The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: May 10, 2009

Official News page 8


REAL LIFE NEWS: FRENCH EAT AND SLEEP MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE

by Hazed

I'm from England, and as such, I am obliged to take part in the national disdain for all things French. Even though I love the food and the countryside. Still, it's part of my heritage to be prejudiced about our neighbors across the water.

As if we needed any more reasons to conform to national stereotyping, a new report tells us that the French spend more of their time asleep or eating than any other nation. The lazy gluttons.

The report looked at the 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and offers an "overview of social trends and policy developments". It seems that the French spend nearly double the time eating as do the Americans, Canadians or Mexicans. To be fair, this probably doesn't mean they eat more, just that they take longer over eating rather than shoveling food down as fast as they can. There are reasons why fast food never really took off in France.

The French also enjoy an extra hour a day of sleep compared to the Japanese, who are notorious for overworking and undersleeping.

Other interesting findings: "Norwegians spend just over a quarter of their time on leisure... while Mexicans spend just 16%." That's the highest and lowest, respectively.

For more of these fascinating factlets, read the report here.


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