1300 ingredients
06:50and I don't know if you've noticed
06:52but in this video I feel I'm looking a little bit more glowy than usual
06:55and it's because I'm wearing Typology's tinted skincare
06:58Typology is a French skincare brand
07:01and they're also the sponsor of today's video
07:03I personally have incredibly high standards
07:05when it comes to skincare
07:07and I have to say that I was blown away by the quality of their products
07:11first they use only the best and safest ingredients
07:14which is a must for me because I only want to put good things on my skin
07:18but I also love that their products not only give you that extra boost in the moment
07:22but also treat your skin in the long run
07:25like for example I've been wearing their tinted concealer for the past two weeks
07:30and not only I instantly look like I've had a good night's sleep
07:34but it has also reduced the dark circles under my eyes
07:37thanks to its active ingredients
07:39I'm also wearing their tinted lip oil
07:41which is an absolute gem
07:43and so subtle which is just how I like it
07:46they offer free shipping to the US for orders above $60
07:49so it's the perfect occasion to try high quality French skincare
07:53overall I feel it's much easier to shop in France
07:57like first of all all the regional foods I was telling you about
08:00they are strictly regulated so even if you buy your recamador in Paris
08:04you know it's actually gonna be the real deal
08:06and it's because we have official certifications
08:09that are literally regulated by law
08:11so they're very official
08:12that protects certain traditions and certain ways of making food
08:17so for example for a wine of champagne
08:19it's actually a region in France and it's protected
08:22so there's a specific location
08:24there's specific methods, specific grapes
08:27and it's all highly regulated so it's the case for most wines and other food products
08:31so if you're drinking let's say a Pinot Noir wine
08:34it's not the same taste if it's from Bourgogne or from Alsace
08:39it's just two very different products
08:41so it's not about the grapes
08:42it's about the tradition and the region
08:44and I don't want to get into too much details
08:46but this labeling system is obviously not perfect
08:49but it's a great way to find better and higher quality products
08:52and in the US I feel that it is way harder to make good decisions when you're shopping for food
08:58the other day I was eating a bagel from Trader Joe's
09:01which is one of my absolute food shops in the US
09:03like everyone who knows me in real life knows that one of the first things I do
09:07when I arrive to the US is go to Trader Joe's and check out everything they have
09:11and I was eating this bagel and I was like
09:13mmm that's like so delicious
09:15I wonder which spices they put on it
09:17I looked at the ingredients and it was not spices
09:20it was 11 grams of sugar per bagel
09:23like that's almost like eating cake
09:25there's no need to put so much sugar in a bagel
09:28especially since I'm gonna eat two bagels for breakfast
09:31also can we talk about how ridiculous the serving sizes are on the back of the pack
09:36like the recommended serving for the peanut butter I'm gonna eat with a bagel is two tablespoons
09:42obviously I'm gonna put more than that
09:44so it's really hard to understand how much sugar how much stuff I'm actually eating
09:49just so you know in Europe we have all the nutrition facts presented by 100 grams
09:53and this makes things way easier when you're trying to compare between products
09:57and I feel that sometimes the food packaging in the US is just plain misleading
10:02like if we look at this packaging of an unnamed brand
10:06if I see the name mixed fruits, fruit snacks, fruit is our first ingredient, excellent source of vitamins
10:12I personally think that I'm buying something that will look like fruit and will be pretty healthy right?
10:18well the product actually looks like this which to me is candy
10:22you know eating candy from time to time is absolutely fine
10:25but this is not health food and this is not fresh fruits
10:29and I've talked about it before but I personally do get tricked by American food marketing all the time
10:35especially when I first moved to the US
10:37I really felt hard for it, I was eating all the sugar-free muffins, the healthy ice creams
10:42and then I discovered that you know this was not very good for me
10:46and it's because there's so many random claims that you can make in the US
10:50and one thing people recommend to avoid that is to obviously read the list of ingredients
10:55but I feel it's just so complicated when there's so many of them
10:59let me show you what I eat when I eat processed foods
11:02because I do eat processed foods sometimes
11:04so like a lot of people when I don't have too much time
11:08I like grabbing something quick you know like a frozen food lunch
11:11and in France I go to a store that only sells frozen food that's called Picard
11:15and a lot of people go to this shop
11:17it's fairly affordable and I bought a bowl of veggies and this gratin
11:22which is a potatoes with cheese for a total of 4 euros 20 which is around 4.5 dollars
11:27and as you can see from the list of ingredients what's in it is pretty straightforward
11:31is I have everything that I would expect from a gratin
11:34but look at the list of ingredients on a similar dish in the US
11:38I personally have no idea what most of these things are
11:41and it's because most of these are actually hidden additives
11:45like recently we took an Amtrak train with Bobby from New York to San Francisco
11:50in the train Bobby gifted me a box of peanut butter chocolates
11:54which were absolutely delicious and then I looked at the ingredients
11:58I'm not sure but I think like there's like food dyes that are banned in the EU
12:03I got a bit suspicious there and I scanned the barcode with an app
12:07that tells you all the bad ingredients
12:09and you know the results were pretty shocking
12:12with like really fun keywords like carcinogenic, hives, increased risk of disease
12:19and here I don't want to get into too much detail
12:21because I could make a whole video on banned foods if you're into it
12:25but basically the EU bans or restricts a lot of different additives
12:29that have been linked to cancer or other diseases
12:32and the reason for that is called precautionary principle
12:35which is a fancy word that just means that
12:38you have to prove that something is safe for humans to prove it in food
12:41if there is a risk that something could not be safe
12:45and as a consumer I'm really grateful this exists in the EU
12:48because it's really hard to understand what E110 yellow 6 means on a label
12:53and I don't think you should need to know what that is to not eat something that could potentially be
12:58carcinogenic
12:59but this big debate on food quality is actually a broader issue
13:03like there's other things at play
13:04and to explain why I need to tell you about the concepts of food deserts
13:09so food deserts are areas where people have limited access to affordable and healthy food
13:15and when I first heard the concept of a food desert I just couldn't understand it
13:20like mentally because I grew up in the opposite of a food desert
13:24which apparently is called a food oasis
13:26like growing up fresh food was everywhere around me
13:29even when I went and visited my grandparents in the countryside
13:32where the nearest big shop is a 30 minute drive away
13:35people were growing vegetables, raising cattle, making fresh bread
13:39so access to good food was really not an issue
13:42so I really didn't understand what a food desert was
13:45until I took a road trip to Colorado
13:47and I talked to people who lived in a very isolated town
13:50and they told me that they had to drive an hour to have access to anything else that was not
13:55a gas station
13:56and apparently in the US around 19 million people live in food deserts
14:01and a lot of these people are often lower income
14:03and maybe don't have the best access to transportation
14:05which often leads to supermarkets leaving those areas
14:09in France things are a bit different
14:11I've read this article by Le Monde
14:13which is the main French newspaper
14:14and they interview a person called Capucine Fouin
14:17who is an urban planner
14:19and she works on inequalities in the food supply in the Paris region
14:23so she says in France there is no food desert strictly speaking
14:27the commercial network is tighter
14:28and many towns continue the tradition of open air markets
14:32which allow you to buy fruits and vegetables at lower prices than in physical stores
14:37but she also says later in the article
14:39that the poorest neighborhoods often have fewer stores selling fruits and vegetables
14:4340% of the food offering in these neighborhoods are fast foods
14:47and that's what is called food swamps
14:49fruits and vegetables are there
14:51they're accessible
14:52but they are drawn by less healthy foods
14:54in particular fast food
14:56and I feel I can't remake this video without addressing
14:58how healthy food tends to be more expensive
15:01how food insecurity tends to be a growing issue
15:04both in France and in the US
15:06I've read this study from Utah State University
15:08and it says that following the official USDA guidelines
15:12would cost a family of four between $12,000 and $14,000 a year
15:17in comparison
15:18the average middle-income family in the US
15:21spends around $6,000 a year on food
15:23and low-income families almost $4,000
15:26so as you can see this is a pretty big gap
15:28so it's normal that healthy eating feels out of reach for a lot of people
15:33in France things are less expensive
15:35it's a bit less than $6,000 a year for the cheapest healthy products for a family of four
15:41and you know this might seem like it's way cheaper
15:44but actually it's 36% of minimum wage
15:47so it can be a lot
15:48and if you prefer fancy or organic products
15:51it's almost the same as in the US
15:53it's around $14,000 a year
15:55and I want to read you a comment that stuck with me
15:57and I feel this really adds a new perspective on the other video I made on this topic
16:01knowing that you're going to eat at the same time every day
16:04especially good food
16:05I almost cried a little for my younger self
16:08even though I have access to good food now
16:10I realized that I still eat in a way that reflects those times when food was scarce
16:14and this video goes a bit deeper in the cultural aspects of eating healthy in France
16:19and I think you should absolutely watch this one next
16:21because it will give you a full picture
16:23click here and go watch it
16:25I'll see you there