An acquaintance recently e-mailed me with a request. She said she thought she remembered that I liked wine. If so, she said, she needed my help: “My doctor just told me to add some wine to my dinner, and I’m not sure what to do. Can you please help me?”
As I responded to my friend, I thought about the fact that I’ve been asked about this subject many times over the years. I think we’ve all heard about the so-called “French paradox,” the apparent contradiction between the fact that the French eat a lot of saturated fats and yet they have significantly lower rates of heart attack and cardiovascular disease than Americans. Several scientists undertook research to determine why this was the case, and after much consideration, consumption of red wine emerged as the leading theory. Although the French do not drink a lot more alcohol than we do, they drink markedly more red wine than we do.
Since this story broke in the United States
