Why Americans Are Fat, French Slim?

Washington, : Americans are getting fat because they eat until the TV show is over whereas French stay slim and trim because they eat according to appetite.

According to a new American study, the reason why french are slim is they use internal cues -- such as no longer feeling hungry -- to stop eating. Americans, on the other hand, tend to use external cues -- such as whether their plate is clean, they have run out of their beverage or the TV show they're watching is over, the Science Daily reported.

"Furthermore, we have found that the heavier a person is -- French or American -- the more they rely on external cues to tell them to stop eating and the less they rely on whether they felt full," said senior author Brian Wansink, the John S Dyson Professor of Marketing and director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.

The study, an analysis of questionnaires from 133 Parisians and 145 Chicagoans about how they decide when to stop eating, is published in the journal Obesity.

"Over-relying on external cues to stop eating a meal may prove useful in offering a partial explanation of why body mass index varies across people and potentially across cultures," said co-author Collin Payne, a Cornell postdoctoral researcher.