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FAST FOOD

Which towns in France are the most in love with fast food?

A new ranking exposes which towns in France have the biggest love affair with fast food... and it has yielded some surprising results.

Which towns in France are the most in love with fast food?
France may be the food capital of the world and boast hundreds of types of cheese but it is also a fast food heaven. 
 
And although the French love to decry what they call unhealthy eating (la 'malbouffe'), they spend more in MacDonald's than many other Europeans. In fact, in 2017 the fast food giant made more money in France than anywhere else outside the US.
 
A new ranking shows that France's 32 biggest cities possess no less than 1,259 fast food outlets. And it may come to a surprise that Bordeaux, a city associated with fine dining and fine wines, comes top with more per person than all other large French cities.
 
 

 

 
The top three cities with the most fast food joints per population were Bordeaux — a long way ahead — with 54 outlets, Tours in the centre-west of France with 22 and Metz in the east with 25.
 
Astonishingly, bottom of the list was Marseille –  a gritty southern port city and one of Europe's poorest – just before Le Havre and Saint Denis in the Reunion Island.
 
 

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The list, compiled by the health news website My-Pharma.info, took into account 16 of France's most popular fast food restaurants, which include MacDonald's, Subway and Paul but also Pizza Hut, Quick, Brioche Dorée and KFC.
 
“This ranking isn't about pointing the finger at our eating habits, but about questioning in a transparent way the impact of these outlets on our eating habits,” according to My-Pharma.info.
 
“Having a quick snack means you save time, but too often, we forget that the food we eat in these fast food outlets isn't nutritious, and is lacking in vegetable fibre and vitamins and contains a lot of fat, salt and sugar and other chemicals”.
 
Although Paris vastly outnumbers all other cities in terms of the amount of fast food restaurants with 391, the city is so dense that it only came 5th in the ranking.
 
With 222 outlets across the country, MacDonald's has more restaurants than all the other chains listed, followed by the other US fast food restaurant Subway with 165. The French bakery Paul came third with 137 outlets nationwide.
 
Expanding waistlines
 
A report from September 2018 revealed how France's secret love for fast food is starting to show itself on the public's waistlines, with the country set to become home to 30 million obese and overweight people by 2030.
 
Fast food is increasingly taking over France's tables, something which is believed to be down to the lack of time for a proper lunch and the arrival — and popularity — of online food delivery companies such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats. 
 
 
READ ALSO:

France reveals new recipe to tackle the nation's love of junk food

Photo: Despositphotos

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LAUSANNE

‘We are not anti-American’: Lausanne residents fight against US fast-food giants

Thousands of Lausanne residents have joined forces to protest against an influx of US fast food restaurants, but insist they are not anti-American.

'We are not anti-American': Lausanne residents fight against US fast-food giants
AFP

Some 3,200 Lausanne residents signed a petition asking municipal authorities to limit the number of fast-food restaurants allowed to operate in the city. 

Members of the left-wing Workers’ Party (POP) launched the petition in response to the recent opening of a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant in Lausanne’s Flon district and a Five Guys hamburger diner in the city center.

“This is not an anti-American campaign. It focuses on the devastating health, social, and environmental consequences of fast food”, the petition’s organizers said.

GastroLausanne, an association representing local restaurants, said that POP’s request to restrict fast-food eateries is hard to swallow because it “goes against the right of each person to choose what they eat”.

The association added that “a chain like KFC can occupy a place that would probably have remained empty for a long time and offers many students a job that allows them to finance their studies”.

Several US fast-food chains are present in Lausanne – as well as across Switzerland — including McDonald’s, Burger King, and Subway.

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