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 The French Paradox > “Your very good health!”
At first, those who studied the phenomenon put it down to the regular but moderate consumption of wine. Leading researcher and physician, R. Curtis Ellison, M.D., Chief of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology at Boston University School of Medicine, was interviewed by 60 Minutes for its first report on the French paradox and again for the follow-up in 1995. He has said that the scientific data is clear: "Moderate alcohol consumption, especially moderate red wine consumption, is associated with much lower risk of heart disease and stroke, leading causes of death in the United States." It was reported that those who consumed two to four glasses of wine per day over the 12-year span of a WHO study had only half of the mortality risk of those who did not drink at all. Beer and hard alcohol did not provide such protection.
So scientists turned their attention toward a family of natural substances called polyphenols, which are only found in plants and are abundant in grapes. In particular, one could clearly attribute the potential beneficial effects associated with red wine consumption to the increased intake of chemical substances originating from the red grape skin and seed grouped as polyphenols.
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