From: young@serum.kodak.com [Rich Young (x37176)]
Subject: Re: France Re: Review of Two Vegan Books
Originator: young@sasquatch
Reply-To: young@serum.kodak.com
Organization: Clinical Products Division, Eastman Kodak Company
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 22:22:42 GMT

In article <1992Jul23.163113.3792@cs.ucla.edu> tiff@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Tiffany Frazier) writes:

[...]

>It is amusing how it seems that half of america is trying
>to figure out how the French can exercise less, smoke and
>drink more, have a basically American diet (e.g. in terms of fat %)
>and be so much healthier.   Lots of people are trying to
>find some secret ingredient in wine that "counteracts" staturated
>fat and cholesterol (e.g. there was a 60 minutes thing on
>this a while back).

[...]

   Here's the straight skinny on the "60 Minutes" report, quoted without
   permission from THE TUFTS DIET AND NUTRITION LETTER: Vol. 9, No. 12,
   February 1992.

	"Chances are good that if you watched '60 Minutes' last November 3,
	you came away feeling that MSG is bad for you.  And if you watched
	on November 17, odds are high you reached the conclusion that red
	wine is good for you, good enough even for teetotalers to consider
	adding some to their diets.  Odds are also high that you watched --
	or at least heard about -- the two broadcasts.  An average of 30
	million viewers tune in each week.  That's why it's particularly
	unfortunate that the popular television show presented such strongly
	one-sided, unbalanced stories on the two subjects."

	[MSG discussion deleted...I'm not the world's fastest typist.]

	WHAT ABOUT THE WINE?

	"Sometimes part rather than all of the story may be exactly what
	some people want to hear.  That certainly seems to be the case with
	the '60 Minutes' discussion on the potential health benefits of 
	wine -- specifically, benefits to the heart.  _Food_and_Wines_from_
	France_, a promotional firm working in the interests of French
	exporters, liked the show's treatment of the subject so much it
	used it as the basis of a full-page advertisement in _The_New_York_
	Times.  'According to a recent news report on CBS 60 Minutes,' the
	ad states, 'the intake of fat in the French diet seems to be 
	counteracted by their drinking of...red wine...  Platelets, which
	cause blood to clot, cling to rough, fatty deposits on the artery
	walls, blocking the arteries and causing heart attacks.  Moderate
	consumption of...red wine -- 1 to 3 glasses per day with your meals --
	flushes away these platelets, clearing the arteries!'"

	"The words are not far off the mark.  Most cardio-vascular experts
	agree that when you compare populations from one country to another,
	moderate wine intake goes hand in hand with a reduced risk of heart
	ailments.  '60 Minutes' host Morley Safer drives home the point in
	the November 17 broadcast when he says that middle-aged American
	men (who drink less than a tenth of the wine that the French drink)
	are three times as likely as French men to die of a heart attack."

	"Before you pick up your glass, however, consider that French men
	are three times more likely to die of cancer of the esophagus, that
	both French men and women are more than twice as likely to die of
	stomach cancer, and that both types of cancer are linked to alcohol
	consumption.  '60 Minutes' never makes that point.  Nor does the
	TV program point out that excessive alcohol consumption is also
	the cause of cirrhosis of the liver, which may have something to
	do with the fact that the French die of cirrhosis and chronic liver
	disease at almost two times the rate of Americans."

	"The show also neglects to say that the French are at higher risk
	of dying of accidents (almost five times higher in the case of
	women) and suicides.  It's an important point; 25 to 50 percent
	of accidental deaths and suicides in the United States are alcohol-
	related."

	FALSE FAT FACTS FURTHER THE FUDDLE

	"Unfortunately, the show's errors are not simply errors of omission;
	it gets the facts wrong, too.  Consider Mr. Safer's statement at
	the very beginning of the segment that the French "eat 30 percent
	more fat than we do."  That simply is not true.  The French eat
	about 35 to 37 percent of their calories as fat, very similar to
	people in the U.S."

	"Because the blunder comes so early in the program, its effects
	are particularly damaging.  It implies to the American viewer
	straight away that the French eat almost 50 percent of their
	calories as fat and, in essence, 'get away with it.'  Add in the
	calories from a few glasses of wine per day the average French
	adult drinks, and only 30 to 40 percent of daily calories are left
	to be distributed among carbohydrates -- breads, cereals, pasta,
	fruits, and vegetables -- and protein.  That's a diet that by any
	standard would be called not just strange but also downright
	unhealthful."

	[...]

	"The diet many French actually follow, it should be pointed out,
	contains much smaller portions of red meat and other flesh foods
	than many Americans are accustomed to.  And in many regions, it is
	relatively high in fiber- and vitamin-rich fruits and vegetables
	as well as grains.  Even in areas where people indulge rather
	frequently in such fatty delicacies as pate, serving sizes often
	tend to be what many people in the U.S. would most definitely
	consider to be on the small side.  Thus, the dietary 'paradox',
	as Mr. Safer refers to the ability of the French to eat a lot of
	fat yet not succumb to heart disease, is not as paradoxical as
	it may appear at first glance."

	"Another inadequately dealt with matter is the implication made
	during the program that all the fat the French take in with the
	cheese they eat is harmless.  The French consume, on average,
	40 pounds of cheese per person every year, almost twice the 23
	pounds per person averaged annually by Americans.  But the calcium
	in cheese 'neutralizes the fat' and 'combines with it' Mr. Safer
	says in discussing the belief of a French researcher he interviews
	on the show, so that 'it is then excreted by the body rather than
	absorbed.'  And he refers to a rat study conducted by the researcher,
	Dr. Serge Renaud, to substantiate his point."

	"But what he is suggesting with his explanation -- that neither
	the calcium nor the fat in cheese is digested when eaten and there-
	fore cannot be taken up by the body -- is a claim the majority of
	nutrition scientists would consider unproven, if not downright
	absurd.  University of Texas heart researcher Margo Denke, MD, who
	has looked into how dietary calcium interacts with fat, notes
	that some evidence indicates that the calcium in cheese can reduce
	the absorption of saturated fat, 'but it's an extremely small
	effect.'"

	WINE WITH SCHOOL LUNCH?

	"Just as '60 Minutes' absolves cheese, it points an accusing finger
	at milk.  'Whole milk...promotes heart disease because the calcium
	will not combine with the fat, which is absorbed into the blood-
	stream,' researcher Dr. Renaud says.  Mr. Safer casts an even darker
	shadow over milk when he explains that 'a number of American
	doctors, none of whom would go on record, told me that if it was
	up to them, they would get rid of milk in school lunchrooms and
	exchange it for watered wine.  The American milk habit, they said,
	is priming out 12-year-olds for heart attacks at 50.'  Of course, it
	must be wondered why none of those doctors would come forward and
	present the data that would lead them to make such a suggestion."

	Certainly Dr. Kurt Ellison, a cardiologist at Boston University
	interviewed by '60 Minutes' because he is familiar with the French
	'paradox' and is presently launching a study to compare the French
	diet to deits in other countries, doesn't agree that American
	school children should give up milk.  'We need calcium, and milk
	is our main source of that nutrient,' he says.  In fact, Dr. Ellison
	explains, calcium is more important now than ever.  The reason is 
	that Americans are living longer and therefore are at greater risk
	of developing osteoporosis in their later years, which calcium
	early in life can help stave off.  Moreover, Dr. Ellison says,
	evidence is coming to light that dietary calcium may help keep
	down blood pressure, which at high levels is a proven risk factor
	for heart disease."

	"Dr. Ellison does believe, along with the majority of health
	professionals, that the milk our school age children drink should
	be skim or 1 percent fat rather than 2 percent fat or whole milk.
	But, he says, 'I would not support the statement that we should
	give wine over milk in schools."  He adds, too, that the French
	'have more alcohol abuse than we do.'"

	"His point is an important one because it highlights the fact that
	while alcohol may have been presented by '60 Minutes' as something
	of a magic bullet, its influence on health is far more complicated.
	That's something to think about before deciding to add wine to the
	diet for medicinal purposes.  It's also something to consider the
	next time you read or hear a statement suggesting that the dietary
	pattern of another culture is linked to reduction of a single
	disease without making reference to how the diet affects disease
	rates and mortality in that culture overall."

   I certainly hope you appreciate this!

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Rich Young                             | Phone: (716) 253-7176
Eastman Kodak Company                  | FAX: (716) 253-7254
Clinical Products Division             | Internet: young@serum.kodak.com
100 Carlson Road                       |
Rochester, New York, USA   14653-9122  | These are MY opinions, not Kodak's!!!
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