It may be the most viewed, most talked about, the most influential medical-related segment the long-running CBS newsmagazine show 60 Minutes ever produced. It was 1991 and host Morley Safer brought Americans some almost too-good-to-be-true news, wrapped in a mystery.
His guest that Sunday night was a French doctor who had a theory about why it might be that the French diet — notoriously rich in meaty patés, butter and cream as it was — seemed not to be having the same deleterious effects on the heart that were then causing high levels of cardiovascular events among Americans. He proposed that it was the regular, generous consumption of red wine that was saving the French from their perilous diets, and that, in light of this, American doctors should be prescribing a few glasses of wine a day to their patients as a kind of happy prophylactic.
In the 30 years since, one plausible explanation after another about what might be going on between wine and the French was put forward and failed to hold the field. Now, some new data related to evolving French drinking habits has emerged that might dissolve the paradox altogether.
The data isn’t actually all that new; more like a slow rollout that seems just now to be getting the attention it deserves. During these same 30 years, French drinkers were cutting their red wine consumption, ultimately by an astonishing 50%. If there were significant cardiac benefits attributable to their former bibulous behavior, one would imagine that the French were not only enjoying less wine, but growing steadily less healthy.
Bu this does not appear to be the case. We might conclude from this that (a) the so-called paradox was a mirage all along, (b) that the beneficial effects of Merlot and Syrah can be experienced at much lower doses than we imagine, (3) that the French have always eaten more fruit and fresh vegetables, engaged in less snacking and dined on smaller portions than their Americans counterparts — that overall, their diet was never the life-threatening thing it was made out to be.
Today, there is good science in support of the view that there are benefits to be derived from the moderate consumption of alcohol and the relaxation and sociability that comes along with it. It’s also thoroughly well-established that maintaining an appropriate weight, a rational diet and an exercise regimen are important aspects of living a long and happy life.
The idea that red wine could be a countermeasure against ignoring all of the above was always bonkers. The real paradox is how such an idea ever took hold.
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