French Paradox

"The French Paradox is the contradiction between scientific theory and real world facts. In 1991, in a 60 Minutes segment entitled “The French Paradox”, French researcher Serge Renaud, Ph.D. roiled the U.S. government by stating his research findings. Namely, by U.S. standards, the French do everything wrong in terms of health: they eat a high-fat diet, they don’t jog and they smoke, yet they have half the rate of heart disease (143 vs. 315 per 100,000 middle-aged men) and live 2.5 years longer. He said it was due to higher levels of red wine consumption in France – at the time 16 gallons per person per year vs. 2 gal/person/yr. The program catalyzed a 40% increase in North American demand for red wines. No better theory has been advanced in the ensuing 22 years."

Logo for a French wine place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.