“The
French Paradox” is a classic Morley Safer story – witty, wry, and a
favorite among viewers, perhaps because of his key conclusion: we could all
probably benefit from drinking more red wine.
Morley Safer, 1991
CBS News
The
1991 story opens with Morley at a bistro in Lyon, ticking off fatty menu items
— pig’s head pâté, black pudding, and other foods high in oil, butter, and
animal fat — and asking a cardiologist how it’s possible the French have lower
levels of heart disease than Americans given their diet.
“The
farmers have been eating this for years. They’ve been eating a very high-fat
diet, it seems, and yet they don’t get heart disease,” the doctor told
Safer. “We took the same diet and put it into an American, we would all be
suffering from coronaries at an early age. There’s something about the French
that seems to be protecting them, and we’re not sure what it is. We’re looking
for it.”
One
possible answer lay in something else on Safer’s café table: the wine. With a
glass in hand, Safer explained the emerging theory that red wine can flush
fatty deposits, which cling to blood platelets on the artery wall, out of the
body.
“The
answer to the riddle, the explanation of the paradox, may lie in this inviting
glass,” Safer said.
The
French were also credited for eating more fresh food and less processed food
than Americans, but it’s the verdict on wine that really caught viewers’
attention.
Morley Safer reports “The French Paradox”
CBS News
After
the report aired, demand for red wine in the U.S. spiked, and ever since, Safer’s
story has been credited with popularizing
the idea that drinking a little bit of red wine regularly could be good for
your health.
Morley’s longtime
friend, Tom Brokaw of NBC, told 60 Minutes that the story was one of his
all-time favorites. He wasn’t alone “I think [Morley] probably got more
calls that Sunday night than any other CBS correspondent had ever gotten,”
Brokaw said in the hour-long tribute to Morley that aired
just a week before the 60 Minutes correspondent’s death in May.
Despite
the popularity of the theory, the French Paradox has never been officially
confirmed.
The
American Heart Association (AHA) states on its website that no “direct
comparison trials” have been conducted “to determine the specific
effect of wine or other alcohol on the risk of developing heart disease or
stroke.”
The AHA says that many of red wine’s
benefits, including antioxidants and HDL or good cholesterol, can be obtained
through other fruits and vegetables.
How
would Morley react to the choice between broccoli and Bordeaux? “A votre
santé,” he might say, raising a glass. “To your health.”