French paradox
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The French paradox refers to the fact that people in France suffer relatively low incidence of coronary heart disease, despite their diet being rich in saturated fats. The phenomenon was first noted by Irish physician Samuel Black in 1819.
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[edit] Overview
According to FAO data[1], the average French person consumed 108 grams per day of fat from animal sources in 2002 while the average American consumed only 72. The French eat four times as much butter, 60 percent more cheese and nearly three times as much pork. Although the French consume only slightly more total fat (171 g/d vs 157), they consume much more saturated fat because Americans consume a much larger proportion of fat in the form of vegetable oil and most of that as soybean oil[2]. However, according to data from the British Heart foundation [3], in 1999, rates of death from coronary heart disease among males aged 35-74 years was 230 per 100,000 people in the US but only 83 per 100,000 in France.
[edit] wine
It has been suggested that France's high red wine consumption is a primary factor in the trend. This theory was expounded in a 60 Minutes broadcast in 1991. The program catalysed a large increase in North American demand for red wines from around the world. It is believed that one of the active ingredients potentially related to this effect in red wine is resveratrol.
Resveratrol and other grape compounds have been positively linked to fighting cancer, heart disease, degenerative nerve disease, and other ailments. Red wine typically has health benefits not found in white wine (with some exceptions) because many of these compounds are found in the skins of the grapes and only red wine is fermented with the skins.
The first scientific study of the relationship between alcohol consumption and atherosclerosis was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1904. The first epidemiological study to report that moderate drinkers exhibit greater longevity than abstainers or heavy drinkers was published in 1926 by Raymond Pearl. Hundreds of studies have followed in recent decades.
There is a lack of medical consensus about whether moderate consumption of beer, wine, or distilled spirits has a stronger association with longevity. Of ten major studies, three found stronger evidence for wine, three for beer, three for liquor, and one study found no difference between alcoholic beverages.[citation needed] Most researchers now believe that the most important ingredient is the alcohol itself.[citation needed] Other researchers believe it is the act of relaxing while drinking that causes longevity.[citation needed]
The major cause of death in the U.S. is heart disease and most research finds that moderate consumption of alcohol reduces coronary fatalities in the range of 40% to 60%. The mechanisms by which alcohol reduces coronary events are becoming increasingly documented. Research has found that alcohol improves blood lipid profile (increases HDL and reduces LDL), decreases thrombosis (reduces platelet aggregation, reduces fibrinogen and increases fibrinolysis), reduces blood pressure, increases coronary blood flow, and reduces blood insulin levels.
Procyanidins
Although research continues on resveratrol, the concentration in wine seems too low to account for the French paradox. In the ongoing struggle to resolve this, a study by Professor Roger Corder and team has identified a particular group of polyphenols, known as oligomeric procyanidins, which they believe offer the greatest degree of protection to human blood-vessel cells. Tests with 165 wines showed that these are found in greatest concentration in European red wines from certain areas, which correlates with longevity in those regions. [4] (R. Corder et al., “Oenology: Red wine procyanidins and vascular health”, Nature vol. 444, p. 566; 30 November 2006)[5] The highest procyanidins are found in wines from the Tannat grape, grown in the Gers area of south-west France. The Madiran appellation requires at least 40 per cent Tannat, but it is not uncommon to find wines that are 100 per cent Tannat. [6]
Unlike resveratrol, procyanidins are present in wine in quantities that seem to be high enough to be significant: "Procyanidins are the most abundant flavonoid polyphenols in red wine - up to 1 gram per litre is found in some traditional style red wines."[7] "...clinical trials of grape seed extract, which have shown that 200 - 300 mg per day will lower blood pressure. Two small glasses (125 ml glass) of a procyanidin-rich red wine, such as a Madiran wine from southwest France, would provide this amount."
[edit] validity questioned
Nevertheless, the medical causes of the French paradox are still not entirely clear and research continues while some researchers have questioned altogether the validity of this paradox by dismissing dietary saturated fat as a cause of coronary heart disease, a view that has recently received support when the results of the 20 year-long Nurses' Health Study run by the Harvard School of Public Health suggested, after accumulating over a decade of data on the diet and health of almost 300,000 Americans, that total fat consumed has no relation to heart disease risk, provided it is not trans fat[1].
[edit] Sugar
The French consume a lot less sugar than Americans; this has been proposed as one of the explanations of the French paradox. {citation needed}
[edit] References
- ^ Jennifer Couzin. “Women's Health: Study Yields Murky Signals on Low-Fat Diets and Disease.” Science 10 February 2006 311: 755
[edit] Note
The French paradox is often confused with the related but different notion of the Mediterranean diet.
[edit] Sources
- Cabot, R. C. The relation of alcohol to atherioscleroisis. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1904, 43, 774-775.
- Ellison, R. C. Does Moderate Alcohol Consumption Prolong Life? NY: American Council on Science and Health, 1993.
- Hennekens, C. H. Alcohol and Risk of Coronary Events. In: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol and the Cardiovascular System. Washington, DC: United States Department of Health and Human Services, 1996.
- Pearl, Raymond. Alcohol and Longevity. NY: Knopf, 1926.
- Perdue, W. Lewis, et al. the French Paradox and Beyond. Sonoma, CA: Renaissance, 1993.
- Alcohol and Health by David J. Hanson.
[edit] See also
- Mediterranean diet
- French Women Don't Get Fat
- Resveratrol
- Polyphenols - procyanidins
