French paradox

Resveratrol richest wines are among others; shiraz, pinot noir and cabernet. The darker the wine, the more resveratrol it should contain.

The term French paradox implies an unusual situation where the French can easily eat fatty food as much as they want and smoke as much as they please, and yet not be affected by the heart or cardiovascular diseases.

Large quantities of fruit, olive oil, vegetables and the manner of consuming food have the largest positive influence on the "paradox".

In the year 1990 American journalist Edward Dolnick was the first who presented prof.dr Jacques Richard's health ideas in his magazine. The article created great interest and it presented for the first time, French and Mediterranean diet, which protects human health, as well as the important role of red wine, which is a traditional lunch beverage in France.

Just one year later a show called "60 minutes" was made, based on this article which was viewed by 20 million Americans. It clearly showed how much food habits affect human health, and it also depicted major differences between French and American diet.

As a result of this, many scientists began to study the Mediterranean diet in Italy, Greece, Crete and other countries.

What protects the French?

Despite everything, the open question remains: What is it in their diet that protects the French? Is it just some protective substance in food or something else?

What followed were expert seminars and international conferences which resulted in discovering polyphenols, identified as resveratrol. This substance, which can be found in the skin of the black grape, is a potent antioxidant, however it also has a number of other beneficial effects, such as preventing heart muscle palsy, slowing the blood clotting, and many other...

Soon it became clear that large quantities of fruit, olive oil, vegetables and the manner of consuming the food play a major positive role in the "paradox". The French eat relaxed (for example, their lunch lasts for up to two hours) unlike the Americans, who live and eat under stress - this is where the fast food and drive-in restaurants originated.

Precise analysis of a French diet shows that the French eat notably less red meat, however they consume more cheese which is actually included in their daily diet.

However, even within France itself, which, according to statistics, in terms of cardiac and vascular diseases is far behind the US, there are oscillations. For example, Burgundy, which is known as vineyard area is known for low heart disease mortality rate. In Burgundy tea is more consumed than coffee and there are also quite a few other healthy eating habits.

All in all, the average Frenchman does not hesitate to eat fatty food (cheese, on average, contains more than 30 percent of fat), which does not affect him/her in a negative way, while an average American avoids fat and still gains weight. So unfortunately this already raises the concern of a national catastrophe (more than 50 percent of the nation is obese).

Resveratrol

French paradox is somewhat an unusual situation in which the French can eat fatty food and smoke and yet they do not suffer from heart disease.

In discussions about the possible causes of the French paradox, resveratrol received most scientific attention. The latest research conducted on the tissue sample, show that this substance actually protects heart muscle from the worst possible scenario, a sudden heart attack, which plays the biggest role in cardiovascular disease.

Resveratrol prevents (limits) cardiac fibrosis, which is a common cause of death and it protects from all possible associated consequences. Cardiac fibrosis is caused by increased pressure and consists of rapid activation of fibroblast cells that secrete collagen, a substance that eventually causes thickening of heart muscle.

These key studies were performed at the Northeastern Ohio Univesity College of Medicine under the leadership of prof. Dr. Gary Meszaros and the results were published in the American Journal of Physiology Heart and Circulatory Physiology.

Resveratrol occurs in red wine as a result of the defence mechanism reacting to the attack of the mould. This means that some wines do not contain standard content of resveratrol, but it oscillates with a fairly high amplitude. If a year is dry there is no mould, no resveratrol, at least not in large quantities. However if a year is wet, mould is created as well as resveratrol.

Red wine made from certain type of grape contains more and from others less resveratrol along with the fact that resveratrol itself is unstable and under the influence of air it quickly collapses.

Resveratrol richest wines are shiraz, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, etc.

The darker (dense) the wine, it should contain more resveratrol, although this is not always the case. Analysis of resveratrol in red wine is expensive and therefore this is why wines are still without a declaration of its contents.