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Alcohol & Health

Red Wine, French Diet

What Protects The French From Heart Attack?

By Dr. W. Gifford Jones

It's called "le paradoxe Francais", the riddle of why the high-living French consume a diet high in saturated fats, eat more cheese, smoke more, have the same level of blood cholesterol, yet suffer from fewer heart attacks and live longer than North Americans. What protects them? The good news it's not spinach.

I was recently sipping a glass of wine on a bright, sunny, afternoon along the East bank of the Seine River in Paris reflecting on this question. No one has the answer. But some important clues suggest why the French fare better against cardiovascular disease than the rest of us.

Some researchers contend that the French paradox is a myth. They say the French diet has become high in fat only in recent years. That since heart disease doesn't develop overnight, the current low rate of coronary attack is simply the lull before the storm. Heart disease rates, they predict, will catch up with the French if they continue their sinful ways of lunching on pastries and creamy Bries. Besides, the French have become more Americanized and are frequenting fast food outlets.

Other scientists refute this theory. They charge the French have been consuming a high fat diet for decades. Far from living on borrowed time, they're certain the French must have an ace up their sleeve that protects them against coronary attack.

Both sides of the argument agree on one fact. Countries that consume the most wine have the least heart disease. Nations that consume less wine have the most heart disease.

But is this merely a causal association that means nothing? Or is there a definite cause and effect relationship? Opponents of the wine theory argue that French consumption of wine has gone down. Moreover, they point out that young people are drinking less wine. They may be right. Most of the students from the Sorbonne sitting near me were drinking beer. But it's not young students who succumb to heart disease.

The other side agrees that fewer French people are opening wine bottles these days. In 1957, the average French consumer drank 162 bottles a year of ordinary table wine compared to 62 now.

But, France still leads the world in wine consumption. Frenchmen drink about 10 X as much wine as North Americans. In addition, about 80 per cent of the French over the age of 45, those most likely to develop a heart attack, drink wine. But is it the wine or alcohol that protects drinkers? So far the jury hasn't delivered the final verdict. But at the moment it appears that one or two drinks a day of either wine, beer or liquor has the same effect. The keynote is "moderation".

But why does wine appear to help circumvent coronary disease? After all we've been told the secret is to cut out dairy products, fat and cholesterol. The problem is that no research has yet been able to prove convincingly that a decrease in dietary intake of fat and cholesterol reduces the rate of heart disease.

It appears that North American researchers have become so obsessed with "cholesterolphobia" that they've ignored one vital fact. Wine and other alcoholic drinks help to keep small particles in the blood called platelets well lubricated, thus preventing the formation of fatal blood clots. This hypothesis makes sense because it's been known for several years that aspirin also keeps the blood well oiled decreasing the risk of heart attack. And aspirin only affects blood platelets. It has no influence on cholesterol levels.

There's other good news for "moderate drinkers". Teetotallers have a higher risk of dying from not only heart disease but also from cancer, stroke and accidents.

A made a silent prayer to Heaven after I'd researched the "le paradoxe Francais" while in Paris. Thank God, I thought, that researchers didn't discover it was spinach or broccoli, rather than wine, that greased blood platelets.

The therapeutic benefits of wine shouldn't surprise us. Sir William Osler, one of this nation's greatest clinicians, once remarked that, "alcohol is milk for the aged."

I recall another study completed many years ago. Researchers collected 100 identical twins with only one difference between them. One twin was a moderate drinker and the other a teetotaller. The health of the twins was followed for many years. Finally the project had to be discontinued because all the non-drinkers had died!

Let's not forget the wise counsel of Armand Cardinal Richelieu. He wrote in 1623, "If God forbade drinking would he have made wine so good?" And as a wise German proverb states, "There are more old wine drinkers than old doctors!"


W. Gifford-Jones M.D is the pen name of Dr. Ken Walker graduate of Harvard. Dr. Walker's website is: Docgiff.com

My book, �90 + How I Got There� can be obtained by sending $19.95 to:

Giff Holdings, 525 Balliol St, Unit # 6,Toronto, Ontario, M4S 1E1

Pre-2008 articles by Gifford Jones
Canada Free Press, CFP Editor Judi McLeod