The fact is that according to data from the world's largest study of heart disease,
conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) during the past decade in 21
countries with 10 million men and women, French heart disease statistics appear to
have been underestimated and the "French Paradox" overestimated. France's rate of
heart disease is actually similar to that of neighboring Italy, Spain, and southern
Germany - lower than many countries in the world, but hardly as remarkable as
reported in the 80s and early 90s.
The French drink one-and-a-half times more per capita than Americans and their death
rate from liver cirrhosis is more than one-and-a-half times greater than that in the
United States. According to WHO, France has the sixth highest adult per capita
alcohol consumption in the world. (The U.S. ranks 32nd.) Alcohol may be involved in
nearly half of the deaths from road accidents, half of all homicides, and one-quarter
of suicides, according to the French equivalent of the U.S. Institutes of Health.
And while coronary heart disease may be less pervasive in that country of 60 million
people than in many others, it is still the number one cause of death.
Within the past year, several other revelations have highlighted this
little-publicized, other side of French drinking:
According to the first French economic study of its kind, France is more like
the U.S. than Americans might realize in that alcohol also ranks first - above
tobacco - in its cost to society. Tobacco takes more of a toll than alcohol in
the rest of Europe, Canada and Australia.
The high premature death rate of French men is largely due to alcohol abuse. It
is nearly double the premature death rate of French women, and the magnitude of
the difference is the highest in Europe, according to the French government's
most recent report on health.
French youth, who can legally drink at age 16, prefer beer and distilled spirits
to wine and have increased their consumption five-fold since 1996 in part
because 12- to 14-year-olds are drinking and binge drinking. This has led to a
new government "War Against Drugs" that includes alcohol.
[...]
The French Paradox. Even in English the expression sounded romantic to 33.7 million
Americans who first heard it in a report by Morley Safer on "60 Minutes" in November
1991. Although the French eat fatty foods and smoke more than Americans, said Safer,
"if you're a middle-aged American man, your chances of dying of a heart attack are
three times greater than a Frenchman of the same age. Obviously, they're doing
something right - something Americans are not doing... Now it's all but confirmed:
Alcohol - in particular red wine - reduces the risk of heart disease."
Within four weeks, U.S. sales of red wine rocketed by 44 percent. American Airlines
reported being unable to stock enough red wine to meet demand. By February 1992, a
Gallup poll showed that 58 percent of Americans were aware of research linking
moderate drinking to lower rates of heart disease. According to the poll, consumers
had returned to drinking levels not seen since the mid-'80s. Although beer remained
the preferred drink of Americans, wine preference increased from 22 to 27 percent.
Five months after the 1992 poll, "60 Minutes" re-broadcast the "French Paradox"
segment. Sales of red wine shot up 49 percent over the previous year. Safer was
honored in France with a special "communication" prize from LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis
Vuitton.
During the next few years, the Wine Institute lobbied officials of the U.S.
Department of Health to reflect studies confirming the "60 Minutes" side of French