Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Eat and we sleep

Today in the paper, following a survey ordered by OECD, It is officially established that the French spend more time at the table and in bed than anyone else, meaning from the “rich” countries, counting about 18 countries (but please, not at the same time). So we are the champions ! says this survey, stating as well that the Norwegians have the benefit of the biggest quantity of free time. It is calculated that we spend 530 minutes per day (8:49 hours) in bed. South Koreans have the last seat with only 470 minutes of sleep per day (7:49 hours). French are the people who spend the biggest time at the table. The total average time of the meals last 130 minutes in the hexagon when a bit more than 80 minutes in the U.K. and only 62 minutes in Mexico. Norwegians are the lucky ones with leisure for which they give more than the fourth of their time, far away before the Mexicans, the red light for this subject. Generally in the studied countries, TV stays from far the prefered activity. It takes 55% of the leisure time in Japan against “only” 25% for New-Zealand. Turkey is sacred « best sociable country » : people spend there 35% of their free time with their friends, when the average time in the OECD is about 11%. The only common point with all those countries is the non-love for sport activities. In Spain, the most advanced in this domain, the physical activity occupied only 13% of the free time. At the same time, another study is in complete contradiction with this survey, from the National Institute of sleep and vigilance which states that the average time of sleep for French is 6:58 hours during the week and 7:50 hours during week-ends (1000 asked people from 18 to 55 years old). And don’t forget that if being at table means to eat, being in bed does not mean absolutely to sleep. If I recall correctly, France has the best rate in Europe regarding fertility.

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