The Deadly Noodle.

Of all the ways France has resisted the cultural imperialism of the United States, it has arguably achieved its greatest success in the realm of food. Not only is French cuisine the envy of the world, but culinary tradition has allowed the French to consume their sauce veloute and creme brulee without succumbing to the ills of over consumption that plague the land of burgers, fries and angioplasty. In recent years, however, statistics have begun to reveal that France is vulnerable to America's junk-food influence after all. Although southern, rural France remains steadfastly healthy, its more urban neighbors to the north suffer more from eating-related problems, not least a rise in childhood obesity. "We can't point our finger at any one thing," says Mariette Gerber, a nutritional scientist at the National Institute for Medical Research and Health in Montpellier. "It's a modern way of life, very urban. And it has come from the United States."

France's growing fat problem underscores how inexorable the Americanization of food habits has become. The problem is even more acute in the developing world, where the taste for American fast-food products like McDonald's hamburgers and Coca-Cola has long been fashionable. Urbanization is leading to more sedentary lifestyles in many places. And more and more, even traditional foods are being prepared from processed flour and other ingredients that yield more calories and less healthy roughage. Nobody ever thought resisting the export of American diets would be easy. But the trend has turned out to be more insidious and more widespread than previously thought. "It's very easy to blame globalization, or the big brands like Coca-Cola or McDonald's," says Derek Yach, executive director of the World Health Organization's disease prevention, nutrition, diet and physical-fitness program. "But the problem goes much, much deeper."

Diet and exercise habits may be complex, but the basic recipe for health problems is simple: a rise in caloric intake and a decline in calorie-burning activities. The number of overweight people in the United States doubled in the past 20 years to 60 percent, and Europe and Asia are catching up. In some developing countries, obesity is increasing faster than in America--the rate is three times higher in -- Mexico and Egypt. Each year more new cases of diabetes arise in China and India than in all other countries combined.

Where are all the extra calories coming from? One surprising source is the raw grains and other ingredients used for cooking traditional-- formerly healthy--dishes. When crops are grown in big farms and processed en masse, much of their nutrient value is taken out, and their "caloric density" rises. Even the noodle, a staple of many traditional diets, is no longer as healthy as it once was. In China, for instance, home-cooked noodles used to be made from whole-grains, ground by hand. Now, households use factory-made "refined" flour, from which the grain husks have been discarded along with nutrients like fiber and minerals. What remains are simple carbohydrates that the body more ...