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French President Nicolas Sarkozy looks at Beaufort cheeses as he visits a factory in Vallieres in the French Alps on Feb. 16, 2012.Michel Euler/Reuters

Mon Dieu! Has Nicolas Sarkozy really banned cheese from Élysée Palace?

According to a report in The Telegragh, the French President has banned cheese from his official residence during his bid for re-election, eliminating the high-calorie dairy from his diet to the apparent disapproval of French citizens.

The Telegraph said Mr. Sarkozy's chef revealed that cheese was "too much" for the leader, who was eating more healthfully on the advice of his former supermodel wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. The newspaper characterized Mr. Sarkozy's dietary restriction as "verging on sacrilegious" – akin to, say, if Stephen Harper were to turn up his nose at maple syrup.

"The French had already found it hard to swallow the fact that their leader drinks no wine, a source of great national pride," The Telegraph said. "The latest revelation risks striking another symbolic blow to the leader's credentials as a flag-bearer of French gastronomy."

It might be considered a gastronomic slight – if only it were true. As Foreign Policy magazine points out, there are plenty of holes in the cheese-ban story.

In an interview with Agence-France Presse, presidential chef Bernard Vaussion mentioned no such ban on cheese at Élysée Palace. Rather, he merely noted that Mr. Sarkozy was health-conscious, preferring "light, balanced meals and poultry to red meat," and that the French President did away with cheese after meals.

Turning down a cheese course after meals is "not the same thing as issuing some kind of anti-fromage fatwa," as Foreign Policy makes clear.

Nevertheless, numerous media outlets have seized on Mr. Sarkozy's cheese-less diet, questioning how the public will react to it in light of the country's coming presidential election. "Will France stomach a non-cheese-eating Nicolas Sarkozy as president?" MSNBC's World News asked. "Sarko Causes A Stink: French President Risks Upsetting His Public By Giving Up Cheese To Save His Waistline," the Daily Mail's headline read.

Do we make too much out of people's food choices? How much influence does your spouse have on your eating habits?

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