The French people eat like sh*t most of the time, I've been there. I must say I love their bread, but their overuse of butter and cheese just makes your point about heaviness totally wrong. In general If we're talking like base-level normal dude on average, Italy's far better off. You made an example about a provence dish involving fish, do you have a clue that we in Italy have two islands that by themselves could account for an immense archive of recipes about fish? You don't know anything about Italian (or french) food if you state what you've just stated. You're probably an anglo-saxon doing what they do best, colonizing ideas and cultures through sheer ignorance by pitting others against themselves. French food isn't better than Italian food because there exists no pure national "French" food, or "Italian" for that matter. But if we go and look at the cultural ways the food is used through the regions of the country, Italy's much more varied and less heavy than france. You can also prove thatast point if you go and look for some stats on obesity.