Watching What You Eat In France

The French Department of Health and National Institute of Prevention and Health Education (INPES) launched a new campaign to limit consumption of fatty, salty or sweet foods, INPE said Monday.

Three 30-second television spots will be aired starting next week. Each features a specific food item that people would not think of as having too much fat, salt or sugar . For example, in one spot, a man adds excess salt to his hard-boiled egg.

These spots are coordinated with print ads that are targeted to celebrity, cooking, and entertainment magazines.

Brochures repeats these themes "limit your intake of sugar even while being a gourmand," "salt: how to limit its consumption" and "fats: know how to choose and reduce their consumption" will be distributed in 300,000 copies in daily papers on 10, 17 and 24 November.

The materials will all point people to the website www.mangerbouger.fr (eat better, move more--manger mieux bouger plus. The website is found on most food advertisements) where a calculator will help “decode the mystery of food" (“machine a decoder les aliments mysterieux” or Madam). The calculator will estimate the levels of fat, salt and sugar for many families of products (cereals, cheeses, ready made meals ...).

The website will also have a postal for health professionals and users can access a video that describes the National Health Nutrition Program (PNNS).