were in the wrong, but that you lack the integrity to admit it as well.
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft, Andy Rooney, Lesley Stahl, Mike
Wallace.
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE SAFER 653 hits since 05Apr00
Morley Safer Letter 18 05Apr00 Flip side of French drinking
"In 1991, Morley Safer's '60 Minutes' report on the possible heart
protective effects of drinking red wine led to a 44 percent increase
in red wine sales among Americans." - David Jernigan
"While men in Sweden can expect to live 76.5 years on average, a
French man's average lifespan is 74.1 years." - Cardiologist
Michel de Lorgeril
April 05, 2000
Morley Safer
60 Minutes, CBS Television
51 W 52nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10019
Morley Safer:
The weight of scientific evidence contradicts
your French Paradox conclusions
My letter to you of 21Apr99 on the question "Does drinking wine promote longevity?"
demonstrated that your conclusion that drinking 3 to 5 glasses of wine per day promotes
longevity could be seen to be unwarranted from no more than the data that you adduced in
its support. Today, I was astonished to read literature published by the Marin
Institute indicating that research literature that you have failed to bring to public
attention, either in your two French Paradox broadcasts or afterward, reveals that the
bulk of the evidence points to conclusions opposite to the ones that you advocated.
Below, I reproduce excerpts which illustrate the nature of this evidence from two Marin
Institute articles:
The Flip Side of French Drinking
by Hilary Abramson (c) 2000 The Marin Institute
Johnny Carson [who underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery last year] has some advice for
David Letterman [who is recovering from a quintuple bypass]:
"Drink more red wine."
That's the message Carson left for Letterman while he was in the hospital.
- Associated Press
One of the fathers of the "French Paradox" believes the time has come to "ban" the
expression his research team published in the mid '80s.
One of his countrymen, whose work helped make famous the paradox of having a high
saturated fat diet and lower than expected death rate from heart disease nearly a
decade ago on "60 Minutes," says that attributing a low rate of heart disease to
daily consumption of wine or other forms of alcohol is wrong.
A growing number of French health researchers have news for the rest of the world: It
is myth that the French are healthier than most everyone else because they drink. In
truth, the French are drowning in the grape and paying a hefty price for it.
"There is no scientific consensus today over the protective effect of alcohol," says
Dominique Gillot, France's secretary of state for health. "The link between the
quantity of alcohol consumed and increase of risk of diseases, particularly cancer,