Sandra Rodrigues, Marketing manager, made a survey not only about food habits in general but also about what people think about what is called junk food.

        Procedure

A ten-question survey was drawn up by the marketing manager around three main themes: places to eat, types of food, junk food. 66 people answered the survey. They are all students from the Business school of Le Havre and they are between 20 and 25 years old.

        Findings

The first theme “Places to eat” gives the following results:

84.8% of people who answered the survey eat at home for dinner whereas only 12% eat out. But when people eat out, the main places to eat are: traditional restaurants (65.2%) and fast foods (63.6%) and Exotic restaurants such as Japanese or Chinese restaurants (42.4%).

Almost everybody (90.9%) likes trying new places to eat.

The second theme was about the types of food:

At home, the main part of people eat home-made food (84.1%) whereas only 39.7% of people eat frozen food and 15.9% choose take-away food.

To find their recipes, 39% of people give the best score (5) to the family. On the other hand, the worst rate (1) was given to TV and Internet. The magazines obtain the rate 4 and the cookbooks 2.

The third and last theme was about junk food:

To the question, “For you, to what extent is junk food responsible for obesity?” 39 people answered “major” for children (70%), 13 people said “a little” (23%), 2 people think that junk food is not really responsible for obesity (4%) and 2 think that junk food is not at all responsible for obesity (4%).

For adults the results are different: 20 people answered “major” (36%), 24 people said “a little” (44%), 9 people think that junk food is not really responsible for obesity (16%) and 2 think that junk food is not at all responsible for obesity (4%).

In the
United States, American people think about a law which aims at banning junk food ads. In the survey to the question “Are you in favour of a law which aims at banning junk food ads?”, 33.3% of people who answered the survey have no opinion about the subject whereas 40.4% of people are against this law while 26.3% are in favour of this type of law.

In the last question of the survey, people were invited to give some solutions to fight against obesity. Only 30 people answered to this question and 2 people answered that they do not have any solution. The main solutions are doing sport (4), communicating about the danger of junk food as much for children as for parents (9), limiting junk food ads on Wednesday afternoon (1), eating less (2), decreasing the price of vegetables and fruits (2), giving responsibilities to paediatricians (1)…

        Conclusion

Many people seem to have some proposals to reduce obesity but in fact, this survey allows us to be aware of  the power of fast food restaurants: even if those are mostly responsible for obesity (an average of 53%), more than 63% of people go to these restaurants when they eat out.

To conclude, fast food restaurants do not represent such a big threat as people go on eating junk food. But, nevertheless, they have to prepare to an eventual more severe regulation.

Where ?

Where?
213, rue St Honoré
75001 Paris
Métro Tuileries

Who?
25-55 years old

How much?
Evian/Wattwiller: 5 euros

When?
From Monday to Saturday
11 a.m.-7 p.m.

My piece of advice to celebrate this particular day is to prepare my favorite dessert :
a gorgeous chocolate mousse!

You need :

1 1/2 pounds semisweet or bittersweet dark chocolate
1/2 cup brewed coffee
1/2 cup Scotch whiskey
4 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
8 egg whites
Pinch of salt

Here is the recipe method :

Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler or bain marie over low heat, or in the microwave on low power. Stir in the coffee and whisky. Cool to room temperature. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time.
Whip the cream until thick, gradually adding the sugar until stiff peaks form.
Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Fold the egg whites into the cream.
Fold this mixture into the chocolate mixture. Pour into 6 individual serving glasses and refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

Enjoy it and have a nice day!

“The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in, and many called up wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. To this question, the BBC diplomatically replied that they should “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”

I noticed that this hoax is the number one of “The Top 100 April Fools Day Hoaxes of All Time”. I have to precise that in 1957 spaghetti were a new product and quite an exotic product.
It explains why so many people have been taken in even if today this hoax seems to be totally ridiculous!

 Have a good meal!

You will find original places not only where one can eat but also where one can learn how to cook!

Enjoy your visit on my blog!