Rachel,
Welcome back!
Perhaps the French have not had a good famine in a few generations. 
There is a phenomenum called "metabolic programming" that happens in 
utero, that tells the fetus if it is likely to be born during feast or 
famine depending on mom's food intake. If it is famine, mom will not get 
enough calories, and the fetus will learn to be "thrifty" and hoard 
calories as fat. If feast, and mom is getting plenty to eat, the baby 
will have a more spendthrift metabolism. The programming seems to extend 
at least 2 generations - if your grandmother was hungry during her 
pregnancy, you are more likely to be "thrifty" metabolically.
When there is a mis-match between the environment and the programming, 
thrifty metabolism folks tend to get very fat, especially if exposed to 
high fat, high calorie foods. There are some neat experiments in mice 
and monkeys, and some epidemiologic stuff in humans.
Diane Wiessinger knows a lot more about this than I do, she brought it 
to my attention. Perhaps she can extend the discussion. Diane?
Catherine Watson Genna, IBCLC NYC (who can now blame her girth on her 
mother's ob's directions to only gain 15 lbs during pregnancy)

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