Cake as a dessert
Unlike ours, our French neighbors do not invite for afternoon coffee and cake - actually for the fourth meal - but serve their cakes for dessert, right after meals.
This is healthier because the blood sugar level is higher after a main meal anyway and then has time to sink again until the next meal. It does not seem to work that way either.
One is full anyway and will rarely resort to the second and the third piece of cake.
Exceptions do confirm the rule, but in general our French neighbors are slim - despite the lush Christmas cake: Bûche De Noël, a really creamy and chocolaty delicacy that only a few French people want to do without. He is then enjoyed only on the holidays.
Most of us taste the rich cookies every afternoon, well into January.
