Wine, Fine Food, and Healthy Hearts… or the “French Paradox”

Three articles… striking three different tones to talk about the famous French paradox, whose existence was asserted in the 80s to explain how “they can eat such high fat dishes and have such a low rate of heart disease…” From this observation, moving, as it does, from the cultural to the medical, today, we might hear absolute certainties from the “purists” of the cause, followed by an echo of reasonable scientific doubt, until we reach unequivocal rejection by the new health authorities; it must be honestly acknowledged, no one really knows what to drink and what to eat any more… all the more so given that dietary habits have changed, have perhaps even grown worse in the new paradigm that favours industrial overconsumption.

So, does the “French paradox” still hold true these days? Yes and no… or rather, it depends very much on the correct understanding and paradoxical use of the concept.