France and their crazy new approach to combat obesity.

Is it an all liquid diet?

Nope.

A fancy weight room and French foreign legion drill sergeants?

Nope.

Surgery?

Nope.

Hours of counseling?

Nope.

So what is it?

It's a focus on food.

Exhibit A comes from the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris where their obese and overweight patients are being given cooking classes. Patients are taught how to cook healthy, low calorie meals and in so doing are given a survival skill in navigating an obesigenic environment.

Exhibit B comes from the Beaupre School in Haubourdin, near Lille where students are given swipe cards to choose meals from the cafeteria. While the cafeteria does have options like fish and chips and pizza, the cards are smart and limit those choices to once weekly.

Obesity is an intake problem and while the question as to why society has started consuming so many more calories than in the past has yet to be answered one thing's for certain, any intervention that fails to address cooking and eating out isn't likely to lead to any remarkable outcomes.

Vive la cuisiner!

[Very belated hat tip to Kavita who passed me this tip in 2009 via the BBC]