Experts claim that the French diet, often containing an assortment of cheeses, can be considered healthy.
Certain cheeses, such as brie, camembert and roquefort work to decrease the amount of dangerous cholesterol in the body, which can reduce the risk of having a heart attack, according to the Daily Mail.
If you've ever visited France, you'll notice immediately that the majority of natives are slim and fit, and yet they still get to indulge in all of that fattening cheese! France consumed more cheese than any other country in 2014, Business Insider reported. As part of the culture, the French are bred to control portion size and savor foods by chewing slowly.
Like any tasty treat, the key is moderation. The French sprinkle cheeses on many dishes or eat slivers of rich cheeses during dinnertime with a glass of red wine. They do not shovel blocks of the creamy goodness down their throats. Cheese is meant to enhance flavors of certain meals, and shouldn't constitute as the meal. This must be why I had to find a boulangerie after dinner when I visited the country.
The French lifestyle is clearly something to emulate, as studies have already been done that showed drinking red wine - another common practice - cuts cardiovascular disease rates.
Researchers from Aarhus University, Denmark, studied the benefits that dairy products have on human health, and found that saturated fats many not be as bad for our hearts as previously thought.
One study found that cheese reduced so-called bad cholesterol when compared to butter with the same fat content, the Daily Mail reported. This can help support the belief that high cheese consumption can actually do some good for our insides.
Study leader Hanne Bertram examined how cheese is digested. When comparing urine and fecal samples from 15 healthy men whose diets included either cheese or milk - or who had a controlled diet consisting of butter and no other dairy products - Bertram and her team discovered that those who ate cheese had higher levels of butyrate.
Butyrate is a compound that is produced by gut bacteria, and higher levels of it are associated with reduced cholesterol.
"This study suggests that cheese could be an important piece in the French paradox puzzle. Cheese was associated with a different metabolic response when compared with milk consumption," Bertram said.
"However, further studies are needed to explore the exact mechanisms linking cheese consumption, stimulation of gut bacteria and cholesterol."
Say "Oui" to adopting the French diet.
The study was published in the journal Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
